Drive by a Goan village in the summer and
it’s impossible to ignore the gleam of the red and yellow cashews ripening on
the trees. This much valued fruit provides livelihood to many Goans who survive
on just the income from the current season’s produce till the next season.
However, their story is one that has only been passed on by word of mouth,
until now. A group of youngsters took the initiative to create a ten-minute
documentary on the lives of feni makers and the efforts that go into making
feni. Their film, simply titled ‘Caazu’ was screened at the recently held
‘Cajuchem Fest’ in Soccorro.
Produced by Xantara Media Works, the group
comprises Ashley Fernandes from Salvador de Mundo, Ronak Kamat from Miramar,
Anurag Verdekar from Chimbel and Mohit Sukhtankar from Ribandar. They met as
students at Dempe Higher Secondary School, Miramar.
The documentary was directed by Ronak with
the script by Anurag while Mohit was responsible for production and Ashley
handled the on location and background score for the documentary. “I had gone
for a photo shoot to Sarvan, Bicholim where I came across Umesh Sawant’s feni
distillery. I spoke to him and found his story interesting. I contacted the
boys and when we came to know about the cashew festival, we decide to work on a
documentary. The only problem was that it had to be done within two days,” says
Ronak.
The documentary was shot on the first day,
spending the entire day with Umesh Sawant and Pandurang Gawas, two producers of
feni, while the second day was dedicated to editing. “At first, all the workers
were shying away from the camera but as they got used to us, they gave us great
shots. We covered the entire cashew trail, right from young workers collecting
cashews to deseeding them and stomping the fruit to extract the juice to
actually making the urrack and then feni,” adds Anurag.
“We didn’t just want to make an educational
documentary; we wanted to create something that would engage the audience and
draw them into the lives and concerns of the subject. Their struggles are
hardly given any importance; we wanted to change that and highlight the lesser
known facts,” says Ashley.
He further adds, “There is a need for
documentation for a global audience. Goa is known for its glamorous locations
that are shown through commercial films shot here. But the true identity of Goa
is even more fascinating and sometimes, even shocking. The rural regions of Goa
need to be aesthetically captured on camera. These stories, which even some
locals have not heard about, need to be told to an international audience.”
The documentary also sheds light on the
lack of interest among youngsters to continue with the traditional occupation
despite the increased demand for feni. The creative foursome had earlier worked
on a documentary on Goan Sahyadri Hills as students of Mass Media at Dempe
Higher Secondary School. Now, they are looking into screening ‘Caazu’ at
educational institutes in Goa as well as putting it online with English
subtitles so that it may reach a wider audience.
