India’s enter to Oscars: Koozhangal’s journey shaped by the struggles of director

The journey of Tamil film Koozhangal (Pebbles), India’s entry to this year’s Oscars, is shaped by the struggles of director P S Vinothraj. The 32-year-old has known and channelised the pain and human redemption in his film-making, as the Oscar-nominated film borrows from the life of his sister, a victim of marital abuse.

After his father died, Vinothraj dropped out of class five and became a child labourer to support his family. As an 11-year-old boy, he started working as a coolie, working in a flower market at the famous Meenakshi Amman temple in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district where film shooting is a common norm. This was his earliest influence on the world of cinema. As a child labourer, he earned ₹40 a day. “That money was huge for me,” says Vinothraj. His family of six siblings and their mother lived in a village in Madurai. He recalls picking up vegetables like carrots from shops and running away to give them to his mother.

“All my brothers and sisters dropped out of school and went for jobs,” he says. “My mother was too innocent. She didn’t know what to do after losing my father, who was the sole breadwinner.”

As their family’s debts grew, Vinothraj moved to work in the garment factories of Tripura district. He earned ₹800 a week working in a baniyan company, out of which ₹500 he would send home. The rest of the money was for his expenses like house rent, meals. “And mainly to watch all movies,” he says.

Everyone around Vinothraj knew of his fascination for movies and encouraged him to pursue his dream. With his family out of debts, Vinothraj landed in Chennai, the hub of film studios, in 2008. He began to work as a salesperson in a DVD shop, so he could meet people in the film industry. He handed over his resumes and took appointments whenever people from the industry came to the shop, such as director A Sargunam. His aim then was to be a cinematographer. Through a person who visited the DVD shop, Vinothraj got his first opportunity. He worked as an assistant cinematographer in season 3 of a television series where the team coaxed him to turn to film direction. Vinothraj then approached Sargunam to work as an assistant director for his 2014 Tamil film Manjapai. “That’s where my journey began,” he says.

After the film was complete, Vinothraj wanted to learn more, so he moved to a theatre group in Kovilpatti in the Thoothukudi district. “I wanted to bring the rawness of theatre to films,” he explains. That’s when he began writing his first movie script. While this was rejected by several producers, a tragic incident happened to his younger sister who was physically abused by her husband and thrown out of home one night. His sister’s 13-kilometre walk carrying her newborn son to reach their mother’s place is the story of Koozhangal, his first film which is now nominated for Oscars. “I was in Chennai. She called me after reaching our home that morning and she was crying,” he recalls. “I was in so much pain. I couldn’t confront my machan (brother-in-law). I was helpless. So, I used cinema as a tool to channelise my feelings.”

Vinothraj tweaked the film’s narrative, depicting the child’s point of view and how he makes the father walk the 13 kilometres to get his mother back. When he began writing, he says, the film had only two characters – the father and the son. He feared that the film could turn into a self-centred family story, which he overcame when he found several women who were abused like his sister. “When I went to the place where this happened, the landscape became my third character,” Vinothraj says. He explains that abject poverty, dry and scorching hot lands with not many livelihood options and such social and environmental factors influence several men, who turn into alcoholics and abusers. Vinothraj’s sister also has a cameo in the film while his brother-in-law often accompanied him while filming in Arittapati, which made him regret the abuse. “There have been changes in him since then,” Vinothraj says.

Now that the film is being screened in film festivals across the world, Vinothraj says he realises that his family problem is shared by women all over as they come up to him share stories of violence, they have been subject to. The film came into prominence after winning the prestigious Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in February 2021. It was a friend of Vinothraj who initially funded the film on a low budget, and they sent the rough cut of the film in 2018 to the NFDC Film Bazaar with the hope of finding a producer. Tamil director Ram recommended Koozhangal to actor Nayanthara and her partner and producer Vignesh Shivan, who helped complete the film. Vinothraj hopes the film will have a theatrical release by the end of the year.