A few days ago, it was announced that actress Shefali Shah’s directorial debut Someday, a short film, will be screened at the 18th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart. The film festival will take place from 21st to 25th July and will be held in a virtual format due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently, Shefali spoke to PTI about the film, and her decision of turning a director. She stated, “Wanting to become a director was brewing in my head. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to direct but I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to take the responsibility of a film on my shoulders. There’s a lot of hard work — blood, sweat, time and money of so many people. So, I wasn’t sure if I could take that responsibility.”
Someday is about two women, a frontline worker who returns home to quarantine for seven days, and her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
While talking about the film Shah said, “I wrote this film and thought I just wanted to do it. As soon as the lockdown was lifted, I shot the film with a crew of five people at my house. We shot the film in two days and on both days I packed up early.”
“During the lockdown, one of the things that really bothered me was that if not the disease, the distance will kill you. Someday is about that. Just the distance from people you love, not being able to see them, meet them, hug them or hold them. Going through a phase of life when you’re suddenly isolated,” she added.
The actress revealed that the story of Someday is a bit inspired by her own experience. Shah’s grandmother suffered from Alzheimer.
She said, “The story comes from real life, from the memories that I have with my mom while I was growing up. (I thought) If we reached a point where we did not have those memories to share, then what would it be like? It’s scary. Becoming a mother to your mom, there’s a role reversal. My grandmother went into Alzheimer’s and dementia, I remember how my mom took care of her. So the story comes from real life, it isn’t fiction.”
“I thought our life is based on memories we have created and we revisit them, creating more moments. But what happens when you may have a past, you may have a future but you have no present to tie it up? In this film, it just isn’t about the physical distance but also the mental distance because every day it’s like you’re talking to a stranger,” the actress added.
Shah reveals that why she wants to send the film to festivals. She stated, “The reason I wanted to send it to festivals was not that I had these illusions that I would win but I wanted to see where I stood as a director… if I have even some kind of standing or credibility to what I was doing. It was for testing myself. When it gets accepted to be screened, it feels I must’ve done something right.”
