Kattumaram (Catamaran)

Kattumaram’s narrative revolves around the Tsunami-affected lives of the middle-aged Singaram who is now taking care of his orphaned niece Anandhi, who is a teacher, and nephew Mani who are the daughter and son of his elder and younger sisters. As the fisherman Singaram works hard to provide for his family, he also tries to arrange a groom for his niece, who rejects the many alliances he brings. Later, when he comes to know that Anandhi is in love with a fellow female teacher, Kavita, he is shocked but tries to come to term with his niece’s sexual orientation. However, he is ostracized by his conservative community. The patriarchal Singaram’s ego is deflated, and he empathizes with the plight of the village barber, the transwoman Alankaram.

Director

Dr. Swarnavel Eswaran is a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, the premier film school in Asia, and the prestigious film studies program at the University of Iowa. He is an accomplished filmmaker, and his recent documentaries include Tsunami: Waves from the Deep (2018), Hmong Memories at the Crossroad (2016), Migrations of Islam (2014), and Unfinished Journey: A City in Transition (2012). His films have been screened in major festivals in the USA, UK, Europe, India, Japan, and Africa. He is also a professor in film studies and film production in the English and MI (Media and Information) Departments at Michigan State University and his research focuses on the history, theory, and production of documentaries, and the specificity of Tamil cinema, and its complex relationship with Hollywood as well as popular Hindi films. His recent books are Cinema: Sattagamum Saalaramum (Nizhal, 2013), an anthology of essays in Tamil on documentaries and experimental films and Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema (Sage Publications, 2015).

Director’s Note: Kattumaram, the Tamil root for the English word Catamaran, is my debut feature in the narrative genre after decades of experience as a documentarian, particularly of the deep south in India, and its people, culture, and their art. Kattumaram draws from my experience as a documentarian, particularly of my decade long documentation of the Tsunami, of December 2014, which devasted Nagapattinam, a small fisher town, on the southeast coast of India.

I have fictionalized some of the events and have collaborated with Tamil cinema’s leading contemporary film director Mysskin who plays the protagonist Singaram in Kattumaram. Other actors in Kattumaram are from the theater and trained in my longtime collaborator Arunmozhi’s Stanislawski Acting Academy at Chennai. The cinematographer, Karthik Muthukumar, and the equipment supplier, Jathin, are also my past students.

Festivals/Awards

NY Indian Film Festival; London Indian Film Festival; Frameline San Francisco LGBTQ+ Film Festival; InsdeOut Toronto LGBT Film Festival; Kashish Mumbai International LGBTQ Film Festival