Writing software applications for mobile phones during the day,and developing film scripts by night,Nitin Raghunatth,the Silicon Valley,California-based software quality manager,describes himself as an accidental techie. I always wanted to get into films and have met Mumbai producers in the past to find a route into Bollywood. But it never clicked, says Raghunath,31,from his hotel room at Cannes. These days,he is partially realising his dream since he is at the 64th Cannes Film Festival with his film,Kashish,screened last week for a private audience,at the Short Film Corner. This section of the Festival is for aspiring filmmakers to screen their films before an audience of industry professionals and buyers. Raghunaths five-minute and 40 seconds film was shot using his N-95 mobilephone in January 2010. I was just experimenting with the concept of shooting films with my mobile- phone and it turned out well, says Raghunath,whose film is one of the two dozen Indian entries at the Short Film Corner. The film adopts a spiritual tone,as it captures the journey of a woman through South America to Bundi,in Rajasthan to rediscover her inner-self. The movie pans out like a musical montage filled with different kinds of songs that serve as the inner dialogue for the woman. Raghunath,who filmed the movie during a two-week vacation from his software firm in California,worked in a two man set-up,with a small-time actor Pramida Posanipalli in the lead role with he himself,operating the phone. I have always been fascinated by such abstract themes of spirituality. Since there is no scripted drama in this film,I had to come up with something that dealt with internal matters, explains,this graduate of Fashion Communication from NIFT,Delhi. His first feature in 2003,Zenith,was about a mans search for mortality and his two other short films,Goodbye and Explorer,were screened at the 2006 San Francisco Short Film festival and 2007 New York Short Film Festival,respectively. For now,he is negotiating with distributors at Cannes. It is a draining exercise. At times it gets boring, he laughs. Debesh Banerjee
