The Spiritual Wrestler

Experience has taught me to have an informal chat with potential interviewees before thrusting them into the limelight. This makes quick work of singling out those that are likely to thrive rather than falter in front of the camera. The shortlist included Vaibhav Milind Gadhave, Neha Kshirsagar, Manali Sapkal and her sister Shreya Sandip Sapkal. On the whole most of the mallakhamb players were quite confident, but being bold talking to a camera is not the same as being bold on a wooden pole. One thing that stood out about the lives of many players, was that they had all overcome some sort of challenge external to the game that had threatened to stop them continuing the sport. Frequently edicts from their parents would prevent their participation in competitions or practising altogether, for fear the activity might interrupt their studies or other family duties. Yet the students all maintain that practising mallakhamb improves their focus on studies and keeps their bodies healthy for all their daily trials.

There are lots of pretty spots around Wai, but finding one that wasn’t already occupied by a Bollywood film crew would prove to be somewhat elusive. Menwali Ghat is the most obvious choice for its ancient structure set by a rustic river, but that is precisely why a film crew would often be found there along with all the trappings of a major movie production, including talent trailers, catering, props department, lights and people jabbering on their intercoms. I later discovered an expensive permit would be required to capture anything there, even a simple photograph on my “big” camera was not allowed.

At this time I was communicating more with Vaibhav than any of the other interviewees, and it was he who proposed we try recording at Shri Wakeshwar Mandir. A quick visit proved this location ticked all the boxes of being, picturesque, spiritual, quiet and no Bollywood film crew. At last we had a decent location, but on the day it turned out there was a funeral taking place adjacent to the temple. Vaibhav and I waited patiently, chatting about life to pass the time. The interview seemed to go well, but it wasn’t until the translation finally came through that, in fact, Vaibhav had become anxious and his responses were all muddled.

Manali’s interview was next, but as luck wouldn’t have it, a film crew had recently visited “our” location and ruined it by painting a grey keying colour all over the bottom half of the temple and just left it like that! I was in disbelief that they could be so disrespectful to such a place of religious importance. I never did find out if the local regulars who came to pray here were also as disturbed as I about it. The show had to go on, so we just had to find other angles to use. Whilst Manali’s interview was far more useful, she didn’t evoke a personal sentiment of interest that I could turn into a story, moreover she was busy most days studying in Satara, and wasn’t practising at the mallakhamb club either. I couldn’t see a way of making her interview work for me, shame because she is a most accomplished player.

Finally, the ball got rolling with Neha Kshirsagar, since her interview was both informative and had some compelling backstory. Neha practised everyday and was available on many occasions to capture supporting images at her home and around Wai, making her the prime candidate for the video. The location served us well, not only for Neha, but also for coach Prasad Bedekar who undoubtedly needed to feature in the piece. However, it wasn’t until halfway through his interview that another accompanying funeral pushed us to search a few minutes walk down the river to find an even more beautiful little wood by a brook.

As luck would have it, or perhaps it was by Prasad’s design, the 41^st Satara District Competition had been set to be held in Bopardi village just a few minutes north of Wai.

This was a perfect opportunity for me to record a competition, but perhaps more endearing that it would be a very low key and rural event, rather than a full blown lights and loud speakers affair. Being such a local competition made it all the easier for me to come and go.

Shooting all day events is a struggle for one camera person, so I appreciated being close to home. Players came from all over the Satara District of course, they would sleep overnight in the schoolrooms of the hosting Bopardi School. There was a lot of excitement that a foreigner had come to record, but I may not have lived up to their expectations, since I couldn’t capture all of their performances.

I think almost every participant wanted to interact with me and ask me the same questions:

“Sir, sir, what is your name?” and “…where are you from?” were the most common, but one young boy was very persistent “…do you speak Marathi?” and “...why don’t you speak Marathi, don’t you want to learn Marathi?” “…when are you going to start learning Marathi?” all whilst I was trying to capture the event. He was right, of course I should learn Marathi, but now wasn’t the best time for my lessons to start.

The competition was a great success in my view, all had passed cordially and I had met a lot of important people in the sport.

I wished I had more time to follow the other clubs and their stories too, but being just one person, I couldn’t possibly take on another club’s worth of interviews. Perhaps if I had another 3-6 months to spare, but the limitation on my motorcycle’s permission to stay in India would end in under 2 months and I hadn’t got far into the editing process yet.

As ever these shoestring productions are only made possible by the participating subjects. Everyone pitched in with finding locations, correcting transcripts, and writing translations.

Perhaps it could have been made smoother by paying a professional to do the translations, but I do like that these videos are made by the same people who featured in them or were local to the making of the video, it’s all homegrown. Meeting the families of Prasad, Preeti and Neha made the experience so very fulfilling. Neha came to my apartment to help with final touches and we all worked as fast as possible to have it complete before I had to leave on New Year's day, but alas, there was still much work to do and the process would need to continue after I crossed the border into Pakistan.

I eventually extended the length of this video to include a summary of Balambhatt’s legendary story, which required accompanying images that I didn’t have. I had to draw and paint images based on those I’d seen in Manisha Bathe’s book, but the whole job took so much longer than I would have liked. In the end I think it was worth the effort, because it’s such an inspiring story that can’t be missed.

Sadly it was time to leave and say goodbye to all the amazing people at Wai Gymkhana.

Featuring

Neha Kshirsagar

Featuring

Prasad Bedekar

Transcript & Translation

Preeti Kolhapur

Neha Kshirsagar

Prasad Bedekar

Music

"Global T" - Virgil Howe

"Inspire" - Ashutosh (Chosic.Com)

"Veena Kinhal" - Haratanaya Sree (Chosic.Com)

Special Thanks

Wai Gymkhana

Preeti & Amar Kolhapur

Manali Sapkal

Vaibhav Gadhave

Cheryl D'Souza

Bablu

Sharvari Shedge

Manisha Bathe

Uday Deshpande

Producer

Tim Jules Hull