A scene from the film ‘Tractor’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A Facebook video of a Thanjavur farmer refusing to let debt collectors seize his trusted tractor sowed the seeds for Ramesh Yantra’s feature film TractorThe film, slated to release in August, is the 53-year-old documentary filmmaker’s first foray into feature films. “The film shows how the innocence of farmers is being spoilt because of corporate development,” Ramesh says of the film, shot in Veppampoondi village in Salem.
Tractor This is Ramesh’s way of expressing his gratitude to the farmers of our country.” The film begins and ends with this mother Pongal celebrations,” he says, and eventually the real bull is replaced by a replica on the bonnet of the farmer’s tractor. Replicas of the bull are found on many tractors in Tamil Nadu, Ramesh says. “Though tractors have replaced bulls in farming, farmers never forget to thank them,” he says.
A scene from the film | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Ramesh has prepared the document mother The nuances of Pongal celebration. “I wanted to record this for future generations so that they can understand and appreciate such rituals,” he says, adding that global audiences will also find it interesting to see how mother The Pongal festival has evolved over the years. Most of his artistes are from Veppampoondi village, where Ramesh is from. “The male lead is played by Prabhakaran J, who gave up his IT career in the US to take up organic farming in his hometown,” he says. The female lead is played by Sweetha Pratap, who also has an IT background.
The entire film revolves around a farmer, his four to five acres of land, wife, mother and son. Ramesh says he was keen to retain the local dialect, which is why he roped in the headmaster of a village school to write the dialogues. “I moved to Chennai for work many years ago, and my Tamil had lost the touch of my hometown dialect long ago,” Ramesh laughs. He adds that it helped that most of his actors were from Salem themselves.
From the film ‘Tractor’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Tractor It does not have a background score. “Since it is a story about our land, I wanted it to be realistic; I didn’t want to enhance the visuals or dilute them with music. What you hear and feel is the raw reality of the landscape,” he says, adding that the story moves forward with the sound of the wind, the mooing of cows and the clucking of chickens.
The film has sync sound and Ramesh says that despite the budget constraints, they got equipment from Mumbai to record live sound. The film also has a song; it is sung by actor ‘Kovilpatti’ Jayalakshmi, who is especially popular for her compositions of folk songs. Oppar,
Tractor Produced by Jayanth V, cinematography is being done by Gautham Muthusamy. It is currently doing the rounds in the festival circuit.
