Junko

I read the news about a newly-wed girl whose husband left her in the mother’s home before leaving for India to work. As days turned into years, the husband never called her and one day she committed suicide. This news struck a chord right through my heart. Identifying myself as a feminist, I couldn’t get over the thought of how great of an opportunity that was for the newlywed girl in absence of her husband to become independent and rejoice in her solitude. I was rock solid even before drafting the first draft that the central theme of this film will be women empowerment. I didn’t want to force that idea or in any way give a message to the audience but wanted to deal with the central theme in a much more nuanced and subtle way. This film will always be so special to me because “Junko” is my graduation film. This is the first short film I did with a professional crew. This short film will also be so special to me in my filmmaking journey because of the innocence that was inside of me when Junko was just taking its baby steps. The innocence which I tried to express with the medium of cinema.