When you think of Mumbai, something that comes to your mind apart from Bollywood is the busy lifeline of the city, the local trains. The humdrum of the trains serves as a reminder of the monotonous nature of a worker’s life. But actor-director Renuka Shahane’s animated short film, Loop Line, uses trains as a reminder of a housewife’s plight. “Housewives, who are in a way the backbone of traditional patriarchal families, and their immense efforts in taking care of everything, are disrespected and disregarded just for the fact that they cater to everyone’s needs,” says Renuka, on the inception of the idea for Loop Line.
Renuka’s Loop Line, which is to be screened at the New York Indian Film Festival on June 21, is her first animated film. In it, we see a day of a middle-aged housewife in Mumbai with a domineering husband as she goes through the tedious monotony of household chores and abuse. Like the train service, she starts her work early in the morning and continues to work until late at night. Talking about the usage of trains as an allegory, Renuka explains, “Those women who do that day in and day out, without any reprieve and without receiving any gratitude, stick it out in an automative manner. Hence, I wanted to use the Mumbai Local as a parallel to a housewife’s routine.”
But in Loop Line, as the housewife goes through her routine of cooking, cleaning, and cooking again, she also finds herself losing herself in a fantastical reality, which frees her from the restraints of her reality. “I kept thinking of her escapisms as an animated sequence while I was writing the film,” substantiates Renuka, while talking about the decision to take Loop Line through the animated route. “Originally, I imagined only doing the surrealistic escapes as animated. But being a huge admirer of the medium, I went with making Loop Line as a full-on animated film.”
Interestingly, Loop Line is being aired in the general short film section, instead of a separate animated short film section. “For Loop Line to be selected among a large number of entrants for a film festival is a validation for my efforts in making Loop Line,” says Renuka. When asked when Loop Line will be available for the general audience, Renuka answers, “I am waiting for the run of film festival screenings to end, as the festivals do not want something that has already been released. By September, the film festival run will be over, so I am planning on releasing it either on specific platforms that stream short films or OTT platforms. When I started making an animated film, I knew I wouldn’t get my money back, so if I don’t find any other platform, then I will release it on YouTube for free.”
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