Selvi

They laugh, they cry, they work long shifts and they return home during their much-earned break: Sailesh Rathnakumar’s first feature provides another imagining of the light and darkness hovering over the lives of young female caregivers in metropolitan India. A more dramatic take on the subject than All We Imagine as Light, Payal Kapadia’s Cannes prize-winner from 2024, Selvi delivers an edge-of-seat emotional rollercoaster ride where its conscientious protagonist has to face crisis, tragedy and death. After its world premiere in Busan’s Vision Asia section, the film will move on to Sao Paulo, where it will bow in the Brazilian festival’s New Filmmakers competition.

Selvi, the name of Rathnakumar’s protagonist, translates simply as “Miss” in Tamil – and the young woman (played by Anjali Patil, who also produced the film) does look very ordinary at the outset. As the film begins, she is shown flying kites and chilling out on a beach in the most beautiful of dusks. Sharing the same provincial background and dormitory, she and her fellow homecare workers eat cake, discuss what movies to watch and talk about men. Amidst all this fun and laughter, however, Selvi appears more subdued than the other women. She is working more shifts than most to support her family in the provinces and to fund her ambition to become a fully-licensed nurse and move to Singapore for a better-paid job.

Considered by both her employers and her colleagues as the most reliable caregiver around – as evident from the way she is entrusted to take care of the senile patriarch (Raja Krishnamoorty) of an rich and demanding family – Selvi’s life begins to unravel when her younger co-worker and close confidante Kavitha (Swathy Krishnan), a family friend who got the job on her recommendation, tries to kill herself after yet another falling out with her boyfriend (Vinoth Kushan). Forced to take over her friend’s assignments and weighed down further by the heightened needs of her impoverished family at home, the fatigued Selvi finds herself spiralling into a cycle of slip-ups, dressing-downs and running around town so as to fulfil the obligations she imposes on herself.

Patil is a regular on the festival circuit, appearing in films of various languages and tone. Her breakthrough came with Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage’s award-winning With You, Without You (2012), where she also plays a character called Selvi. Here Patil is the beating heart of Rathnakumar’s film, evoking her character’s physical and psychological torment with her melancholy demeanour, subtle gestures and the occasional high-octane bursts of long-suppressed fury. The power of her performance is heightened by the packed and unforgiving urban landscapes as depicted through Bargav Sridhar’s dynamic handheld camerawork.

Director, screenwriter: Sailesh Rathnakumar
Producer: Anjali Patil
Executive producers: Hema Prakash Maoharan, Monali Bhardwaj
Cast: Anjali Patil, Swathy Krishnan, Vinoth Kishan, Archana Padmini
Cinematography: Bargav Sridhar
Editing: Sreekar Prasad
Production design: Shanoo Muralidharan
Music: Suren Vikhash U
Sound: Anand Krishnanmoorthy
Production company: Anahat Films
Venue: Busan International Film Festival (Vision Asia)
In Tamil
97 minutes