In Abhilash Shetty‘s universe, chickens are elusive creatures that really don’t want to be caught and broiled, despite being relentlessly hunted. In his 2021 debut feature “Koli Taal” (The Chicken Curry), a young man studying in the big city goes back to a rural part of the region to visit his grandparents living on their farm. The elderly couple is planning to cook a special chicken curry for their grandson, but their designated best rooster has gone missing. Self-taught director, writer, producer, editor and – in “Koli Taal” case – actor Abhilash Shetty is back on a chicken pursuit with another episode of the same family, this time following the elderly couple’s pesky granddaughter on the day of Gandhi Jayanti.
Sunday Special is screening at Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival
The best day of the week at school is, no doubt, the day the week breaks and the weekend lies ahead. Even more so, when you rely on your mum’s yummy chicken curry for the traditional Sunday lunch. In fact, 11-year-old Sneha (Samrudhi Kundapura) and her best friend cannot stop talking on their way home about the chicken dishes that their mums cook on a Sunday, building up a happy sense of expectation. However, Sneha hasn’t—literally—counted her chickens before they hatch! Once at home, in fact, she is informed that this very Sunday is Gandhi Jayanti, the day dedicated to independence and nonviolence, and no meat or alcohol is allowed in the houses or even sold in the shops.
Sneha is beyond disappointed, and no reasoning seems sufficient to make her stop moaning and whining. Indifferent to the prohibition, she tricks her dad by throwing away the whiskey he enjoys drinking on a Sunday, thereby forcing him to go to town in search of a complicit seller. She joins him on his naughty quest, hoping to find an unorthodox shop selling chicken meat, but she only comes across obedient shopkeepers or overpriced smugglers. At that point, the only chance left for Sneha is to visit her grandparents Mahabala (Prabhakar Kunder) and Vanja (Radha Ramachandra) at their farmhouse outside the city, where they might have easier access to the sought-after bird. Or do they?
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In his second feature in the Kannada language, Abhilash Shetty returns to his native region of Karnataka to set a comedic quest for a chicken, revealing—along the way—a dual aspect of life in India. The film seems, in fact, structured in two distinct sections. The first is set in the town and calls out the hypocrisy of practical life clashing with faith. In doing so, it displays a wide range of characters: those who preach but don’t practice, those who practice but complain, and those who are genuinely affected by decisions out of their control.
Gandhi Jayanti, observed on 2 October each year, is an Indian national holiday that commemorates the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement and an advocate of peace and nonviolence. It’s a joyous celebration, marked by prayers and tributes in cities, villages, schools, and institutions. However, a divide—often generational—seems to occur between those who observe the restrictions and those who think they don’t add anything to faith. In one scene, Sneha is accused by an old man of disrespecting Gandhi. “I don’t know what they teach you in school. Damn it” he exclaims, and the vitriolic response of the furious girl is sharp and cutting: “I have paid my respect and sang a song for him, but what the heck are you doing sitting here, except for smoking tobacco?”
In the second part of the narrative, the tone relaxes, and the pace slows down. A beautiful and idyllic portrait of life in rural southern India shows a nostalgic, happy existence, where even gestures like killing a chicken and chopping it into bits feel like the most natural of activities. It’s hard to say what the relentless quest of this simple story is really for. Happiness? Satisfaction? Achievement? Surely, it symbolizes that indefinite sense of “wanting more” that often accompanies our paths, and the irresistible allure of forbidden fruit.
Swaroop Yashwanth‘s cinematography is natural and adheres to the indie realism style by the book. However, it opens up and shines in the second part of the film, where the countryside is bathed in warm sunset light, beautifully accenting the poetry of nature and rural life. Performances follow suit, with most of the actors being non-professionals. Samrudhi Kundapura, playing the cheeky and moody Sneha, owns the part with a sense of humour, but the spotlight is inevitably on the elderly actors Prabhakar Kunder, playing the charming and resourceful grandfather Mahabala, and Radha Ramachandra, as the lovingly absent-minded grandmother Vanja, reprising their roles from “Koli Taal”.
To conclude, in “Sunday Special”, all-round filmmaker Abhilash Shetty weaves a simple storyline with a bunch of relatable characters and idyllic imagery to create a charming and likable tale that unmistakably reflects his love and commitment to his homeland.
