Raghu is a small-time journalist working at a radical online media outlet in the linguistically polarised town of Belgaum in Southern India. He doesn’t mind the meagre pay, for he is committed to his cause, posting inflammatory, dubious content attacking his opponents. Objective news reports plant seeds of doubt, but he responds to this cognitive dissonance by redoubling his fanatical outpourings on the internet, with tragic consequences.

With a razor-sharp sense of place and culture, Harshad Nalawade’s astute, compassionate drama Follower makes us intimate with the diverse sources of Raghu’s radicalisation, relatively minor hassles in themselves, but all accumulating into a general feeling of being stuck in life. Every time Raghu sticks his head out, he is pulled back to be shown his place. Follower is a rare work that taps into the frustration of having to feel like an outsider in one’s own home. Yet the film refuses to reduce Raghu to these harsh experiences alone, giving him a nuanced, finely textured social life in the form of two close companions – upper-class YouTuber Sachin and a Muslim single mother, Parveen. Theirs is a relationship not exhausted by their identities but still susceptible to crack under external pressure. In their beautiful friendship, Follower reminds us of what is at risk of being lost.

 

Srikanth Srinivasan

Director
Harshad Nalawade
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
India
Year
2023
Festival Edition
IFFR 2023
Length
99'
Medium
DCP
Languages
Marathi, Kannada, Hindi
Producers
Vinay Mishra, Preety Ali, Pallavi Rohatgi, Raghavan Bharadwaj, Maulik Sharma, Saket Gyani, Samyak Singh
Production Companies
HumaraMovie , Causality Films
Sales
HumaraMovie
Screenplay
Harshad Nalawade
Cinematography
Saket Gyani
Editor
Maulik Sharma
Sound Design
Rahul Gujar
Music
Abhigyan Arora, Pranjal Gupta
Cast
Donna Munshi, Harshad Nalawade, Shalini Chougule, Raghu Prakash, Atul Deshmukh, Umesh Teli, Mandar Jagtap
Director
Harshad Nalawade
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
India
Year
2023
Festival Edition
IFFR 2023
Length
99'
Medium
DCP
Languages
Marathi, Kannada, Hindi
Producers
Vinay Mishra, Preety Ali, Pallavi Rohatgi, Raghavan Bharadwaj, Maulik Sharma, Saket Gyani, Samyak Singh
Production Companies
HumaraMovie , Causality Films
Sales
HumaraMovie
Screenplay
Harshad Nalawade
Cinematography
Saket Gyani
Editor
Maulik Sharma
Sound Design
Rahul Gujar
Music
Abhigyan Arora, Pranjal Gupta
Cast
Donna Munshi, Harshad Nalawade, Shalini Chougule, Raghu Prakash, Atul Deshmukh, Umesh Teli, Mandar Jagtap

Programme IFFR 2023

Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?

In 2022, India celebrated the 75th anniversary of independence. But is really all well in the ‘world’s largest democracy’? Both documentaries and fictional narratives reflect on the socio-political development of the past 30 years – and ask: Is the institutional success of right-wing Hindu-nationalist groups and the persecution of dissenting voices a sign for the shape of things to come – and not only in India?

Read more about this programme