Online May 2 - 4
Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation
Indie Meme Special 10th Year
Retrospective Showcase
Waterman
India | Short
2023 | 24 mins | Marathi,Kannada
Limited tickets available on site.
16th IDSFFK - Best Film Award in Short Fiction Category
14th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2024 - 1st Runner Up in Kannada category
In a low-income neighborhood in Pune, 'Kitty', an eight-year-old boy, lives with his mother 'Saroja' amidst severe water shortages. During Kitty's summer vacation, Kitty fills his days playing with his imaginary friend while Saroja struggles to manage household tasks and water collection alone, due to her husband's absence. Their
neighbor Gullamma suggests Kitty should grow-up quickly to help his mother. Meantime Kitty becomes intrigued after encountering a stiltwalker and playing with Gullamma's son, Dasthgir. He convinces Dasthgir to get him a pair of stilts. Later, Kitty discovers that whenever he walks on stilts, all the taps around him start running with water. When he shares this news with other people, he gets laughed at. His own mother gives him a scolding. Angered, Kitty runs away but is found and brought back home by Dasthgir. Saroja reassures Kitty that they will use his ability to bring water to the neighborhood. Soon after, in the middle of the night, stilts emerge from Saroja's house, and wherever Kitty's shadow passes, taps and containers start running with water, flooding the lanes and roads. Kitty continues to walk as his stilts echoes through the neighborhood.
Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.
Restoration Process
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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation
The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing.
Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram.
Meet Specific Thing
About the Artist
Photo courtesy:
Film Heritage Foundation
Vishwas K is alumni of FTII, and he graduated in Direction and Screenplay Writing. His diploma film Waterman won the Best Short film award at the 16th IDSFFK in July 2024, and first runner up in Kannada competition at the 14th Bengaluru International Short Film Festival in Aug 2024. The film has also been screened in March 2025 at Bengaluru International Film Festival organized by Govt of Karnataka.
Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation
Trailer
Credits
Director:
Vishwas K
Writer:
Vishwas K
Producers:
Film & Television Institute of India
Film Editor:
Gokul Gopinathan
Kartik Pujari
Shwetha Rani H K
Jahida M A
Sanju Chavann
Pruthviraj Lodga
Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation
Restoration Credit:
Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul)