अवार-नवार छोरियां / Every Now and Then Girls…
Shefalee Jain, Shivi Bhatnagar / Animation / India / Marwari with English subtitles / 20 minutes 52 seconds / 2025
Avaar Navaar Chhoriyaan (Every Now and Then Girls…), our stop motion animation film, is an adaptation of the Rajasthani folktale ‘Dohri Joon’ (from the well known collection of folktales of Rajasthan ‘Baatan Ri Phulwari’ by Vijaydan Detha).
Our screenplay adapts this folktale and locates it in a small town, Sheoganj (Rajasthan, India)to retell it in the contemporary time. The screenplay has three non-human narrators, the Tiddi(locust), Danda Thhor(a succulent plant) and Sarus crane. Each of the narrators tells the story of two girls. These stories revolve around oppressive patriarchal structures; the desire to challenge, change or leave behind these structures; friendships between women and the possibility of liberatory imagined futures.
Taking a cue from the folktale form, the film makes use of non-linear storytelling and magic realism to unfold the three stories which are being told to a group of curious and giggly young girls.
Cast & Crew:
Research, screenplay and animation: Shefalee Jain
Screenplay consultant & animation assistance : Shivi Bhatnagar Screenplay translation to Marwari: Narendra Jain
Sound and music:
Concept and direction: Lokesh Khodke
Sound co-direction, additional production, programming and composition : Ayashi Music (Ayana Joe and Srinath S Kumar)
Art and Design: Shefalee Jain
Art Direction: Shefalee Jain
Director of Photography: Shivi Bhatnagar
Editing: Shivi Bhatnagar
Colour Grading: Shivi Bhatnagar
Supported by Mrinalini Mukherjee Creative Arts Grant 2022-23
Director’s Bio
Shefalee Jain is an artist, illustrator, animation film maker and educator based in Delhi, India. She has exhibited her artwork widely in India and abroad.
Shefalee is the co-founder of BlueJackal (www.bluejackal.net), a platform for engaging with and creating visual narratives, comics, picture books and initiating dialogue and learning within these contexts through interactive programs. She is the co-founder and co editor of the zine Drawing Resistance.
She is also a children’s book illustrator who has illustrated several books published by Indian publishing houses such as Tulika, Eklavya, Muskaan and DC books. She writes a regular column on art in Hindi, in a children’s magazine, ‘Chakmak’ , published by Eklavya, Bhopal, India.
Shefalee taught Visual Art at the School of Culture and Creative Expressions (SCCE), Ambedkar University Delhi (India), 2012-2022. She completed her Practice based PhD in Visual Art from the same institution, in 2020.
She is a self taught animation film maker and this is her first foray into film making.
Shivi Bhatnagar is a Cinematographer, currently working in New Delhi, India. She has been executing various film and documentary projects in India and other parts of the world. She believes in collaboration, art of story-telling and exploring cultural dimensions & offbeat narratives in her cinema. She is also a member of Indian Women Cinematographers’ Collective (IWCC).
Shivi started her cinematography path soon after she came out of master’s college by working on various genres like corporate, events, ads, short fiction content and her favourite being documentaries. Alongside her professional work, she also conducts mobile filmmaking workshops with children through various NGOs, encouraging creative expression and visual storytelling among young learners.
Some of the notable projects are as follows:
a)The Great African Caravan (Ongoing Documentary)
b)Qulfi (Director of Photography and Editor) The film was nominated in – The Lift – Off Sessions 2021, Hollywood International Golden Age Film Festival March 2021, Cullt Movies International Film Festival 2021 and First – Time Filmmaker Sessions 2021.
c) Colours of Bliss (Director of Photography)
(www.shivibhatnagar.com)
