Mann ka Thela: In Conversation with Ektara Collective
Screened at the Kolkata People’s Film Festival in 2025, Ektara Collective’s Mann ka Thela (Mind the Cart, 2024) navigates the streets of Bhopal through the eyes of Mann, a thirteen-year-old boy from the Pardhi community. When his painstakingly decorated thela (handcart) is wrecked in an accident, Mann is heartbroken. While it is the material anchor of his family’s sources of livelihood—Mann’s single mother uses the cart to collect and dispose waste in the night and he uses it to sell bananas in the day—Mann’s relationship with his thela is deeply personal. This bond is the compass that directs the viewers through the urban landscape, highlighting the connections between the material, social and spatial relationships in the city.
Through the rhythms of Mann’s day, the film explores the prejudices and discrimination faced by the Pardhi community in Bhopal. One of the many denotified tribal communities in India, the Pardhis migrated to the city and work largely in the informal waste sector or have small stalls and shops, often selling traditional jewellery. In the film, the thela becomes an emblem of their struggles, their aspirations and their right to the city.
In this conversation with ASAP | art, Mann ka Thela’s directorial team, Madhu Dhurve, Pushpa and Narendra Singh Pardhi talk about the vision and making of the film, and their journey into filmmaking with the Ektara Collective—an independent group that brings together people from diverse backgrounds across India, and produces films that are informed by their lived realities and experiences.
This podcast was recorded in Hindi. The transcript below has been translated into English and edited for clarity while retaining the original content.
Kshiraja (K): Our guests for today’s episode are Madhu Dhurve, Pushpa and Narendra Singh Pardhi from the Ektara Collective (EC)—an independent filmmaking collective that brings together both trained and untrained filmmakers to produce films rooted in lived experiences. Having worked as assistants in the collective's earlier films, Madhu, Pushpa and Narendra form the directorial team for Mann ka Thela, which was screened at the Kolkata People’s Film Festival last year (KPFF 2025).
Madhu, Pushpa and Narendra—welcome and thank you. We are thrilled that you could make the time to speak with us about your film.
Pushpa (P): I will begin with an introduction. All three of us directed the film, but the story was written by Madhu, Narendra took charge of camerawork and I worked on sound on location and assisted in post-production. Madhu and Narendra are joining us from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and I am currently studying Sound Design in Kerala.
I am Pushpa and I am from Chhattisgarh. In 2018, EC organised a free workshop for people who were interested in filmmaking, where I attended sessions on sound and writing. I became interested in sound and as part of the workshop we collectively made a short film, Hotel Raahgir (2020). I also worked on the sound team for EC’s previous film, Ek Jagah Apni (A Place of Our Own, 2022). This is how I started working with EC, and now I am pursuing it further by training at film school in Kerala.
Narendra Singh Pardhi (NP): I am Narendra. That was the name given to me, but when I registered for an Aadhar Card, they added “Singh.” For the last four to five years, since I started working in film, I have started using my surname Pardhi.
I started working with EC when they were making Ek Jagah Apni and that is how I was introduced to filmmaking and to ideas around the LGBTQ community and queer identity. I used to think that it was as straightforward as pointing and shooting with a camera and editing the footage. I dropped out of school after eighth standard and thought that this might be a good way to make a livelihood. I worked as a camera assistant but within only three months of shooting, I understood so many nuances and ways to translate them into practice.
Then I trained for a year in a course conducted by Green Hub, an organisation that makes films on wildlife. Throughout the period, Pushpa, Madhu and I would have conversations about the skills we have developed and how we could collaborate, and eventually we chose to work with Madhu’s story.
Working in a team is very different from working on a self-initiated film project. The responsibility is all ours to make sure we are on the same page about visualising the film. Each of us would have different ideas for how to approach the film and it was a learning process to bring our ideas together. Since then, I have worked with Payal Kapadia and now I am completing my undergraduate degree. Mann ka Thela was made in 2023–24 and recently I have worked on Sohail ki Pili Chaddi (Sohail’s Yellow Underwear, 2026), where Pushpa has worked on the sound.
Madhu Dhurve (MD): My name is Madhu and I am also from Bhopal, and am a member of EC. During EC’s first film, Chanda ke Joote (Chanda’s Shoes, 2011), I was very young and had no idea about filmmaking. I shadowed the team as they were working in the community but as I worked on their other films like Jaadui Macchi (Magical Fish, 2013) and Turup (Checkmate, 2022), I learnt more about the process. After Turup, I started working with the directorial team more formally, especially on aspects like writing and art. For Mann ka Thela as well as Ek Jagah Apni, I wrote the songs and created the music. We are also thinking of more ideas for future projects.
K: Thank you, I did not realise you had written the song in Mann ka Thela—it is an evocative end to the film! Would you like to introduce the film to our listeners and readers?
MD: Mann ka Thela is about a community where the protagonist is a young boy, who lives with his single mother. The mother works as well as raises goats in the house. The story is set over the course of one day. The mother takes the thela to work at night. Mann, the boy, has a special relationship with the thela—it is like a friend, a kindred spirit. Like Mann, the thela is a character.
Mann’s bond with the thela is rooted in nostalgia—he works with the thela, sleeps next to it and takes it to school and to meet friends, so even his friends have a relationship with it. He has also decorated and decked up the thela with lights. He treats it like a person.
Mann sells bananas after school and one day, a truck crashes against the parked thela, which makes him very unhappy because he dotes over the thela. Earlier in the film, he tells his mother to take care of the thela. So when it is broken by the truck, his heart is broken too. He goes to the blacksmith’s shop to get it fixed and then decides to call it a day. He pays the blacksmith, who only charges him a small amount. On the way home, a shopkeeper stops him and asks if he will take on a small job to transport goods. He says he will pay 300 rupees for three bags, which makes Mann happy. Then the shopkeeper asks him if we will take another couple of bags, to which Mann agrees. He asks if the shopkeeper will pay for the extra bags, to which the latter replies with a yes, even though the payment receipt only reflects the charges for three bags.
Mann takes the bags to their destination, where they pay him for three bags. He argues that he is owed for all five, but the man at the other end tries to intimidate him on the notion that a labourer does not have the right to negotiate and be paid fairly. The idea behind this scene was to talk about fair payment for labour. Even today, we see that a whole day’s work is compensated with something like 300 rupees because the norm is to underpay workers. Mann however, stands his ground. Eventually, people nearby start supporting him and try to get him the extra wage of 200 rupees. Together, they win the argument, and Mann takes his money and goes home to get ready for the rest of his day.
The idea was to highlight the significance of an object like the thela in the lives of workers. It seems simple but there is a very close relationship with the object that helps provide a livelihood. Whenever we screen the film, people tell us stories of the thelas and how they use them. The thela represents the strength of the working class.
P: When you watch Mann ka thela, you might wonder why we are depicting child labour. In reality, labour regulations are restricted to paper. If Mann did not help his mother, they might not have been able to sustain themselves. So he studies and works because he knows that his mother is the sole earner. He poses a question to society—why do some families need all their members to earn a living?
NP: Let me talk a bit about the process as well. For example, let’s look at the point where the thela breaks, which was a challenge to implement. This is not like a Rohit Shetty film, where we could afford to wreck whole vehicles. For us, the thela breaking is a big thing. We borrowed the thela from someone in the same community where we also live. We fixed the thela back properly but we also asked a mechanic about ways to dismantle it gently. We had to find a way to bring out Mann’s emotions in the scene because the actor would end up smiling instead. We almost wondered if we should find a way to make it look like he was crying.
When we make a film, we need to look at motion, time of the day and temperature. It was a very cold night, perhaps around three to six degrees, and we could sometimes hear the actors shivering. Shooting the trails of the thela around the neighbourhood was a challenge too—one person would ride a bike and the other would sit pillion but facing the other direction, dragging the thela. Navigating permissions was also a challenge. Sometimes the actors would be waiting to wrap up for the day and Pushpa would hear them grumble through the mic.
P: There is some context to this situation. Narendra, Madhu and I have worked on EC films before but as assistants. This time, the collective entrusted us with the responsibility of making a film, mentored us and provided us with equipment. But as assistants, we could not entirely understand the level of responsibility that making a film entailed. When we started shooting, we realised that a lot of shots were in the night or early morning—at a time when it was around sixteen degrees in Bhopal. But we had not considered this before. After a day or so we realised how cold it was, so one of the team members went and bought sweaters for everyone. But it was still a challenge for the actors as they were not wearing thick sweaters in the shots. So we would keep a kettle with hot tea around and as soon as a shot was cut, we would give them some tea. We set off with just a plan but through the process, we learnt how much responsibility was involved in taking care of the actors and the crew. It is not only a matter of technical knowledge.
K: Madhu, as you mentioned, everyone has a relationship with the thela and that really comes through in the film. Narendra and Pushpa, thank you for talking about the process. All three of you initially started off in EC workshops, and now you are on the other side, leading a film project, where you conducted workshops, and trained the cast and crew. How did you navigate the process and the collaborative nature of filmmaking?
P: Generally, when a story is ready, members of different teams—sound, camera, direction and production—would have a meeting where we share our opinions and arrive at decisions together. Among the three of us, Narendra was in charge of the camera, Madhu of acting and I was taking the lead on sound. We also had another team member, Jinu, who took care of lighting. To start with, four to five of us met and decided on the story, after which we took it to our own teams. Just like we had started shadowing and assisting other teams, we now had young people working with us for the first time—on camera, sound, art and production. This was the crew.
For the cast, Madhu, Narendra and another friend, Lata, looked around the community. We selected a bunch of people with whom we conducted workshops and sessions like story-reading. For the actors playing Mann and his mother, we practiced some scenes to get them ready for the camera. Along with this, we also did our own preparations and looked up the lenses and microphones we needed and where we could source them from. The EC mentored us and also provided us with equipment. There were points where we would get stuck—for example, we had never budgeted a shoot before. The EC helped us a lot with that.
We decided that we would shoot for ten days and we did a recce of the locations. We had a small crew of about twelve to fifteen people so we did not require too much paperwork. After the first couple of days, we even paused the shoot because of the cold weather, made some arrangements and then resumed. We managed to wrap up in thirteen days. Since we come from the places that we are depicting, the familiarity helped. We knew the people around, so even if people gathered to observe the shoot, there were no roadblocks. They would chat with us and help out instead. Because this is not a mainstream story—this is our story—people were very supportive.
K: In the film, Bhopal’s geography stands out. What is the relationship of the Pardhi community with the city, and how did you weave this into the film?
MD: It is not just the Pardhi community who lives here—we are a diverse group of residents from across communities, including Gond, Muslims, Pardhi and so on. When we enter the market, we are in the old city of Bhopal where we have people from many communities who run their businesses, as they have for many years. The market brings old Bhopal in touch with new Bhopal, because everyone goes there to shop. Some people from the Pardhi community also have their businesses here—they usually have shops that sell bangles, necklaces and other accessories.
The neighbourhood where Mann lives is also diverse. There are Pardhis, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis and so on. Mann’s community—the Pardhi community—sell their goods on thelas, and sometimes also use the thela for waste disposal work. This film depicts a day in Mann’s life but this is also a daily struggle for people in this line of work.
P: There are social constructs that propagate harmful assumptions based on people’s identities—for example, Pardhis sell stolen goods. We are trying to break these stereotypes. The rhythm of Mann’s and his mother’s work, depicted in these scenes, are intended to challenge these false assumptions and provide a glimpse of reality.
NP: The Pardhi community used to be nomadic, primarily residing in forests. The association with a place like Bhopal is much more recent, probably only a few decades old. Settling in the city meant a shift from making traditional handcrafted jewellery to taking on other kinds of work such as waste segregation and recycling to earn a livelihood. These jobs can also be challenging. For example, women might not be able to work at night, because people would assume they are stealing. The stereotype also comes from the fact that the Pardhi community was one of the tribes labelled under the colonial Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Despite the fact that the tribes and communities named in the Act were denotified, the stereotype still prevails. Policemen are often seen around the neighbourhoods.
We depict the neighbourhood as it is in real life, which is why it was important that our actors were also from here. In the larger industry, people look at communities such as ours from the outside. When you see it from the eyes of the community, you will see how we can even love a thela. In Sohail ki Pili Chaddi, we touch upon similar themes, like the relationship with a piece of clothing. You have to understand the nuances: How do people in the community live? How do the women of the community experience life?
You could say that there used to be a problem with alcoholism in the community but many people have stopped now. We are continuously working towards containing damaging practices so that the next generation is not affected.
K: Your point about breaking down assumptions and stereotypes is inspiring—film is a powerful medium with which to understand these nuances and your film succeeds in showcasing these.
P: I would like to say something about the EC. As you mentioned, film is a powerful medium and we all see this as a collective process. You cannot make a film single-handledly—be it the director or other crew members, we are all equally involved and work as a team. Within the EC, we have different teams, including sound, camera, direction and production. We are all encouraged to voice our opinions and discuss them so that we can make decisions together. But this is not a process you will find in mainstream media where you are only seen as a worker. This is an inspiring thing about the collective—we are all learning and trying to find ways to provide our stories a platform. We want to use our stories to dismantle people’s assumptions, to show the world that we are equals—we have the same rights, we are also creative and have the same potential as anyone else.
NP: People want to hire highly educated crew members or those trained in large industries because they speak the same language. But the collective gives you belief—that we will have mobility, we will study more and learn more, and will be able to hold on our own. I do not know if I would be where I am now if not for the collective. They taught me to use a camera and tripod. I did not even know how to spell “extension board,” but I have learnt so much since.
MD: The strength of our collective is that everyone gets an opportunity, and I hope that we continue working like this.
To learn more about artist collectives and collaborative production, read Ankan Kazi’s two-part essay on the history of collective filmmaking in India and Ektara Collective's Ek Jagah Apni (2022), Mallika Visvanathan’s conversation with Mahishaa on Babasaheb in Bengaluru (2024) and the Ambedkarite artist collective, Neelavarana, Avani Tandon Viera’s exploration of Harkat Studios, Samira Bose’s essay on LAB Collective’s Multimedia Film Dante Katha (2022), Ketaki Verma’s two-part conversation with Vivan Sundaram on the Kasauli Art Centre, Shweta Kishore’s two-part interview with CAMP and Santasil Mallik’s review of Nama Filmcollective’s Don’t Worry About India (2022)
To learn more about films screened at Kolkata People’s Film Festival's 2026 edition, read Alfa M. Shakya’s review of Kesang Tseten’s The Lama’s Son (2025) and Ishtayaq Rasool's review of Mohamad W. Ali's Searching for Grandpa (2025). To learn more about Kolkata People's Film Festival 2025, read Kshiraja’s essay on Sara Saini’s short documentary, In the Wake of Remembering (2024) that reflects upon the 1992 Burnsall Strike and Vishal George’s conversation with Thomas Sideris on Gas Station or The Pigeons of Lahore (2024).
