‘Tighee’: How Jeejivisha Kale shaped her standout Marathi debut feature?

From left: Jeejivisha Kale, Neha Pendse and Sonalee Kulkarni
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

At the heart of Tighee is a stirring relationship between two estranged siblings, Swati (Neha Pendse) and Sarika (Sonalee Kulkarni) and the tumultuous bond they share with their ailing mother, Hemlata (Bharti Achrekar). The screenplay, written by Nikhil Mahajan (also co-producer) with dialogues by Prajakt Deshmukh, delves into the ugly complexities of adult life as the daughters come to terms with the conflicted shadows of their past. Jeejivisha got the initial idea for the film when she was on her first solo trip in 2024. This was a time when she was actively thinking of stories to tell, after having assisted in Marathi films like, Jaundya Na Balasaheb, Vazandar: Biggie and Vaalvi. There was a sense of “readiness” that she felt within.

“Somewhere I knew that I wanted to explore the story of siblings because I am a single child myself and so is Nikhil. So, our gaze towards siblings is that of observation. I have been able to witness a lot of siblings up close, as they lived their lives while I looked along from the outside. I would also often think what if I had a sibling, an elder sister, in my life too?”, Jeejivisha says.

The story of the siblings is told with a moody reverberance as the gloomy bearings of rain becomes part of the film’s aesthetics, reflecting the emotional out-pours of the characters, who find themselves consumed with the burdens of being. “We knew that rain was part of the film from the screenplay stage as it features cloudy relationships with the story moving towards clarity. Further, all the crew, whether it was the cinematographer or sound designer, were on the same page with respect to the emotional exploration of the story. And once we all know what we are trying to say, the job is just to execute it,” says the fimmaker.

From left: Sonalee Kulkarni, Neha Pendse, Bharti Achrekar, Milind Jog and Nikhil Mahajan
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The movie was shot within 20 days and was ready by November 2025. However, it faced some difficulty in getting cleared from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), possibly due to some of the mature themes explored in the second half. Producer Suhrud Godbole says that they were waiting till the last day to get the film certified. “The ‘A’ certificate is definitely not ideal and it has impacted the business of the film in some way. However, that is a story for another day. Our co-producer Shardul Singh Bayas stood like a rock behind the film during this time. Once the dust settles, we are planning to speak about the struggles that we went through with the censors,” he says.

Even while exploring some of these complex themes, Jeejivisha treats the film with a delicate sensitivity, which extends even to the performances of the actors, that are timed without a touch of melodrama. There is a rigorous immediacy through which Neha, Sonalee and Bharti conduct themselves, especially in some of the more poignant sequences. Jeejivisha carries a nuanced understanding of theatrics, which she feels comes from being a voracious reader since she was a child.

“While reading, I would imagine the characters speaking in a certain manner. Similarly, while reading the script, I would hear the characters speaking. Those voices and expressions of characters stayed in my head. So, I was okay with anything that came closer to that voice in the performances,” Jeejivisha explains.

On the other hand, she treats the emotional scenes with grace. “The moments where audiences feel like crying are those where the character wants to cry but they cannot do so. They want to say something which they can’t and that affects the viewer. This is also where the experience of actors came into play where they knew how to hold an emotion just enough to make the audience feel its intensity,” she says.

A still from the film
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Tighee is also significant for how relentlessly it portrays the conditions of womanhood. In Jeejivisha’s dignified hands, the film finds an assured, vulnerable release. Suhrud shares how the actors mentioned to him the distinct experience of being directed by a woman filmmaker. “There are some things which men just cannot understand. The actors found it a refreshing change to see the story from the perspective of a woman. We need more of that as men are clearly not doing a great job in the world right now. So, I don’t mind women taking over for some time,” he quips.

Jeejivisha, however, doesn’t look at her filmmaking process from the binaries of gender. “When I am making a film, I am not thinking of myself as a ‘woman filmmaker’. I am just directing a film in a way that seems the most organic to me. Its effect can be felt by others who are working with me,” she says and concludes, “I am merely doing my work based on my lived experience as a woman; so whatever I do will come out from that gaze.”

Tighee is currently running in theatres