‘Little Fishies’ Reflects On How Societal Norms Shape Grief In Indian Families

The death of a loved one is the most personal and lasting thing that can happen to someone, yet death ceremonies or funerals, especially in India happen to unwittingly be the most impersonal form of social gathering. In Hindu families, the last rites, which have to be completed over several days, are designed for the spirit's salvation. But this does very little for the people who are mourning that death. The grief that comes in the aftermath of a loss, has little to no space in these ceremonies driven by obscure rituals and obligations that a family must perform.

'Little Fishies', a short film written and directed by Mallika Juneja, places the absurdity of this culture at the centre of its story. The film is set within the premise of a funeral where neighbours and well wishers gather to pay their respects. As customary rites and prayers go on, two sisters navigate the loss of their father in this house that is filled with people yet is charged with the absence of someone who was really close to them. The thirteen-year-old elder sister tries to keep her younger sibling close and safe from any explicit mentions of her father's death. She guides her through the crowd, through the steady and well-intentioned but overwhelming, stream of condolences. and remarks on how "strong" the girls are.

Tending to the guests incessantly is their mother who, for better or worse, hasn't had a second to herself to think about the fact that her life partner is no more. When the elder sister wants to sneak out with her sibling to the beach — a place where they spent most of their day outs with their father, we are taken into the real themes of the film.

Underneath the rituals, Little Fishies is a juxtaposition of the age-old society vs the individual debate and how it manifests within a family system. In the film, it's the mother who walks the line between the two and must choose what she wants her daughters to imbibe. Within their nuclear family, the parents created their own love language with their daughters, one that was free from the oppressive hierarchies of many South Asian families that deprive them of any expression of affection. But now at the funeral among other relatives, this family is expected to conform to the larger structures that drive interpersonal dynamics with our culture.

The daughters are faced with probing questions about their loss that they are not quite ready to confront and perform their grief in a way that fits into this ceremony. The suffocating etiquettes of this funeral, the elder daughter argues, is not something the father would have wanted. Without the space to remember their father, the way they want, the kids long for the beach, away from the platitudes; to the loving memory of a person who nurtured them.

The beach becomes a symbol of this place that any parents find themselves negotiating with starting their own family. As they bring a new life into the world, they must decide if they will raise their kids with the same that scripts that they inherited or build a new one without the burden of tradition. 'Little Fishies' uses a story about grief to imagine a family that is free from the power dynamics and structures that uphold any society. Through the memory of their father, that the daughters are trying to protect from the well-meaning, yet stifling sympathy of the guests, the film invites us to explore the possibility of a radical love that blooms in families when they're divorced from the dogmas of obligation and duty.

Follow Mallika Juneja here.

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