FC Hotlist: Hadinelentu (Seventeeners)

FC Hotlist is a series that spotlights films which are looking for buyers and distributors. It is an ongoing project to link indie filmmakers who are looking for a wider audience, to producers looking for fresh stories that stand out in the cinematic landscape.

Hadinelentu (Seventeeners), a Kannada film by Prithvi Konanur, begins with pleasure that spells doom, because such is the world. Two high school students, Deepa (Sherlyn Bhosale) and Hari (Neeraj Mathew), sneak into a classroom as the building empties and record a video that will later be described by an embarrassed teacher as “showing the sexual act”. On screen, we only see the school building — silent, without either students or teachers in its corridors. All we hear are Deepa and Hari’s voices, fuzzy with the erotic heat of teenage love. It’s a tiny exchange which lets us know that the video is intimate and consensual. 

The next thing Deepa and Hari know is that the video is on a porn site. The two students are a blubbering mess at the principal’s office. The corridors that were empty in that first scene are now teeming with curious students and the white noise of whispered gossip. From here, the film follows how a moment of illicit pleasure curdles into a voyeuristic gaze. Konanur, who has also written the story, screenplay and dialogues for Seventeeners, is able to explore tangled issues like consent and legality without regressing into didacticism. The film shows the complexity of a society grappling with deeply internalised conservatism and opts for a conclusion that manages to be heartbreaking despite being open-ended.  

In the beginning, the principal and vice principal treat the boy and girl differently, but there’s more that informs the way Deepa and Hari are seen by the authority figures. The school responds to the class and caste of the two while remaining coy about using these loaded terms. The insinuations of casteism are so subtle that you may wonder if you’re reading something sinister into a banal exchange. But it’s not paranoia. Rather, Konanur is giving you a masterclass into how caste and class inform our social interactions. The characters on screen, the teachers, the principal, they have known it all along, and that knowledge has seeped into the small and large ways they interact with the kids — and yes, they are kids. 

As Deepa and Hari’s case spirals, pushing both of them and their well-wishers into defensive corners, the incident becomes a legal issue. What compounds the tragedy of the situation is that everyone — from the parents to lawyers, police officers and fellow students — is trying to help the two students. Yet every attempted intervention only serves to punish Deepa and Hari. When all of this comes to a boil, Konanur shows us a glimpse of them in love, a small flashback of the two first noticing each other, riding a bike, enjoying each other’s company. They were just kids in love. None of this needed to happen. 

And that is the tragedy. That a genuinely innocent moment is used to punish the kids — not to keep them safe or help them distinguish pleasure from punishment. Instead, the punishment meted out becomes a function of caste and class. 

Hadinelentu (Seventeeners) had its Indian premiere at the International Film Festival of India, Goa in 2022. It was the opening feature film of the Indian Panorama section. This was followed by the world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, and a screening at the International Film Festival of Kerala and Chennai International Film Festival. The film was the only Indian film in the world cinema competition at the Pune International Film Festival. 

You can reach out to the director at [email protected]