Watch any of the films penned by writer Shreekrishna Padhye and you’ll instantly recognize his style. It’s biting, witty, and teaching. Instead of preferring hyperbolic antics, he revels in stories of everyday people who do things uncommon and often pay the price for it. There is an implied sense of fate and justice in his work which serves as a warning to those who violate the social contract. For every bit of darkness and tragedy, Padhye balances it with comedy…though often with a dash of irony. There is a positive correlation between the tales he composes and the ancient Aesop’s Fables as they contain truth and the misdirected/often ill-conceived plans of humans. It’s this writer’s constant preoccupation with the study of human behavior that fuel his many scripts and film productions. For the film “Sick Leave”, he wanted to challenge himself to find comedy in a situation that would seem to be void of the potential humor. While that might sound like an odd starting point, it’s indicative of the process that Shreekrishna uses to grow as a writer; find a situation that is dark and discover the ridiculousness of it all. You may laugh as much as you wince at the actions of the characters in the films of Padhye but you’ll likely learn a lot at the same time. It’s what the writers of all the great classics have attempted to do and this writer is simply the modern subscriber to this intent.
The idea of writing about something very wrong often resides in the brain of Shreekrishna, until it finds a way out. He had long wanted to write a dark comedy built around the idea of the Swine Flu. This is not a typical topic around which to build a comedy tale. For Padhye, looking at the same story/event from multiple angles is a requirement of being a good writer. If you only look at things one way you are missing the vastly majority of the story and experiences, which is what people most often relate to. It’s his curiosity about the motivations of people that finds its way into his subconscious to challenge how he personally views things, and transfers these in his writing. The process creates a myriad of possibilities which he feels is exponentially multiplied by the actors, directors, and other professionals who then contribute to his original ideas.
“Sick Leave” is a cautionary tale but not in a heavy handed manner. The subtlety of the writing is closer to candlelight, warm and friendly, than that of a blinding beacon. The film is as much about personal ethics as it is about love and the consequences of each. The main character Jacob is a twenty-one-year-old student who finds himself more interested in the attractive girl attending the same Pathology class than he is in his studies and the lecture. Following class one day, Jacob sees a sign “Anatomy quiz tomorrow at 10:30am. Don’t miss. Absence is excused only in cases of illness. Sickness certificate from school nurse mandatory.” A serious procrastinator, Jacob avoids preparation and then hatches an age old plan to feign illness to avoid the quiz. Using a variety of methods to mimic illness, He greets the nurse with a dull face and constant shivering. Jacob systematically delivers a performance that anticipates each of the indicators of his illness convincing the nurse. She gives him medicine and writes him a sickness certificate. Feeling proud and clever, he takes the note and spends the rest of the day playing computer games. The next day when he goes to college with the certificate in his hand, he recognizes the girl he admired in class reading the Notice Board with other students. He approaches them, smiles, and reads the notice which states, “Swine Flu epidemic rampant. Sick People will be quarantined.” Noticing the certificate in Jacob’s hands, the focus of his amorous intent and the other students quickly walk away from him.
As with all artists, Padhye places a little of himself in all of his work. He admits that like many of us, he found himself looking for the easy way out in his earlier years. In an approach very similar to an actor, Shreekrishna tries to find a piece of himself in the characters of his stories. Even if a character is doing something seemingly horrible, Padhye will place himself in the shoes of this person and find a way to relate to even a seemingly awful act. The producer of “Sick Leave”, T.M. Malones, was drawn to working with this writer because of his empathetic and deep insight into dark and misdirected characters. Malones confirms, “Shreekrishna was able to turn a simple narrative into something wholly original. The film has been a hit on the Internet, garnering over 127,000 views on YouTube, which is a prominent form of commercial success for short films in today’s day and age. This success would not have resulted if the film had not been crafted by someone as talented as Shreekrishna. This is a sign of success to the public but the true magic of his writing is the way that he creates characters who you can both dislike and feel an affinity for. One dimensional characters are uninteresting to the audience and those portraying them. Working with Shreekrishna means knowing that, as a filmmaker, you are going to be challenged…which is always a pleasurable situation in which to find yourself.”