Heard of Mahua? This tribal drink makes a surprising debut in a documentary at Cannes

Indian chef-filmmaker Shrimoyee Chakraborty's latest offering, Forbidden Drinks, has been accredited in the Docs-In-Progress category at the Cannes Film Festival this year

Shrimoyee Chakraborty is a woman of ideas. Connecting Indian food with culture, she travels the world to execute them. Her career trajectory shifted from economics to culinary artistry once she saw how Indian food was interpreted in the United Kingdom. 

At the age of 25, Chakraborty started her restaurant Calcutta Street in London in 2016 to change the hackneyed perspectives most people had about Indian food. Her storytelling and networking skills led to a five-part docu-series, India Bites, in 2022 that broke stereotypes about modern India through the tropes of race, sexuality, new-age indie music, and entrepreneurship. 

Forbidden Drinks, Chakraborty’s latest documentary on mahua—India's homegrown but debarred alcohol—has been accredited in the Docs-In- Progress category at the Cannes Film Festival 2024, which starts from 14 May. She will be at the French Riviera to seek financers to complete the project. "My mahua journey has been difficult as it is a story that Indians don't want to invest in. There is a bit of politics involved. I have spent ₹ 10 lakh on my own so far. I hope to return with funds and commissioners for my film," she tells The Established.

The film is co-produced by Bruno Rauis, edited by Karel Van Bellingen in London, and co-directed by Dibya Chatterjee in Mumbai. Kaushik Patra handled the cinematography with Anne-Sophie Heist, while Neel Adhikari worked on the background score.

Why a documentary on mahua?

Born and raised in Kolkata, Chakraborty knew mahua as a prohibited drink popular among the adivasis, which would be available in the outskirts of Shantiniketan. Around 2007, she observed the mahua trees closely on her visit to the town of Nandigram in West Bengal amid a political insurgency. "You keep hearing about country liquor and the negative connotations around it. The liquor from the mahua flower is distilled at special plants and has immense medicinal value," says the 34-year-old who shuttles between Mumbai and London. If its production is explored further, it may have enough potential to slowly be manufactured on a larger scale, believes Chakraborty. 

Chakraborty had forgotten about the topic after she completed college. In 2019, it came back to her through an article she read on indigenous alcohol. Two years later, she met French businessman and chef Alexis de Ducla and discovered his mahua production in Paris.  

Ducla, along with urbanologist Matias Echanove, entrepreneur Gilles De Labarthe, and Rahul Srivastava set up MAH Spirits in France in 2021. The production began by using flowers sourced from India. "This time, there was no looking back. I wanted to know the story of mahua and the reasons behind why people dismissed it.”

"People are always glorifying foreign liquor but [are] looking down on homegrown alcohol, which could be India's answer to tequila. Ducla connected with Shubhank Chandrakar, the founder of Bastar Botanics. It is a local initiative by Chandrakar to promote the culture and traditions of Bastar in the 21st century, as they work on building the first mahua speciality distillery to promote the drink and the rituals around it. 

The relevance of mahua

The native mahua tree is a livelihood for the Santhal, Gond, Munda, and Oraon tribes, who use it for food, cattle feed, fuel, art, and medicine. Mahua is still illegal in most parts of India. While the British had banned mahua to promote imported liquor, even now, there is a strong alcohol lobby against mahua.

The Madhya Pradesh government declared it a heritage liquor three years ago and held a conclave to spread awareness and connect tribal flower-collectors with potential buyers. 

Chakraborty shot the documentary partly in the Naxal-dominated Bastar in Chhattisgarh, a region dense with mahua trees, and in Paris too. "The legality of mahua is still at a nascent stage. Our archaic laws haven't changed. I am speaking to the Scindias and the families of the Maharajas in Madhya Pradesh to bring this issue into the spotlight," she reasons.

The story of women

Chakraborty's documentary will reflect on the hard yards of tribal women to produce mahua. "Men have a reputation for being lazy in these areas. They get drunk, and they don't work. The women brew mahua and sell them in the markets with their kids. They are the breadwinners. They are fit to work all day long. Mahua is not just alcohol but a part of sustenance,” she explains.

"The mahua laddoos are high in nutrition. The tribals make mahua kombucha for pregnant women and drink it at festivals and funerals. They will collect the mahua flowers only once they have fallen on the floor, and not pluck them from the trees they worship," informs Chakraborty, who feels an efficient use of mahua flowers could enhance India's economy. "It will help people who are below the poverty line. It takes six months to dry—if you pick mahua this season, you can make the drink in the next season," she says.

Chandrakar, who is from a prominent family in Chhattisgarh, helped Chakraborty with the interviews in Bastar. She also teamed up with Rajneesh and Urmila Panikar, who run a small bed-and-breakfast space in the tribal region. "Rajneesh takes care of the property while Urmila brews mahua," adds Chakraborty. The Panikars ensured safety for the crew in the forests of Bastar, known for Maoist violence.

Not a usual Cannes outing

Chakraborty's Cannes trip is primarily about networking. "I have to schedule meetings with financiers and production companies. Cannes is different if you go as a celebrity. But here, I have to return with money. I don't have the time to think about my clothes although I intend to attend the parties as I feel that's where a show gets sold," says Chakraborty, who is also working on a parallel project on feeding fussy toddlers, co-produced by BAFTA-winning producer Marshall Corwin.

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