#Achal Mishra

[freudianblunders]

Gamak Ghar, 2020

Every single frame can be a painting or a photograph. A visual masterpiece that instills wonder, nostalgia, and melancholy.

Thank you, Achal Mishra.

[picturessnatcher]

Gamak Ghar (Achal Mishra, 2019)

[suchananewsblog]

When Son Takes Father For An Interview

‘It started with an image of a father and son riding a bike on a winter morning.’ IMAGE: A scene from Dhuin. Photograph: PTI Photo   After the success of his debut feature film Gamak Ghar, Director Achal Mishra says he was at the crossroads about his next when he came across Dhuin, an idea that kept playing in his mind in the form of an image of a father-son riding a bike on a winter…

[hariyali]

Gamak Ghar (2019)

Dir: Achal Mishra

Happy Chhath Puja

[whileiamdying]

Dhuin review: Subtle, heart-breaking reflection of our times

SUKHPREET KAHLON New Delhi, 15 Mar 2022 17:49 IST

Achal Mishra’s evocative 50-minute film captures the despair of a young man whose dreams are quietly fading away.

Achal Mishra’s 50-minute feature Dhuin captures the dreams of Pankaj (Abhinav Jha), an aspiring actor in the small town of Darbhanga, who hopes to make it big in Mumbai. Caught between the dire financial situation at home and his ambitions, he is forced to make a choice.

Part observation, part rumination, the film subtly takes us into the mindscape of its protagonist. We see Pankaj acting in a street play, making plans with his friend to take the big leap and move to Mumbai to make it as an actor. At home, his family’s economic condition has been worsened due to the lockdown and his elderly father is desperate to find a job. But jobs are scarce and finding one involves a bribe.

Trying to shut out the pressures weighing down upon him, Pankaj escapes into his room, where he watches videos on acting techniques, trying to hone his skills. He laps up every opportunity he gets, meeting senior actors and filmmakers, all for just one shot at realizing his dream.

The camera focuses on Pankaj’s reactions, as he laps up every word that the revered National School of Drama graduate has to say, his eagerness tangible. In the scene where Pankaj sits amongst filmmakers who discuss Abbas Kiarostami’s oeuvre, he is at sea with the affected conversation. We see his enthusiasm to learn, his search for avenues, his pain at being cruelly dismissed by Mumbai filmmakers who seem to know a lot more than him, and his belief in himself being shaken.

Abhinav Jha’s superlative performance is certainly one of the highlights of the film as he melds together his characters’ desires, vulnerabilities and crushing disappointment, bringing him to life almost effortlessly. Mishra creatively weaves in the fog that envelops the town as a signifier for Pankaj’s mind. He struggles as the road ahead is shrouded from him, his helplessness palpable. Ever so slowly, we get drawn into Pankaj’s world and become emotionally invested in his fate and heartbroken at the decision that he must make.

The most life-altering decisions are ones that are taken quietly, in the dead of the night. Dhuin poignantly presents the quiet fading away of a young man’s dreams. There is a scene in the film where Pankaj and his friend go outside the airport and pose for pictures. They climb a tree and strike poses, even as the planes taking off signify their desperation to escape their predicament. They are so close, yet so far. Like countless people in the country jostling with the socio-economic reality of the country, their dreams are shackled.

With Dhuin, which follows his debut feature Gamak Ghar (2019), Mishra exhibits his ability to bring to the fore the lives and aspirations of people on the fringes.

Gamak Ghar review: Eloquent look at the rise and fall of an ancestral home

Dhuin was premiered at the 22nd Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival.

[mzelletetedslesnuages]

Photo d'Achal Mishra

[forestgreenlesbian]

Ladakh, Achal Mishra

[hollowmaison]

gamak ghar (2019), dir. achal mishra

[miguelmarias]

TOP 2020

25/12/2020

 A)    Great movies made since 2015 seen for the first time in 2020: 

Buoyancy(Freedom;Rodd Rathjen, 2019)

Les choses qu’on dit, les choses qu’on fait(Emmanuel Mouret, 2020)

L’Île au trésor(Guillaume Brac, 2018)

Le Sel des larmes(Philippe Garrel, 2019/20)

Ghawre Bairey Aaj(Home and the World;Aparna Sen, 2019)

Undine(Christian Petzold, 2020)

Happī awā(Happy Hour;Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, 2015)

Netemo Sametemo(Asako I & II;Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, 2018)

Adolescentes(Sébastien Lifshitz, 2013-9/20)

Family Romance, LLC.(Werner Herzog, 2019)

Demain et tous les autres jours(Noémie Lvovsky, 2017)

Gamak Ghar(Achal Mishra, 2019)

Lunana:A Yak in the Classroom(Pawo Choyning Dorji, 2019)

Semina il vento(Sow the Wind;Danilo Caputo, 2020)

Objector(Molly Stuart, 2019)

La France contre les robots(Jean-Marie Straub, 2020)

Paris Calligrammes(Ulrike Ottinger, 2019/20)

Un film dramatique(Éric Baudelaire, 2019)

 B)    Great movies made before 2015 seen for the first time in 2020: 

Là-Haut, un Roi au-dessus des nuages(Pierre Schoendoerffer, 2003)

Pangarap ng Puso(Demons/Whispers of the Demon/Hope of the Heart;Mario O’Hara, 2000)

Les Films rêvés(Eric Pauwels, 2009)

La vida en rojo(Andrés Linares, 2007/8)

Come Next Spring(R.G. Springsteen, 1955/6)

Song of Surrender(Mitchell Leisen, 1948/9)

Adventure in Manhattan(Edward Ludwig, 1936)

Strannaia zhenshchina(A Strange Woman;Iuli Raízman, 1978)

Chastnaia zhízn(Private Life;Iuli Raízman, 1982)

Málva(Vladimir Braun, 1956/7)

Zhila-byla devochka(Once There Was a Girl;Viktor Eisimont, 1944)

The Unknown Man(Richard Thorpe, 1951)

Aisai Monogatari(Story of a Beloved Wife;Shindō Kaneto, 1951)

Practically Yours(Mitchell Leisen, 1944)

A Summer Storm(Robert Wise, 1999/2000)

Lettre d’un cinéaste à sa fille(Eric Pauwels, 2000)

Sombra verde(Untouched;Roberto Gavaldón, 1954)

Fantasma d’amore(Dino Risi, 1981)

Adieu, Mascotte(Das Modell vom Montparnasse;Wilhelm Thiele, 1929)

Mori no kajiya(The Blacksmith of the Forest;Shimizu Hiroshi, 1928/9;fragment)

Zwischen Gestern und Morgen(Between Yesterday and Tomorrow;Harald Braun, 1947)

Last Holiday(Henry Cass, 1950)

Dialogue d’ombres(Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1954-2013)

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man(Jonas Mekas, 2012)

Nice Time(Claude Goretta & Alain Tanner, 1957)

Aloma of the South Seas(Alfred Santell, 1941)

A Feather in Her Hat(Alfred Santell, 1935)

La Danseuse Orchidée(Léonce Perret, 1928)

Underground(Vincent Sherman, 1941)

Time Out(in Twilight Zone-The Movie)(John Landis, 1983)

Lackawanna Blues(George C. Wolfe, 2005)

Janie(Michael Curtiz, 1944)

Dernier Amour(Léonce Perret, 2016)

Jeunes Filles en détresse(Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1939)

Kisapmata(Blink of an Eye;Mike De Leon, 1981)

La Dernière Lettre(Frederick Wiseman, 2002)

The Lady of the Dig-Out(W.S. Van Dyke II, 1918)

Their Own Desire(E.Mason Hopper, 1929)

 C)    Very good movies made since 2015 seen for the first time in 2020: 

Zumiriki(Oskar Alegria, 2019)

Atlantique(Mati Diop, 2019)

J’accuse(An Officier and A Spy;Roman Polanski, 2019)

Richard Jewell(Clint Eastwood, 2019)

Alice et le Maire(Nicolas Pariser, 2019)

Contes de Juillet(July Tales;Guillaume Brac, 2017)

Dark Waters(Todd Haynes, 2019)

Ofrenda a la tormenta(Fernando González Molina, 2020)

Nomad:In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin(Werner Herzog, 2019)

Into the Inferno(Werner Herzog, 2016)

The Zookeeper’s Wife(Niki Caro, 2017)

Journal de septembre(Eric Pauwels, 2019)

La Deuxième Nuit(Eric Pauwels, 2016)

Kaze no denwa(Voices in the Wind;Suwa Nobuhiro, 2019/20)

Da 5 Bloods(Spike Lee, 2020)

Izaokas(Isaac;Jurgis Matulevičius, 2019)

A Metamorfose dos Pássaros(Catarina Vasconcelos, 2020)

Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari(To the Ends of the Earth;Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2019)

La Nuit d’avant(Pablo García Canga, 2019)

My Mexican Bretzel(Nuria Giménez, 2018-9)

Domangchin yeoja(The Woman Who Ran;Hong Sang-soo, 2019/20)

Öndög(Wang Quanan, 2019)

Hatsukoi(First Love;Miike Takashi, 1959)

Million raz pogivaet odin Cheloviek(One man dies a million times;Jessica Oreck, 2018/9)

The Two Popes(Fernando Meirelles, 2019)

Félicité(Alain Gomis, 2016/7)

Salt and Fire(Werner Herzog, 2016)

Ni de lian(Your Face;Tsai Ming-liang, 2018)

Qi qiu(Balloon;Pema Tseden, 2019)

River Silence(Rogério Soares, 2019)

Charlie’s Angels(Elizabeth Banks, 2019)

La boda de Rosa(Iciar Bollain, 2020)

Guerra(War;José Oliveira & Marta Ramos, 2020)

My Thoughts Are Silent/Moyi dumky tykhi(Antonio Lukich, 2019)

Namo(The Alien;Nader Saeivar;co-script-Jafar Panahi, 2020)

Los silencios(The Silences;Beatriz Seigner, 2018)

Terminal Sud(Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, 2019)

Tu mérites un amour(You Deserve a Lover;Hafsia Herzi, 2019)

Les Misérables(Ladj Ly, 2019)

Padre no hay más que uno(Santiago Segura, 2019)

Honeyland(Tamara Kotovska & Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019)

Izbrisana(Erased;Miha Mazzini & Dusan Joksimovic, 2018)

This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection(Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, 2019)

Primero Enero(Darío Mascambroni, 2016)

Lahi, Hayop(Pan, Genus/Genus Pan;Lav Diaz, 2020)

 D)    Very good movies made before 2015 seen for the first time in 2020: 

Topaze(Marcel Pagnol, 1936)

The SIGN OF THE RAM(John Sturges, 1947/8)

Abandoned(Joseph M. Newman, 1949)

Bewitched(Arch Oboler, 1944/5)

La Femme du Bout du Monde((Jean Epstein, 1937)

The Outcast(William Witney, 1954)

Saadia(Albert Lewin, 1953)

Un monde sans femmes(Guillaume Brac, 2011)

Dishonored Lady(Robert Stevenson, 1947)

Always Goodbye(Signey Lanfield, 1938)

A Blueprint for Murder(Andrew L. Stone, 1953)

Bedevilled(Mitchell Leisen, 1955)

That Forsyte Woman(Compton Bennett, 1949)

The Miracle(Irving Rapper, 1959)

The Madonna’s Secret(Wilhelm Thiele, 1946)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown(Charles B. Pierce, 1976)

Grayeagle(Charles B. Pierce, 1977)

Barricade(Peter Godfrey, 1949/50)

Tomorrow is Forever(Irving Pichel, 1945/6)

David Harum(James Cruze, 1934)

The Vanquished(Edward Ludwig, 1953)

Keisatsukan(Uchida Tomu, 1933)

...Enfants des courants d’air(Édouard Luntz, 1959, short)

The Winds of Autumn(Charles B. Pierce, 1976)

Suddenly It’s Spring(Mitchell Leisen, 1946)

Uchūjin Tōkyō ni arawaru(Warning from Space;Shima Kōji, 1956)

Swiss Family Robinson(Edward Ludwig, 1940)

Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern(Wilhelm Dieterle, 1930)

Faithless(Harry Beaumont, 1932)

Botan-dorō(Peony Lanterns;Yamamoto Satsuo, 1968)

Ginza 24 chou(Tales of Ginza;Kawashima Yūzō, 1955)

Goodbye Again(Michael Curtiz, 1933)

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea(D.W. Griffith, 1909)

You Gotta Stay Happy(H.C. Potter, 1948)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams(Werner Herzog, 2010)

Riff-Raff(Ted Tetzlaff, 1947)

The Moon is Down(Irving Pichel, 1943)

The Bride Wore Boots(Irving Pichel, 1946)

Adventures in Silverado(Phil Karlson, 1948)

The Stolen Ranch(William Wyler, 1926)

Congo Maisie(H.C. Potter, 1940)

Marcides(Mercedes;Yousry Nasrallah, 1993)

Hell’s Five Hours(Jack L. Copeland, 1958)

Daniel(in Stimulantia;Ingmar Bergman, 1967)

Diên Biên Phú(Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1992)

Canyon River(Cattle King;Harmon Jones, 1956)

Dos Basuras(Kurt Land, 1958)

Smart Girls Don’t Talk(Richard L. Bare, 1948)

The Big Shakedown(John Francis Dillon, 1933/4)

Corvette K-225(Richard Rosson;p.,collab.Howard Hawks, 1943)

The Gay Deception(William Wyler, 1935)

The Invisible Woman(A.Edward Sutherland, 1940)

Rage in Heaven(W.S. Van Dyke II;collab.Robert B. Sinclair,Richard Thorpe, 1941)

Wild Side(Sébastien Lifshitz, 2004)

I bambini e noi(Luigi Comencini, 1970//7)

The House Across The Street(Richard L. Bare, 1948/9)

The Doughgirls(James V. Kern, 1944)

The Love Trap(William Wyler, 1929)

Torch Song(Charles Walters, 1953)

The Meanest Man in the World(Sidney Lanfield, 1942/3)

Cole Younger, Gunfighter(R.G. Springsteen, 1958)

Ballerine(Gustav Machatý, 1936)

Via Mala(Josef von Báky, 1945//8)

Sky Giant(Lew Landers, 1938)

Les Invisibles(Sébastien Lifshitz, 2012)

Promène toi donc tout nu(Emmanuel Mouret, 1998)

A Story for the Modlins(Una historia para los Modlin;Sergio Oksman, 2012)

Something in the Wind(Irving Pichel, 1947)

Spoveď(Confession;Pavol Skýkova, 1968)

Guilty Hands(W.S. Van Dyke II;collab.Lionel Barrymore, 1931)

Atto di accusa(Giacomo Gentilomo, 1950)

Suspense(Frank Tuttle, 1956)

This Is The Night(Frank Tuttle, 1932)

Escape in the Fog(Oscar ‘Budd’ Boetticher,Jr., 1945)

The Price of Fear(Abner Biberman, 1956)

Happy People:A Year in the Taiga(Werner Herzog, 2010)

Urok(The Lesson;Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov, 2014)

Le Naufragé(Guillaume Brac, 2009)

Lili Marlen(Peter Mihálik;script.Dušan Hanák, 1970;short)

Deseo(Antonio Zavala Kugler, 2013)

  E)     Great movies that improved by new watchings: 

Shanghai Express(Josef von Sternberg, 1932)

The Best Years of Our Lives(William Wyler, 1946)

Till We Meet Again(Frank Borzage, 1944)

Man’s Favorite Sport?(Howard Hawks, 1963/4)

Along The Great Divide(Raoul Walsh, 1951)

Hondo(John V. Farrow, 1953)

Where The Sidewalk Ends(Otto Preminger, 1950)

Mrs. Miniver(William Wyler, 1942)

Driftwood(Allan Dwan, 1947)

‘Good-bye, My Lady’(William A. Wellman, 1956)

Touch of Evil(Preview version, 1975;not later ‘improvements’)(Orson Welles, 1958)

Le Crabe-Tambour(Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1977)

Unfinished Business(Gregory LaCava, 1941)

Madigan(Don Siegel, 1968)

Big Business(James Wesley Horne;s.Leo McCarey, 1929)

Putting Pants on Philip(Clyde A. Bruckman;s.Leo McCarey, 1927)

The Runner Stumbles(Stanley Kramer, 1979)

Yushima no Shiraume(Romance at Yushima;Kinugasa Teinosukē, 1955)

David Harum(Allan Dwan, 1915)

The Virginian(Cecil B. DeMille, 1914)

Island in the Sky(William A. Wellman, 1953)

All About Eve(Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)

L’Eclisse(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)

The Roaring Twenties(Raoul Walsh, 1939)

The Plainsman(Cecil B. DeMille, 1936)

JLG/JLG-Autoportrait de décembre(Jean-Luc Godard, 1994)

‘Je vous salue, Marie’(Hail Mary;Jean-Luc Godard, 1984)

La Roue(Abel Gance, 1923)

They All Laughed(Peter Bogdanovich, 1981)

Innocent Blood(John Landis, 1992)

An American Werewolf in London(John Landis, 1981)

The Thing Called Love(Peter Bogdanovich, 1993)

Into the Night(John Landis, 1985)

The File On Thelma Jordon(Thelma Jordon;Robert Siodmak, 1949)

The Little American(Cecil B. DeMille, 1917)

In Our Time(Vincent Sherman, 1944)

The Hunters(Dick Powell, 1958)

Phase IV(Saul Bass, 1974)

L’Honneur d’un Capitaine(Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1982)

Backfire(Vincent Sherman, 1948//50)

Five(Arch Oboler, 1951)

Somewhere in the Night(Joseph L. Mankiewiz, 1946)

A Man Alone(Ray Milland, 1955)

Die Geiger von Florez(Paul Czinner, 1926)

Living on Velvet(Frank Borzage, 1934/5)

La Recta provincia(Raúl Ruiz, 2007//15)

La Noche de enfrente(Raúl Ruiz, 2012)

Carrie(Sister Carrie;William Wyler, 1951/2)

The Spiral Staircase(Robert Siodmak, 1945/6)

The Paradine Case(Alfred Hitchcock, 1947)

L’Amore(Una voce umana+Il Miracolo)(Roberto Rossellini, 1947/8)

The Heiress(William Wyler, 1949)

 F)     Very good movies watched again 

Bluebeard’s 10 Honeymoons(W.Lee Wilder, 1960)

The Five Pennies(Melville Shavelson, 1958)

Take a Letter, Darling(Mitchell Leisen, 1942)

Escape(Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1948)

Appassionatamente(Giacomo Gentilomo, 1954)

Así como habían sido(Trío)(Andrés Linares, 1986/7)

San Antone(Joseph Kane, 1953)

The High and the Mighty(William A. Wellman, 1954)

Taki no Shiraito(The Water Magician;Mizoguchi Kenji, 1933)

The Web(Michael Gordon, 1947)

The Buccaneer(Anthony Quinn;s.Cecil B. DeMille, 1958)

The Buccaneer(Cecil B. DeMille, 1938)

Desire Me(uncredited:George Cukor/Jack Conway/Mervyn LeRoy/Victor Saville, 1946)

Flaxy Martin(Richard L. Bare, 1948/9)

Swing High, Swing Low(Mitchell Leien, 1937)

Death Takes A Holiday(Mitchell Leisen, 1934)

Irene(Herbert Wilcox, 1940)

Beloved Enemy(H.C. Potter, 1936)

The Cowboy and the Lady(H.C. Potter, 1938)

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam(Paul Wegener, 1920)

Mia madre(Nanni Moretti, 2015)

Hell On Frisco Bay(Frank Tuttle, 1955)

Stormy Weather(Andrew L. Stone, 1943)

The Milky Way(Leo McCarey;w.Harold Lloyd, 1936)

Pietà per chi cade(Mario Costa, 1954)

Repeat Performance(Alfred L. Werker, 1947)

Das indische Grabmal:1.Die Sendung des Yoghi,2.Der Tiger von Eschnapur(Joe May, 1921)

Julie(Andrew L. Stone, 1956)

The Member of the Wedding(Fred Zinnemann, 1953)

Winterset(Alfred Santell, 1936)

The Right to Romance(Alfred Santell, 1933)

As Young as You Feel(Harmon Jones, 1951)

You’ll Never Get Rich(Sidney Lanfield, 1941)

The Woman Accused(Paul Sloane, 1933)

Foma Gordeiev(Mark Donskoí, 1959)

The Parent Trap(David Swift, 1961)

High Wall(Curtis Bernhardt, 1947)

Mr. Lucky(H.C. Potter, 1943)

Un Marido de Ida y Vuelta(Luis Lucia, 1957)

The Safecracker(Ray Milland, 1957/8)

She’s Funny That Way(Peter Bogdanovich, 2014)

Oh...Rosalinda!!(Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1955)

Caribbean(Edward Ludwig, 1952)

Harper(The Moving Target;Jack Smight, 1966)

For You I Die(John Reinhardt, 1947)

Crashing Hollywood(Lew Landers, 1937/8)

Le Souvenir d’un avenir(Chris. Marker & Yannick Bellon, 2001)

Susan Slept Here(Frank Tashlin, 1954)

Bishkanyar Deshot(In the Land of Poison Women;Manju Borah, 2019)

Pollyanna(David Swift, 1960)

A Tale of Two Cities(Jack Conway;collab.Val Lewton & Jacques Tourneur, 1935)

Café Society(Woody Allen, 2016)

Shadow on the Wall(Patrick Jackson, 1949/50)

Tonnerre(Guillaume Brac, 2013)

Le Jouet criminel(Adolfo G. Arrieta, 1969)

‘Once more, with feeling!’(Stanley Donen, 1959)

The Shopworn Angel(H.C. Potter, 1938)

The Absent Minded Professor(Robert Stevenson, 1961)

Gavaznha(The Deer;Masud Kimiai, 1974)

[todaynewsguru]

Jazz night, flea market, plays and more: here’s what’s happening in Ahmedabad this week

Jazz night, flea market, plays and more: here’s what’s happening in Ahmedabad this week

From a discussion on how data can be used, to a screening of Achal Mishra’s film “Dhuin”, here’s what’s in store for Ahmedabad this week! Event name: An Evening at Bucky – Jazz Night with Meera Desai QuartetAbout the Event: Singer-songwriter Meera Desai, born and raised in New York and currently based in Ahmedabad, will perform alongside her quartet, with Jazz Sethi on the bass, Harnish Joshi on…

[upsmagazine]

'The Village House' Review: A Family and the Walls That Enfold It

‘The Village House’ Review: A Family and the Walls That Enfold It

In “The Village House,” the four sides of the camera frame find beautiful, painterly pockets of space and time within the four walls of an ancestral home. Achal Mishra’s feature debut, set in Madhopur, a village in east India’s Bihar state, unfolds as a kind of autobiography — a decades-spanning portrait of the director’s family, drawn from childhood memories — and also a biography, of the abode…

[classyfoxdestiny]

Shankar's Fairies: The Indian Film that Wowed Locarno

Shankar's Fairies: The Indian Film that Wowed Locarno

‘My Nani passed away in January 2016 and the house belonged to her and my Nana.’ ‘After they passed away, the family decided to sell the house.’ ‘My mother’s immediate response was that we have to make a film in this house before it was sold.’

IMAGE: Irfana Majumdar with her mother Nita Kumar.

Revisiting childhood memories is a familiar theme that film-makers like to explore for the screen.

But it is not always easy to represent nostalgia with warmth, honesty and innocence of the time period, especially without an added dose of melodrama.

Irfana Majumdar‘s Shankar’s Fairies captures the childhood memories of the director’s mother, Nita Kumar, who wrote the script and produced the film.

It is a beautifully moving film, handled with much gentleness.

It is somewhat similar in tone and mood to the 2019 Maithili language film Gamak Ghar — a quiet story about Director Achal Mishra’s ancestral house in Jharkhand.

But Shankar’s Fairies has more layers and universal themes: The stories a domestic help Shankar shares with the kids of his employers; the larger narrative of domestic workers who leave their children in villages so they can take care of wealthy people’s homes and their offspring; parents who are busy with professional and social engagements and find little time to focus on their children; and the rhythm of life in a medium level Indian city in the early 1960s.

Majumdar also acts in the film, playing the role of her grandmother.

Theatre artist Gaurav Saini, who is married to the director, steps in as film’s associate director as well as Majumdar’s character’s husband — a senior police officer whose house is packed with a retinue of gardeners and other workers, including the film’s protagonist, Shankar.

Majumdar recently traveled to Switzerland for the film’s world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival.

The film was well received and Majumdar was stopped on the streets by local people who told the director how much they had loved the film.

“I think it was a great collaboration because we have distinct skills and areas of expertise. I don’t think I could have done it on my own,” Majumdar tells long-time Rediff.com Contributor Aseem Chhabra by phone.

  IMAGE: Jaihind Kumar as Shankar in Shankar’s Fairies.

Irfana, are you based in Mumbai?

No, I live just outside Benaras in a village called Betawar.

We have an organisation for arts, education and environment that my parents started in 1990. It’s called Nirman.

We have a theatre studio where we do projects.

Many years ago, I had a theatre group, but now we do our research and training.

There is a school, the first major project that began in 1990.

It’s a regular CBSE school but based on arts and ideas of the environment. I studied there between Class 5 and 10.

Then we have a research centre which had a study abroad programme.

Earlier, foreign students would come to attend lectures and seminars.

We have art studios.

I am mostly involved in theatre and film there, but I have taught in the school. I am still involved with the vision committee.

Your mother produced Shankar’s Fairies. I read that she was teaching in California. Was she based there?

She just retired from the Claremont McKenna College in California.

Her heart has always been in India but she has taught in the US for 30 plus years.

She would come twice a year to India and spend about five months.

IMAGE: Shankar and Anjana in Shankar’s Fairies.

What I find interesting is that you worked with your mother and husband to make this film. You and your husband acted in the film, while it was your mother’s story. Creatively, how did you guys work together and how many times would you argue in a day?

Well, we have collaborated in the past as well. My husband is also in theatre so we have similar roles. He is a director and teacher.

We have different areas of interest in theatre, but we have experience with each other’s working style.

My mother and I have collaborated in the operation of Nirman.

Creatively, this was our first major project, so it was new in that way. We enjoyed it.

I think it was a great collaboration because we have distinct skills and areas of expertise. I don’t think I could have done it on my own.

We would argue a lot. All of us have strong opinions.

During the four-five months of pre-production, we would have meetings all day where we would discuss the script.

My mother had written a draft of the screenplay and she also wrote a prose story.

The story was not set in stone in terms of the sequence of events.

She had all the different anecdotes and they could have gone in any direction.

If she liked a particular anecdote, we would go in depth into the themes behind it, how it connects to other things, the characters…

We would dissect each scene in figuring out what we were saying in the film.

That’s the time we perhaps had the most arguments, although I don’t even remember what they were about.

But would you have the final creative control since you were the director of the film?

That way, everyone was clear. During the shoot, I was the only one figuring out the scenes.

My mother stepped back and Gaurav was acting in the film.

It was a very low budget project so they did a lot of production related work during the shoot.

After that, during the post-production, I was the only one working on the film.

They watched the edits and gave feedback. But only I sat with the editor and worked it all out.

IMAGE: Shankar narrates a story to Anjana.

At what stage did your mother say that she had this idea for a film and script? Would she narrate her childhood memories to you?

It happened in a slightly different way. My Nani (maternal grandmother) passed away in January 2016 and the house belonged to her and my Nana.

It was his grandfather’s house and jointly owned by my Nana and his four brothers. But only my grandparents lived there.

After they passed away, the family decided to sell the house.

My mother’s immediate response was that we have to make a film in this house before it was sold.

It was the feeling of preserving an entire lifestyle and so many memories of her childhood.

Her way of life and our way of life is different. It was an important part of her.

It felt like it was coming to an end.

Making a film was a way to save that memory, freeze that time.

Where did Shankar’s stories come from? Does your mother remember these stories from her childhood?

The stories are ones we chose, not the actual ones from my mother’s childhood.

While he was staying with us, we asked the actor, who played Shankar (Jaihind Kumar), to read collections of folk tales.

He would re-tell them to us in the evenings, both to practice narrating stories and so that we could chose the ones we liked.

The djinn story was contributed by (journalist) Mehru Jaffer, who lives in Lucknow and writes about the city. It’s a story her father used to tell her.

Where is this house where the film was shot?

Lucknow. My mother didn’t grow up there since she was a daughter of a police officer and her father was posted to different locations, many different towns of UP. They moved to this place only after my grandfather retired.

All these houses had a similar feel. In a way, this was the house I grew up in because I spent so many summer vacations and other times there.

So it was an interesting mix of my memories of this house and my mother’s memories of her childhood.

Did you add anything to the house? That jhoola which features so prominently in the film, was it always there or you added it for the film?

There was a jhoola in my childhood. It was a common thing in those houses.

But the tree and the jhoola became a symbol for the film.

I see you have the jhoola in your DP in your WhatsApp account. It was just lovely hearing the story Shankar narrates about the fairies sitting on the jhoola and suddenly the camera takes us to the jhoola as is it gently moving. It is one of the most magical moments in the film.

IMAGE: Anjana on the jhoola in Shankar’s Fairies.

Irfana, you had made a few documentaries. But as a first-time feature film-maker, how did you capture the essence of a quiet home? The opening scenes of the sun rising, the workers are sweeping the grounds around the house, the house slowly waking up. I understand a lot of that quiet tone comes through editing. But how did you get it cinematically? You can write memories in books but to bring them in cinema requires a different skill set.

For us, the house was the essential element of the film. The physical feel was always very important.

It was all part of my memories — waking up, seeing the light streaming in from the ventilators, the high ceilings, days when time stretched on, being outside and inside, all those feelings.

So when I was trying to think of how the look of the house should be, all these memories were at the forefront of my decision making.

The characters are placed in that context. I always wanted that visual layer.

Since you know the feeling you are going for, you keep adjusting the elements to get to that.

You cannot plan it in advance but you fine-tune and make minor adjustments during the shoot.

I know theatre is a very different medium but my training in theatre and my experience in different arts and other aesthetics — all of that contributed to the feel and the mood of the film.

We worked so much with the space, what the audience should experience.

Besides you and your husband, how did you cast the three main actors: The man who played Shankar and the young girl and boy?

Jaihind Kumar is an actor in Mumbai. He has played minor roles so far.

He is a friend of my husband from his film and theatre days in Mumbai. He came for the audition.

My husband was very sure about him. We spent quite a lot of time working with him.

He came to Lucknow and stayed with us in the house for three months.

Initially, we didn’t tell anyone that he’s the lead actor, so he worked as the servant of the house and stayed in Shankar’s room which you see in the film.

We don’t always follow such a method, but with him, we thought he should experience the character more intensely.

Every day, the three of us would do some acting exercises for a couple of hours.

He had to be familiar with everything he had to do.

The essence of Shankar is that he is very skilled as a domestic help.

So the poor thing, he played the lead role and he couldn’t stay in a five-star hotel.

Ya (laughs).

When I read that Gaurav and you are married, I began to believe that those two kids are your children.

(Laughs) Many people have thought that. We did workshops in a few schools in Lucknow.

My husband works a lot with children in theatre, age three onwards, and so he conducted them mostly.

The girls we liked, we would invite them, play and interact with them.

The moment we chose this young girl (Shreeja Mishra) was when Gaurav was telling them a story about fairies and she was listening.

You could see it in her eyes that she half believed it.

We just wanted this child to be at the cusp, still believing in fairies, not losing the innocence.

Some of the other girls were good. but they were past that innocence stage.

We worked a lot with her. She would come over almost every day after school.

How old was she when you were shooting?

She was nine years old.

The relationship and comfort she had with Shankar, even though she knew she was acting, seemed so natural. You start to believe that she and the little boy have known this man in real life. I guess you did a lot of workshops with the three of them.

Yes. The little boy (Adwik Mathur) was only four at that time.

He was more reserved.

We wanted them both to develop a relationship with Shankar and us.

Shreeja is very talented. Even I am blown away by the expressions in her eyes.

I am so impressed with how much you achieved so much in such a low budget. There is something so unique in the narrative. I was reminded of Kabuliwala. Did you think of stories like that?

In the beginning, I didn’t think of the influences.

We were wrapped in the project and the enormity of it.

It was the first narrative film I was working on.

Later I realised that there were many sources to pull from.

Of course, there is the training in film-making, but all your experiences and reading also influence your thought.

It’s better not to be too concrete about things you are drawing from and allow for it to go through your less conscious intuitions.

I saw the video of the making of the film. You shot it in 2016. I saw the work-in-progress cut of the film at NFDC’s Film Bazaar in 2019 and then the pandemic ruined everyone’s lives. But you have been with this film for a very long time.

We cheated a little bit. The idea of the film suddenly came to us, but we had other plans and projects as well.

Right after the film was shot, we went off on a theatre tour.

Then my husband and I had a baby.

So I got back to the film in the beginning of 2019. That’s when I worked on the edit.

Our German editor left last year because of the pandemic, even though it was going very well.

So I made another edit for last year’s Cannes market. I worked with Tanushree Das (Eeb Allay Ooo) to edit the final cut.

It was a lot of getting into the film and then leaving it a few times. In a way, that helped me.

We had scripted the film, but it wasn’t plot driven and set in stone.

It allowed me the time to think about what we were trying to do.

You dedicate the film to Shankar. Was that the real person’s name? Is he still alive?

Shankar’s is the only name we didn’t change, so yes, there was a real Shankar. He passed away in 1988.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com

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From the poster of Gamak Ghar (2019), dir. Achal Mishra

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Farmers get wings to cultivate Achal Mishra http://www.headlineenglish.com/states-news/farmers-get-wings-to-cultivate-achal-mishra/?feed_id=46754&_unique_id=5ff29b13c51fe

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Gamak Ghar movie review: Achal Mishra's Maithli-language film, streaming on Mubi, is a love letter to 'home'

Gamak Ghar movie review: Achal Mishra’s Maithli-language film, streaming on Mubi, is a love letter to ‘home’

Home is the ultimate sanctuary — it is the place where we seek comfort after the day’s hard work, assured that its secure walls and doors will keep us shielded from all the adversities lurking in the world outside. Achal Mishra’s film Gamak Ghar is an ode a fond letter to the sanctuary that once was.

Spread over three decades, Gamak Ghar is a part-autobiographical, part-observational drama that…

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Mumbai, Achal Mishra