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New Delhi: Filmmaker Kanu Bahl says Manoj Bajpayee starrer ‘Dispatch’ is an attempt to understand the modern world that is becoming more ‘opaque and bleak’ with the growing disparity between the rich and the poor.
The film, which premiered at the recently concluded MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, revolves around Joy Bag, a Mumbai-based crime journalist who is going through a mid-life crisis and facing an existential threat from digitalization . He becomes embroiled in an increasingly suspicious case involving corporate-political nexus, which if exposed, could shake the foundation of the city.
Inspired by real characters from the world of journalism, “Dispatch” began taking shape in 2016, said Bahl, who is known for tough stories like “Titli” and “Agra”.
Filmmaker and co-writer Ishani Banerjee was not interested in portraying the journalists as “cardboard cut-out type characters” who are out to create a story for the greater good.
“We dived into this rabbit hole of research where, over the next year and a half, we met a lot of journalists, lawyers, sharpshooters, underworld people. The more we researched, we realized that something strange was happening.
“The modern world we live in today is becoming so opaque and so bleak that now, as the gap between rich and poor grows and as the rich have more and more power, You can’t even know who is doing what and for what reason,” Bahl told PTI.
The 44-year-old filmmaker said that as a writer, the impulse is to find a clear story but the truth that was emerging from his research was different.
“And we thought, how interesting is that? Because we’re looking at a scenario where we want to make a film about a journalist who is looking for something, but it’s not even possible to figure out what he’s looking for. And it became really exciting because it gave us a chance to do a very subversive film.”
With Bajpayee being the perfect medium to convey the complexities of the story he was telling, Bahl said he was keen to create a characterization about journalists with “all their foibles and weaknesses”, as well as the world’s Were also trying to reflect the truth.
Bahl, a graduate of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, started his filmmaking career with Dibakar Banerjee’s “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!” As an assistant director. and then co-wrote the critically acclaimed “Love Sex Aur Dhokha” with Banerjee, in addition to serving as chief assistant director on the project.
His first feature film “Titli”, about a car-jacking gang in Delhi, was selected in the Without Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival. “Agra”, about a sexually repressed man, was part of the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes.
Although he does not want to limit himself to making a particular kind of cinema, Bahl said that films are a way to explore the reality around him.
“I’m interested in exploring people on the margins of society because there are so many filmmakers who are making happy films and telling those kinds of stories. But for me, cinema is an opportunity to have a conversation. It’s an opportunity to have a conversation.” The opportunity is for people who may not have the ability themselves to powerfully articulate what they’re struggling with.”
That’s why the central hero of “Dispatches” is a crime journalist who descends darkly into the proverbial rabbit hole of lust, greed and rampant corruption.
“Almost all crime journalists work on the margins. You get to see a lot of disenfranchised people at the crime scene and it’s a very interesting area because you get to see the collusion of those who are in power and those who are powerless.
“It’s an area that’s rich with the kind of tapestries that you can create, that can bring a lot of ironies. And they’re rich with possibilities for having a cohesive idea of the structures of the world in which we live, socially, politically. living and cultural.”
When Bajpayee, who has found the right balance between commercial projects and independent cinema over the years, agreed to the project, Bahl said he felt as if he had “hit the jackpot”.
“He is one of the very few actors who has had an illustrious career of over 30 years, every morning when he walks on the set to play a new character, he acts like a first-time artiste. There was no other actor who was like playing this better.
“I just recently told him that he is using his power to empower more voices. And not just him, every associate on this film, be it Zee where the film will eventually release, Ronnie Screwvala Those who created it … there is a segment within every industry that has always been interested in great cinema and strong voices.”
Are there any costs to making independent films?
Bahl said that it can be frustrating at times but it is a struggle that every filmmaker goes through.
“Anybody who’s interested in what they’re doing, I think it’s not just filmmakers, but anybody who’s really interested in what they’re doing and is willing to go down that path. “He’s going to face his share of challenges and that’s part of the process. It’s part of the fun of loving what you do.”
Starring Shahana Goswami, “Dispatch” will soon premiere on streaming service ZEE5.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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