Die Another Day

Tank,who opened his company Dream Cuts in 2000,after about three years in advertising,made audio-visual corporate films and documentaries before he started working on the script of Madholal Keep Walking in 2008. The film was shot in Mumbai over 27 days. Even though Tank approached well-known actors like Irrfan Khan,he had to eventually settle for Subrat Dutta,an actor from Bengal and an alumnus of the National School of Drama (NSD) to play the lead. Several of the other members of the cast are also from the NSD. “I needed new people with whom the audience could relate to. The characters in the film live in chawls and travel in local trains. I couldn’t approach very well-known actors as they would have overshadowed the characters. Besides,logistically it would have been cumbersome,” says Tank,who funded the film himself.

Tank’s faith in Dutta was justified when he went on to win the best actor award at the Cairo International Film Festival,where the film was screened last year. “My character Madholal,could be anyone of us. He is a happy man with a small family and modest dreams. He lives in a small house,and has no real economic power. It is after an accident that leaves him handicapped,that he begins to fear life. The film traces the struggle within himself,and is a story of how he gets back on track,” says Dutta,who missed receiving the award in person in Cairo as he was shooting near the Bangladesh border for another film.

The film has already been screened at various festivals around the globe,including the ones at Atlanta,Sao Paulo,Singapore and at the Osian’s Film Festival in 2009 and has received appreciation from critics. Tank is now looking forward to the India release on August 27. “Our effort was to showcase a story about confronting the fear of death with the help of family and friends,” he says. “It is about a poor man,but it is not about poverty. It is about how one can overcome obstacles and follow one’s dreams,” adds Dutta.

Madholal Keep Walking hits theatres August 27.

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