Wedding Blues

At times,marriages are made by gun-totting goons. As in Bihar of the 1980s,when eligible young men would be kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to marry girls that the gunmen had chosen.

At times,marriages are made by gun-totting goons. As in Bihar of the 1980s,when eligible young men would be kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to marry girls that the gunmen had chosen. The issue has been explored in a forthcoming film called Antardwand,which won the best social film award at the 55th National Film Awards .

Says first-time director Sushil Rajpal,My friends first cousin was married off in this way by his relatives. I heard his story during my college days in Delhi,and it left me shocked and intrigued. But each time I narrated this story to friends,they would have a good laugh. I decided that I needed to communicate the story to a wider audience. The film will release this Friday,three years after it was made. Not many distributors are willing to promote such issue-based films, says Rajpal,46,who has also produced the film.

Rajpal,himself is from Bihar. In the 1980s,he came to Delhi to study history at Hansraj College. A cinematographer who graduated from FTII,Pune,Rajpal has been working on TV commercials for more than two decades and prefers visualising scenes behind the camera to directing. In 2007,he decided to make the film on a whim and,within six months,his FTII batchmate,Amitabh Varma,had prepared the script. Rajpal borrowed from friends to raise the capital of Rs 1 crore.

The film,starring Vinay Pathak,Raj Singh Choudhary,Akhilendra Mishra and newcomer Swati Sen,revolves around Raghuveer (played by Choudhary),a Delhi University student who wants to become an IAS officer. The action picks up when he pays a visit to his parents in his hometown Barhiya in Bihar. Raghuveer has no clue that a zealous father looking for a prospective IAS groom for his daughter now has him on the radar. When he is leaving for Delhi,Raghuveer is abducted and forced into a marriage he did not want. Today,this man has run away from his wife. He has become a lawyer and,for the past 28 years,has been fighting his own legal battle, explains Rajpal,adding that 90 percent of the film is a true story. The film was shot in Muzzafarpur,Bihar,in a span of one month and incorporates elements of local wedding customs. Making the film was not the hardest part. But I didnt have enough money at hand to get the prints of the film ready. I still have to write out cheques to my friends.

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