Life in a Metro

ID follows the efforts of Charu,the film’s protagonist,to trace the roots of a man without a name,and thus tackling the issue of migrant labourers in big cities and the problem of displacement in Mumbai. “The process of making this film revealed unknown urban spaces to me. Our film crew traversed these spaces with Charu,engaging in the search for the identity of a nameless man,the one we were trying to place in the vast anonymity of the city,” says Kamal. The 87-minute film stars Geetanjali Thapa and Murari Kumar in lead roles.

Shot on a shoestring budget,the film is produced by Collective Phase One,a producers’ group that includes big names from the film industry,such as Oscar-winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty,cinematographer Rajeev Ravi,production designer Sunil Babu,editor B Ajithkumar and cinematographer Madhu Neelakandan. Almost all the cast and crew are from FTII.

Shot over 15 months,the film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival late last year and has been travelling across the globe,winning more than half-a-dozen awards that include the Lotus Best Film Award at Deauville Asian Film Festival. The filmmakers are now planning to release the film online and on television. “We are looking at all the avenues possible. Apart from screening at colleges and social organisations,we are in the middle of talks with Doordarshan for a television release,” says Kamal.

The director,who shuttles between Mumbai and his hometown in Kerala,seems to have come a full circle,as his next project When Mirza Comes Back has been chosen among 30 other projects selected for the Asian Project Market (APM),held alongside the Busan International Film Festival. The film,which is set in Kashmir,is the only Indian project selected for the APM that provides a platform for promising directors and producers of Asia to meet with co-producers or financiers. The APM will be held in October,says Kamal.