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Journalism of Courage
Living alone in a big city comes with its own set of challenges. In Farhad Dehlvi’s directorial debut Seher Hone Tak, an old lady who lives by herself relies on her daily routine to be her sole companion. “Something about the big city becomes your surrogate family. I wanted to show how a person can become dependant on the seemingly mundane activities of daily life,” says Dehlvi.
The US-based filmmaker premiered the 13-minute film at the Cannes Film festival in the Short Film Corner. The story unfolds in a two-bedroom high-rise Mumbai apartment and looks at the routine of an old lady whose day passes by in activities such as answering the door for the vegetable seller, dhobi, garbage man and a phone conversation with her son in the afternoon. She lives alone and has nothing to look forward to during the day. But when there is a power cut in the apartment, her routine gets disrupted and she becomes visibly distraught and restless. As the door bell stops working, none of the regular visitors come to the apartment anymore. “We are so tied to our routine that when there is a lag in it, we get disturbed,” says Dehlvi, 27, who cast his grandmother Sakina Mehta for the part of the old lady.
Born and brought up in Delhi, the filmmaker comes from a family of creative people. His mother is well-known costume designer Himani Dehlvi while his father worked as a producer for private television networks. “My family has helped me to create images and to see the world differently. They always said that anything you create should be emotionally truthful,” he says.
debesh.banerjee@expressindia.com
