Of emotional matters

Considering that this is an off-mainstream film, the audience and critic’s response has been quite good. My producers ShreeVenkatesh Films scrapped the idea of a star-studded premiere and press screening in favour of holding staggered screenings over one week through special invitations to the press and film fraternity. I think it is a novel idea, but one still has to wait for the results.

What is the film all about?

 Khaad is the story of 16 individuals whose bus meets with a major bus accident and are forced to spend the night in a deserted valley. In the wake of this accident, they forget their economic, social and spiritual backgrounds and are reduced to a homogenous group of men and women, which becomes their only identity. Free from the shackles of daily livelihood, they reveal their true selves, their darkest fears, strongest insecurities in that moonlit night. It is in the lap of nature that they understand the value of giving, friendship and life.

What triggered this unusual idea?

I frequently tour the hills of North Bengal and during these tours, the sight of an upturned car laying on one side of a narrow road, or a broken truck forgotten after an accident, perhaps offering a narrow escape to the people travelling in it, set me thinking— what must have happened to the survivors of this kind of accident? How did they cope or did they cope at all? For those who died, there is a definite closure. But for those who did not, it is always a gigantic inner struggle to pick up the debris and move on.

Have you been able to put forth the philosophy of your story?

That is for the audience to decide. Here, my philosophy was to use the word khaad (the fall) in two senses. One is the physical drop down to 500 feet below in the valley that is a no-exit situation. The other ‘fall’ is the ‘fall’ of the victims in an emotional and moral sense. How far a human being can ‘fall’ when placed in a life-threatening situation was what I wished to bring out. The real faces are revealed from behind the masks of civility and decency. They come out with hidden truths and secrets that show that they are not the people they pretend to be. Among them is a mentally-handicapped young man, brilliantly portrayed by Joydeep Ghosh who does not change. I think I have been able to realise this concept. But that is for the audience to judge.

How did you pick on the ensemble cast?

I was determined not to cast any top star with a strong public image in any of the 16 characters in my film, because I wanted the actors to blend into the characters and also into the film. I wanted good actors who would be ready and able to block their dates for the location shooting in the hills of Sikkim. They are all very talented actors though I have worked with some of them for the first time. The Catholic priest, portrayed by Ardhendu Banerjee, is like the conscience keeper of the entire group. It is an ensemble cast— veteran Lily Chakraborty, film-maker Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Masood Akhtar who plays a school teacher, Mimi Chakraborty and Shaheb Bhattacharya, a young couple on their honeymoon, Tridha Choudhury, a student studying fashion designing, Koushik Banerjee, a successful jatra actor with Pallavi Chatterjee as his wife with two small kids, Bharat Kaul, a doctor with his sister Tanushree Chakraborty, Gargi as a film actress to Rudraneel Ghosh in an important role of the bus conductor. I have played a small cameo too.