We can block out external noise, but how does one wipe out the voices inside the head?” This dialogue in the short film, titled Azaad, is an expression of writer-director Rahul Chittella’s interpretation of the word shor, the theme of Shor se Shuruaat, a collection of seven short films. “When the producers, Humaara Movies, suggested the theme, I didn’t want to work with the idea of external noise, which would have been too literal an interpretation,” says Chittella.
Azaad, as part of the ensemble, was screened at the Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival earlier this year and is set to release in the theatres on December 16. Chittella’s 30-minute short, presented by Mira Nair, will also have two independent screenings in Mumbai on December 13, at Khar antiSOCIAL. The screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Chittella tells the story of the shor in one’s head, through a fictional journalist, Vinod Durge (Atul Kulkarni), who goes by the pen name Azaad, and his 20-something son (Siddharth Menon). The film focusses on the turbulent relationship between the father and the son that unfolds over 48 hours after Azaad goes missing.
Chittella says that, while he touches upon the possible dangers of being a fearless journalist in today’s times, the socio-political set-up was not conscious, but entered seamlessly as he wrote the film. “The story, to me, was always the father-son relationship. There is a phase that every boy of a certain age goes through. It’s also the theme of my feature, which I have been developing with Mira Nair,” says Chittella, who has been assisting Nair for many years.
The short shifts gears as it goes from being a drama to a suspense to a thriller and back. Chittella explains that he was able to keep the genre flexible by limiting the time frame in which the story unfolds, that is, 48 hours, and using the non-linear narrative.
He also employs several devices for storytelling, from flashbacks to telling a story within the story via a documentary and intercutting. “When one thinks of short film on a small budget, most people imagine that it should be shot indoors and focus on a specific episode. To break that monotony, I wrote a full-fledged story — but one that ends in half an hour,” says Chittella.