2 hours ago
1
Even though 'Pooja, Sir' talks astir protests and discrimination, Deepak Rauniyar says their nonsubjective was not to marque an aggravated film.
Drawing heavy from the real-life incidents that took spot during the prolonged 2015 taste protests successful Nepal, Deepak Rauniyar-directed ‘Pooja, Sir’ opens with the kidnapping of 2 boys erstwhile they are retired playing shot connected the streets of its confederate borderline town. When detective inspector Pooja Thapa is sent from Kathmandu to lick the case, she finds herself successful the mediate of the convulsive protests against the government’s anti-Madhesi policy. As Pooja seeks assistance from Mamata, a section Madhesi policewoman, and tries to find the abducted boys, a thought-provoking communicative astir the mundane misogyny, favoritism and colourism unfolds.
Designed to beryllium a “thrilling constabulary procedural”, ‘Pooja, Sir’ volition beryllium screened during the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, being held till October 24, nether the South Asian Competition section. The movie is arsenic overmuch inspired by the governmental unrests and unit arsenic it is by the beingness that Rauniyar shares with his actor-wife Asha Magrati, who plays the film’s titular protagonist. “We came from 2 antithetic communities (Rauniyar is simply a Madhesi and Magrati a Pahadi). We thought if we don’t archer this story, nary 1 other would,” says Rauniyar and adds that actors often “blacken their face” to play Madhesi characters, who are the taxable of humour connected screen. The Madhesis, a number assemblage successful Nepal with roots successful India and Indian culture, are often judged for their darker complexion compared to the Pahadis who unrecorded successful the hilly regions.
Once they decided to archer this communicative of societal discrimination, some Rauniyar and Magrati wanted to acceptable the movie during the protests. Even though Rauniyar by commencement belonged to the Madhesi assemblage — who chiefly unrecorded successful confederate plains, adjacent to the India borderline — helium grew up successful the hills. He described his adulthood arsenic “comfortable” arsenic helium lived successful Kathmandu arsenic good arsenic erstwhile helium lived and traveled abroad. That was 1 of the reasons wherefore they wanted the communicative to beryllium “an outsider’s journey”. He says: “Given that the communicative is based connected Asha’s constituent of view, it was lone earthy that the main quality would beryllium female. We thought making her a constabulary serviceman would beryllium the best,” recounts Rauniyar, who treats his films arsenic a benignant of documentary.
During their research, they followed and interviewed constabulary officers of the aforesaid property radical arsenic the quality of Pooja. “We discovered that galore of them were queer. We recovered that precise absorbing and powerful. One officer, successful particular, became a cardinal fig successful our study. From 2016 to 2023, we met with her aggregate times and conducted respective interviews.” Says Rauniyar. He adds that Pooja’s quality is “a composite — reflecting Asha’s idiosyncratic beingness and relationships arsenic good arsenic the stories of the radical they interviewed”.
Watch ‘Pooja, Sir’ teaser here:
Rauniyar and Magrati, who person co-written the publication with David Barker, incorporated respective aspects of Pooja’s beingness including her being the caregiver for her begetter aft her brother’s nonaccomplishment successful the story. While preparing for the relation of Asha, Magrati got to cognize immoderate pistillate cops intimately and studied immoderate of their traits for her character. “While utilizing the washroom of a pistillate cop, I recovered her boxers hanging there. This bull was peculiar astir being called a ‘sir’. She utilized to bent retired with men and person a brew with them,” shares Magrati. The film’s rubric — Pooja, Sir — was inspired by that.
Even though the movie talks astir protests and discrimination, Rauniyar says their nonsubjective was not to marque an aggravated film. Instead, helium wanted the assemblage to empathise with the characters. “In South Asian movies, we hardly speech astir racism and colourism. We wanted to marque the movie much accessible and beryllium wide distributed. We are dealing with a delicate taxable and privation radical to person conversations astir it,” helium says.
‘Pooja, Sir’ manager Deepak Rauniyar.
Must Read | Santosh doesn’t constituent fingers. Instead, it asks a batch of questions: Director Sandhya Suri
They are hoping for a bigger merchandise this clip compared to their earlier films, Highway (2012) and White Sun (2016). Magrati says: “Cinema is simply a instrumentality to archer our communicative and what we privation to say. We bash person truthful galore stories to tell.”
During the making of Pooja, Sir, the mates faced respective unexpected challenges. The sprout was cancelled doubly — archetypal owed to the pandemic successful 2020, and then, successful 2022, erstwhile Magrati was diagnosed with 3 antithetic cancers wrong a month. “We had to relocate to New York for her treatment. As her attraction concluded successful April 2023, we chose to spell to Nepal and sprout the film… I was disquieted astir however Asha would cope, but her wellness held up,” Rauniyar shares.
18. Queer Lion Award | World Premiere | 𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐣𝐚, 𝐒𝐢𝐫 by Deepak Rauniyar
📸 © Marco Visca Studio
#QueerLion #QL18 #BiennaleCinema2024 #Orizzonti #PoojaSir #DeepakRauniyar #AshaMagrati #NikitaChandak #lgbtqia pic.twitter.com/w6pJETYNh0
— Queer Lion (@QueerLion) August 31, 2024
What was heartening that they recovered enactment from the locals. “They thanked america for making the film. I realised past that we were creating thing special,” says the director-writer.
The shows of Pooja, Sir scheduled astatine PVR, June connected October 20, 21 and 24. For details cheque mami.mumbaifilmfestival.com.
.png "indianexpress.")
.png "khaleejtimes")
.png "arabnews")
.png "gulfnews"){kind=logo}
English (US) · 
Hindi (IN) ·