A Potpourri of Vestiges Feature
Whenever one talks of independent filmmaking in India the first name that comes to mind is Onir. In 2005, Onir shot to fame with a gem of a film called ‘My Brother… Nikhil’ whose critical success inspired many other filmmakers to take the indie route. Over the next few years Onir continued to experiment with films like ‘Bas Ek Pal’ and ‘Sorry Bhai!’ before finally making the highly acclaimed ‘I Am’ in the year 2011 which won him the prestigious National Award. When Onir realized that getting the funding for ‘I Am’ wasn’t going to be easy he chose to explore the crowd funding channel, once again showing others the way.
Onir is the only openly gay filmmaker in the industry. His films have always touched upon debates surrounding sexuality in a most sensitive manner. While ‘My Brother… Nikhil’ focuses on the issue of hardship and humiliation faced by AIDS patients, ‘Bas Ek Pal’ deals with the complexity of human relationships.’ I Am’, on the other hand, is a collection of four short stories exploring themes as diverse as motherhood, homosexuality, and child abuse. In Onir’s own words, “I Am explores about identities at various levels. It's also about my identity as a filmmaker. It is the first film in South Asia which is made through social networking, crowd funding and crowd sourcing, and it becomes an important statement as a filmmaker.”
Over the years, Onir’s films have traveled all across the globe, winning prestigious awards at River to River Film Festival (Florence), Milan International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, London Asian Film Festival, Montreal (Image+ Nation film festival), International Film Festival of Kerala, etc. Onir’s production banner Anticlock Films, a company started by Onir and actor Sanjay Suri, is committed to promoting young talent such as Bikas Ranjan Mishra whose award-winning directorial debut Chauranga was funded by Onir and Suri.
After a 6 year hiatus (not counting the 2016 documentary ‘Raising the Bar’), Onir is finally coming out with a new offering titled ‘Shab’ starring Raveena Tandon, Ashish Bisht, and Arpita Chatterjee in the pivotal roles. The film’s trailer was recently released and by the looks of it, Shab comes across as a modern tale of romance involving four individuals, high on passion, brought together by destiny as they are forced to choose between their love and ambition. The film is shot by Sachin K. Krishn and is based on a screenplay by Merle Kroger and Onir himself. Shab was slated to release on 30 June 2017 but the release date has been postponed to July 14 2017.
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated!
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated!
Shab - Official Trailer
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