MUMBAI | Mor Mann Ke Bharam, a Chhattisgarhi feature film, directed by Karma Takapa, Heer Ganjwala and Abhishek Varma has been selected for competition in the India Gold section of the 17th edition of the prestigious Mumbai Film Festival, organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI). The festival will take place between 29th October and 5th November 2015.
The film is produced by HumanTrail Pictures and Viren Jain (Anand BEC Fertilizers, Bhilai) in association with IPTA Raigarh. It will have its World Premiere in Mumbai during the festival. The film has been chosen amongst more than 200 other films submitted to the film festival and is among the 14 films competing for the coveted ‘Gateway of India’ award at the festival.
Completely shot in Raigarh town of the Chhattisgarh state, it is a collaboration of cast from the local theatre group, IPTA Raigarh and its members and the crew from different parts of the country who have recently graduated from the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Usha Athaley, Ajay Athaley, Karma P Takapa, Mona Ganjwala, Vinit Ganjwala, Abhishek Varma and Renu Agrawal have jointly co-produced the film.
Mor Mann Ke Bharam is a story of an author’s struggle between what he wants to write and what others might want to read culminates into a surrealist novel. This film is the debut of the directors and the crew – Sonu (Cinematographer), Anadi Athaley (Editor) and Ankur Chaudhary (Sound Designer) – all of whom have graduated with the batch of 2009 in their respective fields from the FTII. Akash Tripathy and Sumit Mittal, from the theatre group, have been part of the supporting crew.
Besides the crew, this is also the debut film for most of the cast. The main cast includes Ramesh Pani, Aparnaa, Yuvraj Singh Azad and Tinku Devangan. They have been associated with IPTA Raigarh over the last two decades. Netram Yadav, Vinod Bohidar, Ajay Athaley, Bharat Nishad, Kuldeep Das, Surendra Bareth, Vivekanand Pradhan, Shyam Devkar, Alok Beriya, Tony Chawda, Komal Thakkar, Kathil Painkra, Prem Shankar, Prem Shankar Mishra, Yash Gehlot and Poyam Singh have been part of the supporting cast of this film. Chandradeep Kuldeep has composed the background score, Rajkumari Kuldeep and Sugita Padihari Das have sung the songs for the film.
The film has been made possible with unconditional love and support from the people of Raigarh. This film is a unique collaboration between different artists from different fields from Chhattisgarh and other parts of the country. It features four different folk songs of Chhattisgarh, in their original form and uses local motifs embedded in Chhattisgarhi culture that have not found space on the big screen till date. The film will release statewide in the near future.
ABOUT HUMANTRAIL PICTURES
HumanTrail Pictures is a production company based in Mumbai. It is a collaboration between some alumni from FTII from different specializations. Our aim is to explore newer business models to make the underrepresented genres of films accessible to the audience who want to watch different cinema but do not otherwise have any access to it. We also aim to diversify and highlight local cultures of different parts of India, which remain largely unexplored.
DIRECTORS
ABHISHEK VARMA
Abhishek is an independent filmmaker based out of Noida. He has been trained in film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, India. Prior to joining the film institute, he worked in IT consulting. Abhishek also has an MBA from IIM, Lucknow.
HEER GANJWALA
Heer, born and brought up in Mumbai, has been trained in film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, India. Prior to joining the film institute, she has worked with Sagar Ballary, as an assistant, on the film Kaccha Limbu and Bheja Fry 2. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media from the Mumbai University.
KARMA TAKAPA
Karma, born in Gangtok, Sikkim, has been trained in film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, India. He also holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi. He has worked with Indian Express as a reporter prior to joining the film institute. He has also worked with Kamal K M, for his film, I.D., as an actor and assistant.
