Produced by NFDC and directed by debutant Gurvinder Singh, Punjabi film Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse) will be released by PVR Director’s Rare on August 10.
It will have theatrical release in Delhi, Mumbai, Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Ludhiana.
Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan was selected in the Orizzonti Section (which showcases ‘New Trends in World Cinema’) of Venice International Film festival, 2011. After this the film was showcased at the 55th British Film Institute, London Film Festival, and the Busan International Film Festival. The film won the Special Jury Mention and the Black Pearl Trophy at the 5th Abu Dhabi Film Festival and the Special Jury Award at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam for its lyrical and scenic narration.
It also bagged three National Awards – for Best Direction, Cinematography and for Best Feature Film in Punjabi.
And here’s the official synopsis…
On a foggy winter morning a family in a village in Punjab wakes up to the news of the demolition of a house on the outskirts of the village. The father, a silent sympathizer, joins the community in demand for justice for the affected family. The same day his son Melu, a cycle-rickshaw puller rickshaw puller in the city, is participating in a strike by his union. Injured and alienated, Melu spends the day quietly resting and hesitantly drinks with friends in the night as they debate the meaning of their existence.
Cycling through the city streets, Melu feels lost and wonders where to go and what to do. Back in the village, his mother feels humiliated at the treatment meted out by the landlords in whose fields she works. Gunshots are heard in the night and the village is tense. It’s the night of the lunar eclipse. A man wanders asking for the traditional alms while Father decides to visit the city with a friend, even as his daughter Dayalo walks through the village streets in the night.
Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan speaks about the margins where the socially repressed and exploited have been conveniently cast away. This is also a film about the signs of simmering fire and about cleft tongues that want to rise in unison, about the possibility of inchoate desire and the first cry of love.
And the Director’s comment…
The human face is a landscape. The lived reality of the face reflects time: endured, lived and suffered. Cinema unravels time through the movement in space. The visible evokes the invisible through relationships, contexts, gestures, and conflicts. There is the immediate invisible, off screen: the image confronting sound, space confronting space, time confronting time. Then there is the larger cosmic invisible, devoid of cause and effect paradigm, layered through centuries.
Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan tries to evoke the effect of years of subordination of the struggling classes reflected in the macrocosm of events spinning beyond their control. It’s about silent witnesses devoid of power to change or influence the course of destiny, about the invisible violence of power equation and simmering discontent reflected on their faces.
The cast & crew list…
Cast: Mal Singh, Samuel John, Serbjeet Kaur, Dharminder Kaur, Emmanuel Singh, Kulwinder Kaur, Lakha Singh, Gurvinder Makhna
Script & Direction: Gurvinder Singh
Story: Gurdial Singh (based on the novel of the same name)
Dialogues: Gurdial Singh, Jasdeep Singh
Music: Catherine Lamb
Camera: Satya Rai Nagpaul
Sound: Mandar Kulkarni
Editing: Ujjwal Chandra
Production Design: Pankaj Dhimaan
Line Producer: Kartikeya Narayan Singh
Executive Producers: Neena Lath Gupta & Vikramjit Roy
Creative Producer: Mani Kaul
Producer: National Film Development Corporation Limited
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 