Gurvinder Singh’s debut feature film Anhey Ghorey da daan screened to a full house in Abu Dhabi. It was the third public screening of the film after its world premiere at Venice quickly followed by the Asian premiere at Busan International film Festival in South Korea. A day after Abu Dhabi, the film had a screening at BFI London Film Festival. It’s scheduled to travel to Hong Kong Asian Film Festival and South Asian International Film Festival in New York.

Anhey Ghore da daan, an adaption of Gurdial Singh’s Punjabi novel of the same title is produced by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). The film captures the helplessness of dalits in a Punjab village where the landlord has sold his plot to make way for an industry. Bikas Mishra had a conversation with the director in Abu Dhabi.

How faithful you’ve been to the original story?

I’ve been fairly faithful. Of course, I’ve adapted it for the medium of cinema. In literature you have more scope of elaboration and vivid description. What could run into pages in literature could simply be a shot in the film. I’m more interested in images and sound and a dialogue between them.

I have my own process of cinematic adaption. It works almost like a documentary. I reconstruct the space, the setting, characters and observe them from a distance.

You had a very definite idea of the style of the film before you started shooting?

I was confused for first two or three days. Gradually, things got clearer. Instead of creating a mise en scene, I’m more interested in isolating the elements–sound, images and dialogues. The way these elements conflict or come together– that’s cinema for me.

For me the beauty of film-making lies in the process of filmmaking. It’s like expressionist painting, not like illustration. You don’t know what will come out of it. If I know it already, it’ll get boring and lifeless.

Sound plays an important role in your film.

Sound is very important for me. For me a scene works only when the sound works for it. When I think of a scene, I think of sound first. Sound design begins on the edit table itself. When my film is edited, it means the sound is ready as well.

How has the experience of working with NFDC been?

It has been really nice. Since I was a debut director, they asked me if I would like to have a creative producer. They happily agreed once I suggested them Mani Kaul’s name. They never interfered with the creative process and gave me complete freedom to make my own film, the way I saw it.

What have you been doing before making this film?

I’ve been documenting and researching on the folk ballads of rural Punjab. It was during this project that I came face to face with the rural reality of Punjab. I discovered how landless dalits live marginalized lives.

Dalits in Punjab live in ghettos called veda and though they are formally a part of Sikh faith, they still worship non-Sikh saints. The most popular among them is Lakhdata Peer, one of the first Sufi saints who ventured into Punjab.

Unlike the popular image shown by Bollywood, Punjab has a substantial population of dalits, who are landless and are widely discriminated against.

When did you read the story?

I had read a Hindi translation of the story while I was a student at the film institute. It opened up a whole lot of cinematic possibility in front of me. I couldn’t read the original Punjabi story as I didn’t know how to read Gurmukhi. (I learnt it later)

Have you started working on your next project?

I’ve completed my next script and will soon start looking for a producer. It’s set in the year 1984 post operation Blue Star. It will capture the lives of ordinary people who got caught between the violence of the state and the militants.

When will the film release, any information that you can share on distribution?

I’ve made the film and it has gone out of my hands. Though distribution is a big racket that makes it difficult for the independent filmmakers to reach out to their audience, but I’m sure that there is enough space for all kinds of films. After the screening here, a few Pakistanis came and told me that they liked the film and I’ve shown the true picture of a Punjab village.

What do you think of Indian independent cinema?

Today, national cinema plays an important role in forming national identity. National cinemas deal with reality of the nation in truer ways. Bollywood isn’t our identity as it doesn’t represent us truly. There is definitely a more vibrant independent film culture in India.

Can you tell us about your association with Mani Kaul?

When Mani Kaul returned to India in 2005, he offered me to become his teaching assistant. I had already translated a series of his interviews to Udayan Bajpai titled “Abhed Akash”. The workshop with Mani was truly an eye opener and this is when I thought my film education got completed. While a student in FTII, I had walked out of his film “Uski Roti”. But gradually I developed a fondness with his work and started identifying with his vision of cinema.