First Punjabi film to make it to an international Film Festival of great repute

Anhey Gorhey da Daan ਅੰਨ੍ੇ ਘੋੜੇ ਦਾ ਦਾਨ (Alms of the Blind Horse) a film in Punjabi directed by Gurvinder Singh and based on the novel of the same title on the so-called Dalit theme by Gurdial Singh has been selected for the 68th Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica - Venice International Film Festival - to be held from 31st August 2011 to 10th September 2011. This is the first Punjabi film to make it to an international Film Festival of great repute and that too in the Competition section. This is indeed a proud day for Punjab.

The film produced by the Indian National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) was shot in Bathinda earlier this year. It has all non-professional local Punjabi cast except the one main role played by Samuel John of Patiala.

Samuel John who plays the main role of Melu. Photos by Sunayna Singh

Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan / Alms of the Blind Horse

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. Father, a silent sympathiser, joins the community in demand for justice. The same day, his son Melu, a 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.

Emmanuel Singh and Kulwinder Kaur. Film Still. Anhey Gorhey. 2011.

 

Emmanuel Singh and Kulwinder Kaur

Serbjeet Kaur as Dayalo

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, 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.

Gurvinder Singh Gurdial Singh. Photo by Subhash Parihar

Director’s Biography:

Graduated from Delhi University in 1995, worked briefly as a graphic artist in advertising before post graduating from Pune University. Went on to study film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, graduating in 2001. Documented subaltern folk music in Punjab from 2002 to 2006. Made documentaries on the arts for the next few years, besides painting and cooking. Anhey Ghorhey da Daan is his first feature film. Currently living in Pune.

Cast & Crew

Main 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

Mal Singh as father in front of the house that was constructed and demolished for the shoot