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Sunshine on Kargil...
Reality bytes in Ashwini Chaudhary's `Dhoop". Photo: S. Subramanium.
IT WAS Reality Bite, a Star News programme on S.K. Nair, an Army soldier, who died in Kargil War and all hell broke loose on his aging, ailing parents. Ashwini Chaudhary cried after witnessing the agony, pain, insult and emotional turmoil that his parents went through as also physical sufferings in running from run from pillar to post to get the petrol pump that the Government promised them after his death. Chaudhary was touched to the core, so much so that he decided to make the public know and feel the same. Hence, "Dhoop" was born from the pen of Ashwini Chaudhary, the 37-year-old director of the film that stars Revathy and Om Puri as the parents and Sanjay Suri as the Army officer with Gul Panag as his girl. Ashwani was in New Delhi the other day to shoot for the film.
"I could not stop my tears when I watched this reality bite. For days I remained upset. I had lost my sleep and hunger. The only way I could find to relieve myself was to turn it into a film and show it to the world," says this winner of National Award for his debut film "Laado".
Why did he choose Revathy and Om Puri for the lead? "I had been a great fan of Revathy since my childhood. Moreover she is a remarkable actress and I could only think of Om Puri for reasons of his age and his performances that he has given in some films that portray the same age. I think no one can do what he is capable of."
Has he fictionalised some facts in the film? "Absolutely not. It is just that I made it a little dramatic with the use of music and songs I think it is a necessity to sell a film," he says.
An experimental film? "No," he laughs and he has no target audience either. "I have given such a treatment to the film that people from all age group can come to watch it because patriotism and emotions have no barrier of age or religion."
Ashwini's next film is going to be on cross-culture theme based on people living in Scotland in which a man becomes a part of the system he lives in but his emotions remain the same. He is all for his motherland. "I have seen Indians living in different countries, but their hearts beat for India, whatever language they speak or however they live - that is the theme of my next film. I have not decided the leads yet," he says.
"Dhoop" is going to be opened in Cannes Film Festival and would see its release in India in September this year.
RANA A. SIDDIQUI
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