Tanuja Chandra's 'Hope and a Little Sugar' screened at IFFI

Panaji, Nov 30 (UNI) Bringing a South Asian's perspective to the events surrounding 9/11, Tanuja Chandra's 'Hope and a Little Sugar' premiered at the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here today explores an array of emotions that emerged in its wake -loss, grief, rage, prejudice and the need to carry on living.

Talking to reporters after the screening, Chandra said she was against holding people's religion or race against them and everybody is a victim of violence in the end.

"Even in the film, Anupam Kher's character starts hating Amit Sial who plays a Muslim because his (Kher) son is killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack. But Kher himself is target of a hate crime by local Americans because of his turban and beard. The subject of the film was very close to my heart and I am fortunate to have met producers who did not ask me to compromise on my creativity," she added.

There is no geographical boundary to experience love or hate feeling for another person. "I was a television journalist when the Mumbai riots took place in 1993 and I have been witness to the rise in the incidence of hate crimes in U.S following 9/11," she said.

Mahima Chaudhry, who plays the female lead in the film, said films can raise issues but cannot change the world. She said she was fortunate to be part of a film where the story was more powerful than performances.

Producer Glen Russow, who is also the script writer of the film along with Chandra, said he and Scott Pardo were looking for a gripping story and compelling characters and when they got Chandra's story online, they contacted her. "We were in New York when 9/11 happened and we wanted a story to express it through the eyes of an outsider living in the United States. The film is a unique cinematic response to 9/11," he added.

Replying to questions, Chandra said it was a conscious creative decision not to show pictures of the twin towers in New York being hit by a plane and collapsing. "The incident has been the most watched on television. Our intention was to depict the fallout of the incident on citizens living in the city," she added.

Responding to another query on why she had depicted the Mumbai riots of 1993 in the film, she said she wanted to convey the feeling that religious hatred existed across the globe and resulted in most number of deaths when religions are supposed to bring people closer.

The film's story is about a young and lost Muslim young man who comes close to a Sikh family of Saloni (Mahima), the married woman he is attracted to. Her father-in-law played by Anupam Kher is a retired Colonel whose feeling of animosity towards Muslims boils on the surface after 9/11 and how he regrets his action later.

The film won the audience choice award at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York recently and will now be screened at the Kara film festival in Karachi.

The making of this film has been unusual right from the start and perhaps it will be for the first time that the pre-production and post production was done through e-mail.

UNI MR NK DS1640