This National Award Winning Film About A Young Boy's Childhood Struggles Will Warm Your Heart
At the 63rd National Awards last year, a young team led by 24-year-old director Varun Tandon won a Special Mention for Direction at the Awards for short film, Syaahi. The jury recognised the film for its ¡°conglomeration of sense and sensibilities depicted through the innocence of a young mind¡±.
When asked about the thought behind the film, Varun said he wanted to take on something simple. "I had a script in mind, and found a bunch of passionate people who believed in the idea. There was no target audience, or any such thing. It was a very personal process, and things, eventually, just fell into place. We had no idea it would win a National Award." Consequently, Syaahi is set in the hills, and tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, his relationships, and the lessons he learns.
facebook.com/syaahi2016
The Syaahi team hopes that the win at the National Awards means that films like Syaahi, that don¡¯t follow conventions of duration and subject, will gain popularity among a wider audience. The win could potentially have given Indian cinema its youngest ever director to win the award. "It's been tough since there are not many avenues where one can showcase a short film. But with this win, people actually want to see the film. And that's the biggest validation," says Varun.
Varun Tandon
Before Syaahi, Varun worked on Gulcharrey, a 13-minute film shot guerilla style in the torrential Mumbai monsoons on a budget of Rs. 6,000. In 2014, Gulcharrey gained popularity on YouTube gathering over 1 million views. Subsequently, Varun¡¯s first feature film script, Anjaan Gali Gumnam Nagar, got selected for the prestigious NFDC Scriptlab and gave him the opportunity to be mentored by Ritesh Batra, writer, director of The Lunchbox.
Varun Tandon
But making a film of this scale could not have been an inexpensive affair. Varun's sister Krati was pursuing her MBA at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad when Syaahi went into pre-production. "Our previous film Gulcharrey went viral online gaining over 1 million views on YouTube in 2014 and NDTV selected the film for a prime time screening and an interview with Nagesh Kukunoor. I was a student at ISB during this time and organised a screening followed by a talk about our experiences in film making, the art and, given it was a business school talk, its business. The event generated a lot of excitement a lot of buzz on campus. So when the script for Syaahi was finalised later in the year, I reached out to interested students with the opportunity to co-produce it with us."
In the process, Krati gave the film 8 first time co-producers!
Varun Tandon
Syaahi was shot in a remote location in Uttrakhand in the summer of 2015, with a largely local crew and a tight 6-day shooting schedule. Making a ¡®short¡¯ film that is, 30 minutes long, with no obvious avenue of a film release, took a team with unquestioning belief in the film¡¯s script and vision. The film is currently being screened at festivals around the world and will be up online soon.
Watch this amazing film right here:
Mallika is your typical nomad. Having studied in boarding school, she lived in the back of beyond most of her life, and shifted to full-fledged city life only when she was 18. She loves music, and can have countless arguments on how Aerosmith is the greatest rock band of all time. She also loves food, and has made it a point to try out one exotic dish in her kitchen every week. Because we live to eat. Get in touch for long, interesting conversations and a warped perception of the world.
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