Gurvinder Singh’s film 'Adh Chanani Raat' to premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

It is also about the last ditch resistance of the oppressed, the director said in a statement.The filmmaker, a Film Television Institute of India graduate, said after his last two films, set in Punjab, he was grappling with the question of what next and thats when he came upon the idea of Adh Chanani Raat, about the individual and the family offset against a larger socio-political cauldron which is in ferment.


PTI | Mumbai | Updated: 07-01-2022 18:55 IST | Created: 07-01-2022 18:55 IST
Gurvinder Singh’s film 'Adh Chanani Raat'  to premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
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National Award-winning filmmaker Gurvinder Singh's next Punjabi language feature ''Adh Chanani Raat'' (Crescent Night) will have its world premiere at the prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), to be held from January 26 to February 6. The film is part of the Harbour section which offers a safe haven to the full range of contemporary cinema that the festival champions.

Originally planned to be held physically, IFFR has moved online this year for the second time due to growing concerns over the spread of the Omicron Covid variant across Europe making it the first major European film festival to take the virtual route in 2022.

Singh said the film is a culmination of a journey that began with his first film 'Anhey Ghorey Da Daan'. "'Adh Chanani Raat' is about a sadness on the verge of implosion that engulfs a silent agrarian land. Here is an unwritten violence, simmering under the surface, in which the margins are pushed far into a breakdown of basic human relations. It is a violence that scripts the alienation of the being from its own selfhood. It is also about the last ditch resistance of the oppressed,'' the director said in a statement.

The filmmaker, a Film & Television Institute of India graduate, said after his last two films, set in Punjab, he was grappling with the question of ''what next'' and that's when he came upon the idea of ''Adh Chanani Raat'', ''about the individual and the family offset against a larger socio-political cauldron which is in ferment''. ''...'Crescent Night' explores the structure and means of violence and its implications on the individual and the family. Here violence pertains to the greed emanating from landholdings and the desire to wield power at the local level. It's the means to power by creating fiefdoms through increasing one's possessions of land and money,'' Singh shared in his director's note. A Contentflow Studios production, ''Adh Chanani Raat'' is produced by Bobby Bedi of ''Bandit Queen'' and ''Maqbool'' fame, Vipul D Shah, Manmohan Shetty and Rajesh Bahl. ''Adh Chanani Raat'' is Singh's third feature in the trilogy of Punjabi language films after ''Anhey Ghorey Da Daan'' (Alms for a Blind Horse) in 2011 and ''Chauthi Koot'' (The Fourth Direction) in 2015 to be adapted from literary works of noted Punjabi authors.

''Anhey...'' premiered at the Venice Film Festival in Orizzonti while ''Chauthi Koot'' was selected for the Un Certain Regard segment at the Cannes Film Festival.

This is the filmmaker's second feature to be inspired from Gurdial Singh's novel by the same name after ''Anhey...''.

Set in rural Punjab, ''Adh Chanani Raat'' features an ensemble cast including acting debuts of Jatinder Mauhar as Modan (noted Punjabi filmmaker of 'Qissa Panjab', 'Mitti', 'Sarsa'), Mauli Singh as Sukhi (indie publicist/producer) and professional actors like Samuel John (Ruldu), Raj Singh Jhinger (Geja), Dharminder Kaur (mother) and is shot by Satya Rai Nagpaul, edited by Avneesh Chhabra, music by Marc Marder, costumes by Navjeet Kaur and dialogues by Jasdeep Singh. The film revolves around Modan, who returns home after spending some years of the prime of his life in prison for a murder committed to avenge his father's humiliation over land disputes. Acrimony with his brothers who have prospered in his absence, forces Modan to rebuild his life with his mother by shifting to the dilapidated ancestral home and by bringing home a wife who's already a mother to an infant. In spite of Modan's honest attempts to forget the insults of the past, suppressed anger manifests itself in renewed violence. Bedi, who has collaborated with Singh after ''Khanaur'' (2019, Bitter Chestnut) said, "A Punjabi farmer's love for his land is special and transcends economics, relationships and even emotions. It gives the farmer a special strength. This love came to the forefront in the recent farmers protests in North India. Gurvinder captures this love and the violence that may stem from it in an exceptionally poetic way in 'Adh Chanani Raat'".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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