National Award-winning director Kaushik Ganguly is busy shooting for his debut Hindi film Manohar Pandey in an old three-storey house of Bhowanipore in Kolkata. Starring Raghuvir Yadav, the film is set within a community in the city that has hardly been seen in Bengali films.
Featuring Supriya Pathak, Saurabh Shukla, Sudipta Chakraborty and Chitra Sen, Manohar Pandey tells the story of a family impacted by the pandemic-induced lockdown.
While there was little scope for working during the lockdown, Ganguly received an opportunity to reflect deeply on the ideas he wanted to develop. “Our job is to think, and in that process of contemplation, I came up with the story of Manohar Pandey. Coupling real-life instances with imagination, I have tried to convey certain important thoughts through this story,” said Ganguly.
The maker of sensitive films such as Shabdo (2013), Cinemawala (2016) and Nagarkirtan (2019) confirmed that Manohar Pandey is an entertaining love story.
According to the director, the goal was not to make a Hindi film; however, as the characters are Hindi-speaking people, residing along the banks of Ganges in Bengal, the language of the film automatically turned out to be Hindi. “I conceptualised the script keeping Raghuvir Ji and Supriya Ji in mind from the very beginning. Saurabh Shukla came on board later. I am glad that I could have all the artistes I initially thought of working with onboard because often prior engagements and lack of availability of dates hinder such opportunities,” said the director.
Ganguly is also happy about being able to reach a much wider audience. “Normally, an underhyped Hindi film also gets to reach a much a wider audience than that of a commercially successful Bengali film. Hence, I am excited at the prospect of showcasing the work of Bengali technicians to a large audience. Also, it’s been a privilege to have some of the most skilled actors of the Hindi film industry, who we have been watching for decades and who we have admired for so many years, on board. I think the most interesting aspect is that we have not tried step into Bollywood; rather Bollywood has collaborated with us,” said the auteur.
Ganguly said he is having a fantastic time working with the artistes and he is hopeful that the experience will be cherished by the entire team forever. “They are extremely skilled as well as contemplative when it comes to acting. I am already looking forward to creating more opportunities to work with them in the future,” said the director.
“I believe it has been appropriate casting and I cannot thank Surinder Films enough for taking the risk of getting artistes from Mumbai on board at such a dire time that too for a film being made in Kolkata. Apart from cinema halls in southern India, theatres are yet to get back the audience in full spirits. In this context, it takes a lot to invest so much into casting and a concept and I applaud Nispal Singh and Surinder Singh for that,” said Ganguly.
The film is being shot by Gopi Bhagat and will be scored by Jeet Gannguli. “It is an unusual experience that the entire work of music, lyrics and arrangements are being conducted over phone calls and video calls. However, human beings are known for their adaptive nature and that’s what we are also doing in this ‘new normal’. So far, things have been going smoothly and we are hoping to complete shooting without hassles,” he said.