Shankar’s Fairies is an intimate film, says Irfana Majumdar of her directorial debut

Irfana Majumdar’s debut feature Shankar’s Fairies will be premiered on 13 August at the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where it is competing in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section and will go up against 14 other features (first or second) by promising filmmakers from around the world.

The Hindi film, set in 1962 Lucknow, is based upon Majumdar’s mother, Nita Kumar’s childhood memories. The filmmaker, who also acts in the movie, has shot Shankar’s Fairies in her ancestral home. Majumdar is the founding artistic director of Varanasi’s Nirman Theatre & Film Studio.

According to the filmmaker, the film is situated “in a newly independent and idealistic India that is still class-bound and exploitative” and tells the story of Shankar, a man with a village upbringing who raises the daughter of his employer, a police officer, with stories that he imagines.

The production is an extremely personal one for Majumdar. Her mother Nita, a professor of history and anthropology, is also writer, producer and production designer of the film while her husband Gaurav Saini is both associate and casting director on the project. Majumdar and Saini are also part of the cast along with Jaihind Kumar, Shreeja Mishra and Adwik Mathur.

Majumdar said of her debut, “This is an intimate film about the almost unnoticed moments of life that shape us and our choices. We are tremendously excited for the film to be opening at Locarno and for people from around the world to watch it.”

Her mother, Nita Kumar, added, “My own life was shaped by Shankar... I believe all children are influenced by stories, images and treasure the adults who share their imagination with them.”

Shankar’s Fairies was selected for Film Bazaar's Work-In-Progress Lab 2019 and NFDC Film Bazaar Goes to Cannes for last year’s Marche Du Film.

The Locarno Film Festival will be held from 4–14 August; the festival has gone back to a physical edition this year after going digital last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.