Saiyami Kher in a still of Strangled (courtesy saiyami)
Strong points
- “I wanted to use it because it was part of the life of the middle class,” said Anurag.
- ‘Choked’ released on Netflix on June 5
- Saiyami Kher shares with Roshan Mathew in the film
Mumbai:
For director Anurag Kashyap, demonetization had to be part of a film about money and marriage, but he says that the characters Muffled: Paisa Bolta Hai do not reflect his policy as they are more concerned with daily survival. The film, Kashyap’s exploration of a middle-class household marriage and how it is shaped by financial problems, revolves around a bank teller, Sarita, and her unemployed husband, Sushant, played by Mirzya star Saiyami Kher and actor of Moothon Roshan Mathew.
Struggling to pay her bills, Sarita’s life takes a turn when she finds a secret source of seemingly unlimited money at home.
Kashyap said the film, which started airing on Netflix from Friday, took a long time because it was busy with other projects, and when demonetization was announced in 2016, it led to new ones. changes in Nihit Bhave’s script.
“When you make a film about money and marriage, demonetization must be part of it. We wanted to use it as much as it was part of the life of the middle class,” said Kashyap, when asked about demonetization in the story.
“It was very clear that my personal policy, which I put on Twitter, cannot be the policy of the characters in my films. They are not so privileged. If someone has trouble surviving everyday life, it doesn’t have time to think about politics. They look at what will benefit them. It’s the filmmakers’s job to chronicle the times – where is it based, the city, the environment and the time “he told PTI in an interview.
Kashyap said the film would have come sooner, but it took them a while to get permission to use all of the actual footage, including that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The lower middle-class couple at the center of the film are surrounded by colorful, caring and curious neighbors, played by the stars of director Sacred Games, Amruta Subhash and Rajshri Deshpande.
The brewing of the characters goes back to the middle cinema of the 1970s where the neighbors were a big part of the story. Kashyap said most of it was in Bhave’s script, while some of the nuances came from the characters and their own experience of living in Mumbai.
“We all come from the middle class and we never forget it. A middle class Marathi is different from a middle class from northern India or Punjabi. It is in the way they speak, confidence and the camaraderie they have. It all came from Nihit and Amruta … Most of the lines were not written but came from personal experiences as if you live in Mumbai, it is a guarantee that your plumbing will leak because there is so much rain, “he said.
Sarita de Saiyami, a singer who has lost self-confidence on a reality show and who is haunted by it, as well as her husband’s inability to follow her own dreams, was an interesting character to explore for the director.
“The biggest problem we have, middle class people, is that we are trying to hide our crisis, thinking ‘what people are going to say’. The only rule I followed was that as soon as there is a crisis, people start closing their doors. Every door in the building is open, except for Sarita’s. She doesn’t want anyone to get a glimpse of her marriage, “he said.
The film, unlike most of Kashyap’s filmography which includes cult favorites such as Black Friday, the drama of revenge in two parts Gangs Of Wasseypur, Dev D and Ugly, has a lighter touch. Asked about this, the director quipped that he did not let his “natural and basic instincts” seep into the script because of Bhave and his actors.
“They have made me feel so guilty over the years for not making the film earlier than I was afraid this time,” he said.
Kashyap said that when he met Saiyami, he knew she would withdraw the role of an eight-year-old woman and mother.
“The struggle with Saiyami was that she didn’t look like the character but she felt like her. Saiyami is too glamorous and young to play the role. But she took it upon herself to convince my other team members. gained so much weight, transformed and sold the idea to us. “
The director liked the role Roshan played in Moothon and sent him the script without even meeting him. “There was some honesty in the character who looked like Sushant even though what I saw in Moothon was a very different character,” he added.
This is Kashyap’s fourth project with Netflix after Sacred games and overall films Lust stories and Ghost stories.
Kashyap said the streamer gives him a wider audience while ensuring that business concerns don’t get confused with his creative process.
“It also gives me the space and the confidence to make the kind of films I want with the actors of my choice. I don’t have to launch someone, unlike when you make a mainstream film. Here, nobody will only ask that Saiyami’s first film not work or Roshan is from Malayalam cinema, “said the director, who also launched his production company Good Bad Films with the film.
Launched in partnership with Dhruv Jagasia and Akshay Thakker, Kashyap said the production company had “no ambition” to become a studio.
“I have no other ambition than to make good films as we always want. We do not have the ambition to become a studio or to go anywhere that will lead us on a path full of holes”, did he declare.
