Slow Burn
Ranj is a story of a village youth, Amanpreet, who is driven to despair in a hostile big city. On the one hand, the film tells a murky tale of an individual’s struggle with the burden of expectations and his acute moral crisis; and on the other, it questions the notion of the modern-day progress, where materialistic growth has been hopelessly allowed to preside over social quietude.
Director
Sunit is an Independent Filmmaker and a Theatre Artiste. He has been practicing Theatre for over two decades and a half. In the mid-’90s, he essayed major character roles in TV Series, namely UTV’s Trikaal, Nimbus Television’s Farz & Sippy Films’ Gaatha; and Hansal Mehta’s debut feature – Jayate, to mention a few. Sunit has written and directed several notable plays for Actor Factor Theatre Company – Khudgudi, Taxi, The Red Corridor & Three being the recent ones. As a filmmaker, his short fiction films – Pratihinsa and Subah Ke Pehle have won acclaim at international film festivals. ‘Ranj’ is his debut feature film.
Director’s Note: Punjab is a state in northern India. It was once a flourishing agrarian sector. Today, it is the story of farmers’ suicides and youth unrest. Due to dying industrialization, and a severe lack of alternative sources of income, Punjab’s rural youth have little choice but to migrate to a metropolitan city for livelihood. The film, Ranj, dwells on the last two days of Amanpreet being on-the-edge in the city. New Delhi, as a megacity, has a significant role-play here. Like any other vast and chaotic landscape, having its victims and survivors to tell tales of their trying times, it too runs at its own pace, indifferent and unbiased, neither favoring one nor sparing a soul. Since Amanpreet is not wired for city life, he finds the air hostile. He cannot throw down the gauntlet because he never carries one on him. It is not his battle by will. Thus, he suffers all along, sporadically erupting in anger as and when he gives in to the lure of his self-destructive tendencies. Even following his acute moral crisis, contrary to what one would expect, Amanpreet does not reawaken. He is an ordinary young man in his ordinary toil. On another plane, the film’s theme is an anti-thesis of the notion of the modern-day progress, where materialistic growth has been hopelessly allowed to preside over social quietude.