KSHAY: Hallucinations personified in a brilliant manner
By Enkayaar, Glamsham Editorial
When life gives you a lemon you should make lemonade. This is what Karan Gour, the producer of KSHAY, PVR Rare Cut's latest offering did. He was given money to buy a car for himself, but he pooled this money and along with contribution from his friend decided to venture into the arena of filmmaking and KSHAY indeed has turned out to be one of the significant flag posts in the history of Indian cinema in the current year. Shot in monochrome, owing to lack of finance, it has emerged as the USP for KSHAY.
KSHAY is also credited for the fact that it is the maiden effort of Karan Gour who roped in his friend Abhinay Khoparzi who also did not have much experience about craft of cinema making. Both were however passionate and committed about cinema and the product is KSHAY which is a visual epiphany of how a belief, illogical at that, could be the trigger that could push an individual from being sane to becoming insane.
KSHAY was directed by Gour while Khoparzi was the cinematographer for the film and did all the jobs associated with filmmaking. As the budget for the film at disposal was very meager innovation was the hallmark for the film, KSHAY was shot in a house in Bhayandar in Mumbai.
The central character of the film is a lady called Chaya, the character being played by Rasika Duggal. As is the wont of having faith in all the stones and idols in our country as being endowed with religious powers, Chaya also develops obsession for a under construction statue of goddess Laxmi and wants to have it in her house. But the cost of the idol being prohibitive her husband cannot afford it. Chaya however continues to be obsessed with the idol and creates an image of the goddess on her wall in house. She starts disintegrating and hence the KSHAY. It is a telling commentary on how a husband who is so busy in his life and his work is not able to notice that her wife is disintegrating or undergoing KSHAY.
Chaya's KSHAY or disintegration is also hastened by the setting of the city of Mumbai, which has an element of claustrophobia on account of cheek-by-jowl existence in the suburbs. Being shot in black and white the disintegration is more profound.
Films like KSHAY indeed are a reminder about the fact that our cinema is surviving and thriving with pulsating raw energy. One is reminded of a tweet coinciding with the release of the preview posters of SON OF SARDAAR a few months ago. It was tweeted that the amount of money spent on advertising about a film would have helped small producers and directors make ten such films. Jokes apart, this indeed is the challenge and it is the lack of finance that triggers innovation for the new breed of producers and directors like Karan Gour to come up with such products like KSHAY. May their tribe bloom!
