'Paanch':
A 'desperate' thriller finally
ready for release
New
Delhi, July 30: After running into rough
weather with the censor board, debutante director
Anurag Kashyap's controversial film 'Paanch'
is ready to roll out on the big screen. The
film has been in the making for the last three
years and has been in the eye of a storm ever
since its completion. The censor board had
been objecting to its violent, gory scenes
and dialogues using unparliamentary words.
The
movie is about five frustrated friends of
a music band who go to any length, that includes
a murder, to fulfil their dream of cutting
an album. Anurag Kashyap, director of the
movie, says it's the desperation for success
that sucks the characters into a life of crime.
"They are very rootless people who make their
own world and own atmosphere. The way they
house, the way they have painted on the walls,
what they have written on the walls...writing
on the walls and which is what is very disturbing.
In that atmosphere they live and breed and
they kind of feed off each other, they live
off each other. When they have got nothing
to do, they are pulling each other's legs
and they become harmful to each other. It's
a kind of very claustrophobic atmosphere they
live in and then their desperation for success.
The desperation for finding a voice and a
pedestal, they resort to crime... that's where
it leads them. The film also moves like a
thriller. It is a very pacey film, moves like
a thriller in a popular format," said Kashyap.
Kashyap
shot to fame as a scriptwriter of 'Satya',
a movie based on underworld crime and mafia.
The movie has been finally cleared by the
new censor board chairman Vijay Anand without
any cuts. Tejaswini Kolhapure who happens
to be sister of former actress Padmini Kolhapure
said there were films worse than 'Paanch'
that were being telecast without any cuts.
"I know so many films (like Paanch) that have
been cleared by some other censor board and
why us? It was not even so bad as the other
films that I had seen. Also there were these
small documentaries that were shown on television
which was even more shocking because the accessibility
is so high with children watching them and
things like that and I was shocked that the
censor board is behind us," said Kolhapure.
Kolhapure
who is the lead singer of the music band plays
a shrewd and manipulative woman who hooks
rich men to get fast money. Originally a theatre
artiste, Kolhapure shot to fame with her first
tele serial 'Mujhe Chaand Chahiye' (I want
the moon). Lead actor of the movie Kay Kay
said the film's delay due to the censor board
has affected him as well. "It was absolutely
frustrating because see what happens here
is that if a governing body points a finger
at you, at your film, then it's pointing a
finger at you as well. It is terming you irresponsible
people. Now each one of that jury, that body
needs to know that you are dealing with people
who have perhaps more higher moral values
and cultural values than they have personally.
So it is like insinuating a couple of human
beings without any reason. So that is something
one needs to really take care of as far as
censorship is concerned," said Kay Kay. 'Paanch'
is slated for an Independence Day release
on August 15. The film, which will also be
released in the overseas market, has been
shortlisted for Hamburg and Italian film festivals.
