“You of Many Days,” an upcoming independent feature film, written and directed by Shireen Pasha, tells the story of a young woman’s journey for redemption when all hope seems lost.
The film is set to be released at film festivals next spring and in theaters next fall if the makers get sufficient funds to complete the film. It is a completely independent effort without government subsidies or corporate funding fuelled by donations from people all around the world who believe in the story, claims the director in a conversation with Dhaka Tribune.
The film opens in Bombay, as people rush to listen to celebrated writer Jheel Chopra’s new short story over the radio. The audience is unaware that the story she is about to share is a personal one. Jheel traces her narrative back to 1952, to a small village in Feni, with the young, melancholic Sagor, her uncle and father figure, who struggles to write compelling scripts for the film industry in Dhaka.
South Asia’s cultural diversity is portrayed in the film as Shireen said: “Diversity is the reality. I come from a multicultural family. Therefore, I could only work with a story that has multiple languages in the milieu of South Asia’s biological and cultural diversity. Our film features Bangla, English, Hindi, Manipuri, Marathi, and Urdu. Our characters are as multicultural as we are in life, when we are honest about our roots.”
In the film, Sagor cares less about money and fame, and more about writing a role for his beloved Ranga, a young Manipuri woman who arrived as second wife of his father, Baki. Baki died in his sleep the week before, so his first wife decides to marry Ranga off to her drunkard son, Shimul- who runs away at the sight of Ranga’s large feet the very night of their wedding. Jheel then tells how she was born to Ranga and how her passion for different food and tastes emerged.
Shireen grew up with stories about the many obstacles people faced in the nineteenth and twentieth century in the region and how people overcame these obstacles by having an expansive, universal and positive view on life.
As the story progresses viewers learn of the unusual love between Ranga and Sagor, of Ranga’s dream to become an actor, and of Sagor’s sacrifice. However all reveries come to an end when circumstances push Jheel to make the journey to Bombay.
The film took 24 days of shooting in Mumbai, Feni, Dhaka and other places, 3 years of location scouting and 11 years of script editing with a cast and crew of 90, enduring passion and patience to come away with a story promises to sway the audiences.
