Berlin-Bound ‘Shadowbox’ Explores Mental Health and Family Bonds in Working-Class India, Clip Unveiled: ‘It’s a Journey of Love’ (EXCLUSIVE)
A retired soldier’s descent into crisis and its rippling effect through a working-class Bengali family forms the emotional core of “Shadowbox” (“Baksho Bondi”), set to world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival’s Perspectives strand.
The Bengali-language feature marks the directorial debut of cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi (Oscar nominated “All That Breathes”) and editor Tanushree Das (“Eeb Allay Ooo!”). The filmmakers have unveiled a clip exclusively for Variety.
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The film stars acclaimed actor Tillotama Shome (“Sir,” “Death in the Gunj”) as Maya, a woman working multiple jobs – from house cleaning to chicken farming to laundry pressing – while caring for her PTSD-affected husband Sundar (Chandan Bisht) and their teenage son Debu (newcomer Sayan Karmakar). When Sundar becomes implicated in a murder investigation, Maya must navigate both societal prejudices and her own complicated past decisions.
“The genesis came from two distinct places,” Sahi told Variety. “Tanushree had this dream image of her mother collecting clothes before the rain, and I had childhood memories of a friend whose father suffered from severe delusions. He thought he was God, and I was struck by the palpable love and respect my friend had for his father. I grew up with that question of what those family dynamics were like, being very conscious that what it looks like from the outside was not what it was from the inside.”
The project took over a decade to materialize, with the filmmakers – who are husband and wife – realizing they needed to become parents themselves to fully grasp the story’s emotional depths. “We actually had the idea very early on, but we realized there was something about it that we still didn’t understand,” Das explained. “When we became parents, during our first year which is the toughest, we realized the power of this story. It’s literally our second child.”
The film has assembled an impressive collective of Indian cinema’s leading voices as producers. Musician-producer Naren Chandavarkar (Moonweave Films) spearheaded the project, joined by documentary filmmaker Shaunak Sen (“All That Breathes”) and Aman Mann through Kiterabbit Films. The executive producer lineup includes actor Jim Sarbh (“Rocket Boys”), filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane (“Black Warrant”), and producer-director Nikkhil Advani (“Freedom at Midnight”) through the Sumitra Gupta Foundation for the Arts.
The extensive co-producer roster brings together established names from India’s independent film scene: Shome, Dheer Momaya (Jugaad Motion Pictures), Sidharth Meer (Bridge PostWorks), along with international co-producers Dominique Welinski and Isabelle Glachant (Shasha & Co Production, France). Additional co-producers include Prashant Nair (Nomad Media & Entertainment, Spain), actor-producer Anjali Patil (Anahat Films), Anu Rangachar (Gratitude Films, U.S.), Ishaan Chandhok (Criss Cross Content), and Shruti Ganguly (honto88, U.S.).
“They were all our friends before they were producers,” Sahi noted of the unique producing collective. “Each person brought so much more than just money. Shaunak would read the script and give feedback. It became about building community.”
The directors utilized their technical backgrounds – Sahi as cinematographer and Das as editor – to maintain a lean pre-production period, spending a year living at the shooting location before the compact 22-day shoot. “Because we were the technicians ourselves, that gave us a lot of freedom to really spend time without thinking of budgets,” Sahi explained. “We could take the quite big decision of living in the place, taking a year of prep – which is a luxury otherwise.”
For casting, Bisht caught Sahi’s eye while he was working as cinematographer on Nair’s Netflix series “Trial By Fire.” “There was something about his eyes that has a real mystery to it,” Sahi recalled. Karmakar, who plays their son, was discovered through casting director Suman Saha, who also served as the film’s Bengali dialogue writer. “He’s a yoga expert, and there’s a calmness in his eyes. Because of that, you feel there’s lot of depth and sadness, which is very hard to find in teenage boys,” Das said of Karmakar, who underwent six months of training for his debut role.
The filmmakers hope audiences connect with the film’s exploration of enduring love amid impossible circumstances. “I really hope that they remember these invisible women who make our lives possible,” Das said of the film’s central theme. “Everybody has these women who come, they feed us, they take care of us, but they’re invisible. I hope they remember at least one of them.”
Sahi added, “What we leave with is a journey of love – something that threatened to break, and which was somehow held together. The hope is in these relationships enduring, rather than in a happy ending.”
The husband-wife directing duo is already developing their next project, though they’re approaching it with measured patience. “We might do the next film in five, six, seven years,” Das noted. “We want to give it all the time it needs.” They’re considering exploring new cultural and linguistic territories for their sophomore feature, embracing the lengthy immersion process such an undertaking would require.
Watch the clip here:
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