Feature film of Shimla lad to be premiered at Estonia fest

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, October 18

Feature film “Amar Colony”, written and directed by Shimla lad Siddharth Chauhan, will be premiered at the prestigious 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival to be held from November 11 to 27 in Estonia.

The 80-minute film is the only Indian film to make it to the competition this year. It will be screened in the “First Features Competition” category. Other films in the competition are from Italy, Japan, Germany, the UK, Lithuania, Portugal, New Zealand, Norway, Brazil, Poland, Switzerland, Slovenia, South Korea, Israel, Slovakia, Canada and Spain.

Shot in 30 days at the YWCA, the US Club, the Shimla General Post Office (Mall Road), St Thomas School, Oak Tree House (Bharari), Lower Bazaar, Sabzi Mandi and Baldeyan on the outskirts of the city, “Amar Colony” is a story of three women (neighbours) Devki (50), a widow confined to a wheelchair who demands respect for her pigeon, Meera (20), a lonely pregnant woman who is caught in a maze of desires and disappointments, and Durga (60), a religious fanatic, who begins to experience delusions living in a dilapidated building called Amar Colony.

The film features Sangeeta Agrawal, Nimisha Nair and Usha Chauhan in lead roles. “Amar Colony” captures a lurking underworld of human desires and fears through the intertwining lives of three women in the underbelly of a chawl in a small town in the lower Himalayas, says producer Nisheeth Kumar.

“It is a dream come true and I am thrilled to know that my debut film is going to be premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival”, says Siddhart, a self-taught filmmaker born and brought up in Shimla, who believes that the world-class content can be created anywhere.

“At the age of 22, I dreamt of making a feature film in Shimla and thought that it would take me roughly 10 years to gain some experience and today, exactly after 10 years, my film is finally releasing,” he said and added that, “As per the film festival team, ‘Amar Colony’ is a delicate and unique portrait of an exotic community that represents all of us. This film is a satire on mankind.”

In the past, Siddharth has experimented with documentary and short films on fiction and realistic issues. His first film was “Zunie”, followed by “Peace is nowhere”, “Boys don’t wear nail polish”, “Infinite space”, “Papa”, Pahari film “Pashi” and “The flying trunk”.