Synopsis:
Akhnoor is a journey, through the setting
of a hamlet in the Himalayas, dilapidated and
destroyed by years of senseless terrorism. Riju
(Yashpal Sharma) returns to his native village
after 17 years. Now it is deserted. He enters
to his childhood school for a shelter. Memories
of the classroom chorus, citing multiplication
tables, reminders from his mother to drink milk
mixed with turmeric, or the school bell…
all come alive on Riju’s face. But at every
moment, the almost imperceptible transition from
twilight to darkness, the creaking of the decrepit
wooden doors of the old school, sound of the crickets,
the tourist bus climbing the slopes, the apprehensive
but non-committal faces of the Kashmiri’s
who travel in the bus…all these are the
melancholic epitome of an ‘unknown’
Kashmir today – ironically known as the
paradise on earth. As Riju mends his way through
the deserted streets into the small courtyard,
he sees Idris uncle. The lantern in the uncle’s
hand goes up. The smooth light falls on the faces
of both. A heavy-set man wrapped in a shawl enters.
Hassan (who is now a fugitive), recognizes his
childhood friend Riju. Hassan embraces Riju and
vanishes into darkness. It is the instant love
of childhood friends much beyond the religion
divided societies of Kashmir today. At
this very minute, gun shots are heard. The lantern
falls on the ground…A pool of blood covers
the screen completely...
I have known Rajat (Riju) since long. Soft spoken,
calm… pleasant... He was not among my best
friends but his presence was always rendered happy-feeling,
among us… always carried a positive energy
with him. He is working with a corporate house,
draws a fat salary as a Management professional
in the heart of Delhi.
Around 5 years back, one day I met Rajat, and
that was after quite a gap. I come to know, he
had gone to his native place and his brother died
in an ‘accident’. He has had to take
the responsibility of his ailing uncle, the father
of the deceased, before he returned to Delhi.
His uncle refused to come to Delhi with him. He
tells me his story briefly. About his native place…
his childhood… their migration to Delhi…
his family… eventually all have died…
his mother and sister ‘died’ in Kashmir
20 years back and his father and elder brother
died after they migrated to Delhi in past years.
It was a moving story – but he never revealed
the organic intensity of his tale of life. I expressed
my desire to visit his native place, whenever
he is supposed to visit next time. I got a call
from him in one evening and said that he is going
to Akhnoor and asked if I wanted to come. I packed
my bag immediately.
 On
reaching there and meeting his uncle in the clinging
darkness of the courtyard of the dilapidated house
– he narrates the story of his life, his
family… graphic detail of the death of Hassan
– his childhood friend, inseparable soul
of him… the son of his uncle Idris. He told
me the story, how brutally his mother and sisters
were raped and killed.
And, that is our Akhnoor.
Being a traveler and nature lover, Kashmir is
my all time favorite hangout. Surreal nature,
gorgeous rivers, sonnets of greens… Kashmir
is indeed a paradise on earth to me – like
million others. My journey to Akhnoor with Rajat
was not only spine-chilling but also symphony
of my rippling nerves. Terrorism is not a new
phenomenon to the realities of the world today
but the story of Rajat is the epitome of the unsaid
fall out of mindless killings – a pathetic
tale of humankind.
Akhnoor is a journey to me – an endless
journey of our civilization towards eternity –
where we all set out to prove our integrity towards
a precious possession, called life.
As an utter exception, Akhnoor has no
history of my run from post to pillar. Not much
looking around for money. It happened, with much
ease. The desire for making the film was there
in me since long. One day I narrated the story
to my producer Mr. N Shiva Rao. Extremely focused
and the man with sharp clarity of thoughts, Mr.
Rao, does not take much time to see the potential
of a concept. He believes in the cause for better
cinema. He knew the company called Indian Heritage
Media in Belgium. Mr. Rao along with Mr. Alan
Ward & Ms. Prajnaparamita of Indian Heritage
Media were planning some films since some time
for a co-production venture in Indian cinema for
the global market. One phone call by Mr. Rao followed
by, my mails to them, explaining the film, was
sufficient enough to plan for the film. Money
was in place within the next fortnight.
The first biggest hurdle I faced was the location.
Akhnoor, located 45 km north to Jammu, is the
entry point to mighty upper Shivalik range of
Himalayas, door way to Kashmir valley. This picturesque
piece of land of upper Shivalik is now a flash
point of militancy in Kashmir, being the porous
border with Pakistan. Mass killings of Doda, Kistwar,
Akhnoor are made newspaper headlines very often,
since last two decades. These areas now has deserted,
dilapidate look. Most importantly, shooting in
few consecutive nights was just impossible. So,
we had to look for an 'Akhnoor look alike'. Himalayas
being my second home, I knew some places to replace
Akhnoor. We zeroed in to Uttarkashi as Akhnoor's
replacement.
I saw Sameer's (Sameer Mahajan, Cinematographer
of Akhnoor) work in a documentary he
shot for a friend of mine and decided to work
with him. I consider Debasish (Sound Designer
Debasish Mishra) as one of the finest Sync Sound
Recordist and Sound Designer, of the country today.
We worked together earlier and we understand each
others' cinema very well. He was my automatic
choice for sound. Narayanan AV did the edit of
my feature film earlier and an unsaid bonding
between us made the choice easy for getting him
to edit Akhnoor as well..
And so we set out for the shoot...Shooting was
not very easy as 90% of the shoot was in night
and being the remote hilly area, chilling cold
and biting wind made our life difficult. Untimely
Himalayan rain made the situation further more
difficult. It was unit of 24 people traveled by
road from Delhi. A drive of 13 hours through treacherous
hills of Uttaranchal was extremely tiring.
A hassle-free shooting was possible because of
the full-blooded support from the culturally awakened
people of Uttarkashi. It was a wonderful experience
of 4 days (sorry nights!) shooting in this tiny
Himalayan hamlet.
We had to have a dilapidate look in the film.
Saturated color, mingled with rugged but serene
look was dominated my interaction with Sameer
for first couple of days before the shoot. We
loved to disagree each other most of the time…
but thankfully good sense always prevailed. We
shot the film in 4 nights. Not having dialogue
in the film, Debasish's work there in the location
was comparatively easier. But coming back to Mumbai,
Debasish's brilliant work in the audio tracks
– created Akhnoor, exactly the way I saw
the place 5 years back.
It was a wonderful team work. Low budget, inconvenient
location, limitation of the usage of adequate
lights – all accompanying us throughout
the making process. Lab problem, un-satisfactory
graphics, et, etc could not take away from the
happiness and satisfaction of of making Akhnoor.
Sudipto Sen has made several films for
The World Bank, UNDP, SNICEF, AIDB, many National
and International NGOs along with many commercials
and corporate films for almost all leading advertising
agencies during the last decade.He completed first
feature The Last Monk in 2006 which has been screened
at various International Film Festivals in 2006-2007.
The film is releasing soon in India and rest of
the world. Sudipto is presently working towards
a Hindi/English feature film.
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