Agneya Singh got into filmmaking via the documentary route. Disillusioned by mainstream cinema, and “how escapist it was”, he found in documentaries a form that could hold the charge of ideas he felt strongly about – drugs, rebellions and the relevance of protest.
So when he decided to “explore the narrative medium”, it didn’t come as a surprise that all these ideas found an outlet here too. M Cream , Agneya’s debut feature film, is a portrait of the Indian youth and its rebellious ways.
Featuring Imaad Shah (Figs) and Ira Dubey (Jay) as protagonists and Barry John, Lushin Dubey and Tom Alter in supporting roles, the film tells the story of four friends who go on a road trip to find a mythical variety of hashish but end up finding themselves. The film, which won the best feature film award at Rhode Island Film Festival, was screened recently in the Capital.
The seeds for the film were sown a few years ago, while Agneya was studying at the New York University. “I noticed a resurgent form of radicalisation, a lot of young people were actually beginning to question things,” he says. “Maybe these things come in cycles because in the 1960s and 1970s we had a lot of radicalism which kind of disappeared. And I see that coming back in a way that’s similar yet very different. I found that very encouraging, that’s what inspired me to write the script.”
Giving his perspective of Bollywood, Agneya says, “A lot of Bollywood production houses have launched youth wings. Everyone is out there to get the youth, but it’s the same rehashed stories, the same formulaic scripts. So everyone’s trying to cash in on the market, but they haven’t understood young people,” he adds.
As the quest for hashish takes the characters from Dharamshala to Manali, they encounter a band of hippies, a movement for self-determination and a village threatened by displacement. These encounters lead to a gradual awareness of the possibilities and limits of rebellion. While admitting that the urge for rebellion can often be misplaced, Agneya says it is “encouraging to see people speaking up at least, hopefully it’ll lead to something larger.”
Talking of the cast, Agneya says, “ A lot of people worked on this project at great personal risk, just because they were passionate about the project.” While Barry John was the first person to be cast, Tom Alter and Lushin Dubey also agreed readily, he adds.
Currently touring the festival circuit, Agneya plans to go in for a crowd funding programme soon to secure a theatrical release for the film next year.
