Four rebellious youngsters embark on a road trip in search of a mythical drug. This is the premise of Agneya Singh’s first feature film, M Cream . There has been no aggressive publicity for the film, but it has won 10 awards at various international film festivals, including Best Feature Film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Figs (Imaad Shah), a student at Delhi University, is a quintessential rebel whose life is thrown off course when there is a scarcity of hash, depriving him of his favourite pastime. Along with a motley crew of fellow students, he goes in search of M Cream, a mythical form of hash. At the heart of the narrative is an exploration of the various modes of rebellion. “I grew up in Delhi and heard about this urban legend, M Cream, from a friend who would have had a friend who knew about it. It was the ultimate act of rebellion and defiance,” explains Agneya about how the idea for the film came to him. “I had spent a lot of time on the Delhi University campus, and have friends who have studied in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. I wrote the script a couple of years ago, but found it more relevant now.”
Agneya raises socio-political issues through a road-trip the youngsters undertake. He reflects on the era when he was a youth. “I grew up in the 1990s, a time period when movies, art and films were commercial and superficial. In the last five years, I have seen a rebellion against this. I found M Cream to be an interesting plot device, of what it is like to be a young person growing up in India today.”
The superficiality of the 1990s, Agneya says, burst after the 9/11 attacks. “Ever since, right-wing extremism and fanaticism have been on the rise, but resistance has also emerged. The question is who is going to win? Will the world shift to the centre, left or right? In urban India, there have been a number of student movements, environmental movements, movements against communal forces. A lot of people speaking out are the voices of the young.” This finds expression in the film, says Agneya. “The film is an interplay between rebellion and conformity, apathy and activism. It is a portrait of young India. Each of the four characters embodies apathy, rebellion, activism and conformity.”
Agneya says it’s an entertaining film, too. “One can see it at a surface level. But it’s been done in a poetic and philosophical way. It’s not preachy, though. We do raise a lot of questions, but we don’t give solutions. It is the questions that are important.”
Though drugs may be at the centre of the narrative, it is neither glorified nor condemned. “The film doesn’t take a moral position on drugs at all. And yet it reflects the life of a young person. In the 1950s UN Convention, India had opposed the move to ban marijuana, but bowed down to pressure from the United States.”
The 26-year-old Agneya, son of noted journalist Seema Mustafa, is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and has made documentaries before. “I once had an elderly audience member say about M Cream that this is not a film, it’s a documentary. I took this as a compliment, because the film has elements of cinema verite and is a narrative with which the audience would be able to connect in a more emotional way.”
M Cream , starring Imaad Shah, Ira Dubey, Auritra Ghosh, Raaghav Chanana, Barry John, Tom Alter, Lushin Dubey and Beatrice Ordeix, will be released by PVR Pictures on July 22.
