A short film by Bengaluru boy Parabjeet Singh — Fault , featuring theatre actors from the city, is the official selection at the Indian Film Festival of Germany - Indisches in Stuttgart. Even better, the film has been nominated for Best Short Film and the Audience Award.
This is Parabjeet’s debut film. A professional musician, dancer, and voice over artist, Parab has also been a journalist, PR, worked in an ad agency, and now works for a film production house. A drummer, Parabjeet plays the cajon in the soul-acoustic band, The Bright Eyed Culprits.
The idea of the film came to him when he was a journalist for an online portal, seven years ago. “But I didn’t know anything about filmmaking. So I gave it up. For me, the idea of the film was not so much the subject as the setting that intrigued me. The plot became irrelevant,” says Parab, who now works for Fatfree Productions. It was here, while working on a film last year that he had a conversation with the film’s writer and they decided to make the film together.
“Three men sit down to listen to one woman’s gripping story. Set around a table, a conversation reveals the event that brought them together. It is inspired by topical events in India. It is extremely dark and twisted; the film puts you in an uncomfortable situation,” is all Parab will reveal about his film. “The way the film is shot is different. I don’t think any one in India has explored this kind of filmmaking. Earlier, we had decided the whole film will be a conversation completely in the dark. But then we decided it will be too disturbing to hear and not see anything. How we wanted to style the film — that was the most difficult part of making this film.”
Parab wrote the screenplay with his friends Abhinav Sarna and Karthik Ravi. “We each had our own version of the script, and we finally combined all three!” he makes it sound that simple. “Because each of us has our own point of view!” It was shot on a Canon 5D at the ACS Studio in the city, with Bhushan Bagadia (Parabjeet’s ‘dancing friend’) as the cinematographer and editor. The film stars folks familiar on Bengaluru’s theatre circuit — Anula Navlekar, Prashant Nair, Mario Jerome, and Karthik Ravi. “While casting for the film, I was looking for someone who could act, but also project voice well. It’s a voice-led script. We did a lot of rehearsing before we shot for almost 15 hours to get our six-minute film,” he says.
The film has an original music score by Bengaluru guitarist David Clifton Crimson (who plays with Swarathma). Parabjeet was also lucky when Fatfree Productions decided to come on board as producer.
