More than a decade ago, when brothers Satyanshu Singh and Devanshu Kumar, were ideating on a feature film set in Iraq, they knew little about the war-torn country, the Gulf or world politics. Their knowledge was limited to Baghdad being the Iraqi capital and Saddam Hussein being their former President. “We were in our early 20s, and all we wanted was to take our Bihari culture into world cinema,” says Singh, over a phone call. Singh was a medical student and Kumar had just graduated from a mass media degree in Mumbai, with no connection to the film industry. But they had wanted to chronicle the story of a family, much like the ones they grew up in, and show a confluence of cultures. The idea was simply to confine a few characters from different backgrounds in a cloistered apartment, as a war between Iraqi ‘militants’ and American ‘soldiers’ raged outside. But with time, as their understanding of geopolitics enhanced, the duo discovered the complexity of the situation — how no one nation is right, certainly not the oft-glorified Americans. The effort was to establish that grey area through the story of a trapped Indian family in Chintu Ka Birthday . “Once you finish [watching] the film, you see that all of them are human, including [George W.] Bush and Saddam,” explains Kumar.
For the siblings, the film doesn’t take any political stand or side with any nation but has a “human approach” to the conflict. “All governments, including the Indian one, are shown to be flawed, since our government is unable to bring home that one stranded Indian family,” shares Singh. The confluence of various ideologies, the bond and conflicts they share are brought out through characters like an Iraqi landlord who hates Saddam Hussein, an Indian family who are focused on celebrating the birthday of six-year-old Chintu, the kid's two Iraqi friends and two American soldiers. “With the two American soldiers, for instance, one understands what is happening in Iraq and is more sympathetic and hopeless, while the other has just come from Georgia and wants to crush them like how they have crushed Americans,” observes Kumar. “Ultimately these are human beings caught in the crossfire of political entities,” adds Singh.
War on virus
For the duo, Chintu ka Birthday is an ‘anti-war’ film. “The best war films are anti-war,” declares Singh. “If you look at it from the child’s perspective, he only wants to eat cake.” Even though they have been working on this since 2007, they believe that the film can never lose its relevance. “Unfortunately, in the world we live in, when one war ends, another begins,” observes Singh.
Now, at the time of its release, it is a different kind of war that makes this film pertinent — the battle against a virus. Much like in the film, there is a looming danger outside, out of our control or even comprehension, immuring us indoors. “We have seen so many people in the last two months celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries inside their homes and realise that this is all that matters at the end of the day, to be able to celebrate with our families,” observes Kumar.
Battle bugle
Owing to a small budget, the war in the film is only heard through sounds of airstrikes, explosions and gunshots, and never seen. According to the duo, showing the visuals of war for a few minutes at the start would raise the audience's expectations to repeat those imageries. “Restrictions forced us to come up with creative solutions,” says Singh.
Audio plays a pivotal role in Chintu Ka Birthday , with a strong emphasis on getting the nuances of language right, whether it is the Bihari accent or Iraqi Arabic spoke by the landlord and the kids. The duo wrote the dialogues in English and then got it translated into Iraqi Arabic. “We took help from an Iraqi citizen, who came to our rescue. He was on the sets and would listen to every take and make sure that the kids are getting it right. Only when he would approve it, we would go ahead with the take,” recalls Kumar.
A long journey
Produced by All India Bakchod (AIB), the film was supposed to premiere at the Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) in 2018, but was pulled out after accusations of sexual harassment emerged against people associated with the comedy collective. Almost two years later, the film has finally released on a streaming platform. “It had crushed our spirit, to be honest,” says Singh. “But we couldn’t react emotionally, so we took a step back and decided to stay quiet because that was the right thing to do. A lot of films were removed from MAMI, and a lot of people were angry and I don’t blame them, because it was an emotional moment, but we decided to stay quiet and that’s how we showed our solidarity and support for the movement.” After more than a decade of perseverance and some bumps along the way, the duo is excited to finally make their debut as established filmmakers, a far cry from the self-taught novices a decade ago.
Chintu Ka Birthday is streaming on Zee5
