'Masaan': An Emotionally Engaging Tale

KOLKATA: Set in modern-day Varanasi, Neeraj Ghaywan’s directorial debut “Masaan”, which wowed Cannes critics, steers clear of cliches associated with the holy Indian city. Ghaywan maintains the film, which released Friday, is about India in transition and doesn’t peddle poverty as Twitter trolls suggest.

“I am actually getting that (criticism on peddling poverty) already. There are a lot of Twitter trolls who are asking ‘Oh! is he just another filmmaker who is peddling poverty and cashing in on it’,” Ghaywan told IANS in an interview here.”But trust me when you watch the film, you know that is the thing we (me and my writer Varun Grover) also hate it equally. The film has got to do with characters and their inter-personal stories. It has got nothing to do with socio-political bias,” Ghaywan clarified when quizzed on criticism about “Masaan”. The film, which stars Richa Chadha, Sanjay Mishra, Shweta Tripathi and Vicky Kaushal, won two awards at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival. It bagged the Promising Future Prize and the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) Award at the prestigious fest. It also received a five-minute standing ovation after its screening in May.

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