Strings of Passion : Official Selection at 2nd GIFF

Firmly entrenched in Tollywood (Kolkata Bengali film industry), film-maker Sanghamitra Chaudhuri’s desire to tread new grounds made her foray into the world of Hindi cinema or Bollywood as known to all. But being a sensitive film maker, naturally her instincts were more focussed towards meaningful cinema with a commercial touch than just directing some mishmash of romance and action or remake something straight from Hollywood as is the trend these days. After a lot of deliberations, she decided to direct her first Hindi venture “Strings of Passion” based on parental upbringing as well as cover the sensitive issue of Male Rape which however till now was not even considered to happen. Rather its a very taboo subject to even speak about.

Once this basic frameline took shape, Sanghamitra Chaudhuri set off on her most ambitious project “Strings of Passion” that is all set to attend the 2nd Gandhinagar International Film Festival (GIFF) this year. The ambitious joint production of Mithuntara Movies with Eon Films & Tri-Color Entertainments deals with the controversial subject of parental upbringing in today's society. It is a youth centric film which tells the story of three boys - Neel, Manu and Amit - essayed by Shubh Mukherjee, Avalok Nagpal and Trishan who in college form a band called Strings of Passion. This band forms the bond between them that keeps them bonded and which forms the crux of the film.

Through the life of these three protagonists who are best friends in college, the film also touches the controversial subject of male rape as one of the protagonists becomes the victim of gang rape and later unable to come to terms with this ghastly incident, ends his life.

A big draw of the film is the evergreen Zeenat Aman in the cast who plays Manu's (Avalok Nagpal) mother while Rajesh Sharma plays Neel's (Shubh Mukherjee) dad. Indrani Halder is Neel’s love interest Insia who comes home with Neel’s dad but finds a connect with Neel because of their similar sad past and enter into a relationship.

Speaking about her role in Strings of Passion, Zeenat Aman says: “It is a good script and my role is crucial to how the story develops. But more importantly, it was the director who convinced me to do the role. I always had a deep respect for woman film makers and this was one more reason to identify and say yes to the project. Passion is the word. I liked her passion. It is passion that pulls me to work these days, not fame or money. And the word figures in the title of the film as well!”

Interestingly, though the film revolves around social issues, there is a hardcore commercial element in the film with six melodious songs of which two are rock band numbers and one is a hip hop club number. While Dev Sikdar along with SaQi has scored the music for this film, editing is by Bodhaditya Banerjee and sound by National Award winning sound engineer Anup Mukherjee. The other cast of the film includes Paru Gambhir, Sangita Sonali and others.

“Strings of Passion” will be screened on September 2nd at the festival and director Sanghamitra Chaudhary will be attending the festival with her team of actors including Indrani Halder, Avalok Nagpal, Sangita Sonali and others as well as Associate Director Bappa Dasgupta and Co-producer Mohan Das of Eon Films.