New Delhi, “Daayra” director Meghna Gulzar says the outrage she feels over questions of crime and justice has fuelled some of her work but she believes cinema must also keep hope alive and encourage conversations that could eventually lead to change.
It was after the film was released and many years later that a high court judgment came, and it exonerated the Talwar family. “When I made ‘Talvar’, there was no sight of any kind of closure to that story.
So for me that is redemption,” she said.
Meghna said it is not based any one particular incident While many people have found similarities between the film’s narrative and the 2019 Hyderabad rape-murder case. Because she did not want the film to be tied to a particular region or language, the filmmaker said she chose Prithviraj Sukumaran as DCP Raman. Because these are incidents which happen everywhere across the country, “I did not want to have a regional or a geographic identity to the film. Because i admired him as an actor and I really wanted to work with him, “And the first name that came to my mind was Prithviraj.
And again, it is my good fortune that I went to him and he loved the story, he loved the film and he agreed to do the part,” she added.
Meghna, whose upcoming film deals with the aftermath of a rape and murder and the functioning of the justice system, said she does not want to lose optimism though there are issues that trouble her. The filmmaker acknowledged that “Daayra” explores themes of crime, punishment and justice similar to those in “Talvar” and “Chhapaak”, but said there was no deliberate plan to create a trilogy. “Daayra” is set in a fictional state in India rather than a specific city or state, she said, as the incidents explored in the film could happen anywhere in the country. So I wanted an actor who is not from Hindi cinema and from one of the South Indian industries,” she said.
