Banaras Review

Pankuj Parashar, one of the trend-setting directors of Indian Cinema, is now ready with his new directorial venture, Setu Creations' "Banaras A Mystic Love Story", which is complete and all set for release on April 7 all-over.

Parashar, whose earlier feature films include Ab Ayega Maza (1983), Jalwa (1987) and Chalbaaz (1989), joins hands with producer L.C.Singh, president and CEO of Pune-based IT company, Nihilent Technologies, to give us a love story with elements of mysticism, spiritualism and existentialism.

Shot on locations in Banaras in a span of 45 days (with two days shooting in Mauritius), the film captures the flavor of this holy city without the didacticism of a documentary film. It retains the entertaining elements of a commercial film, yet it operates at various levels from science to mysticism.

The film features in its main cast Urmila Matondkar, Ashmit Patel, Raj Babbar, Dimple Kapadia, Naseeruddin Shah and Akash Khurana. Says director Parashar, "I am venturing into this genre of filmmaking for the first time and it has been a great experience. Banaras is a beautiful city and it is a pity we are not aware of its spiritual wealth".

"The film is not a documentary", he adds, "It is out and out commercial film that talks about existentialism". "It is the story of a physics scholar (Urmila Matondkar) who falls in love with a music lover (Ashmit Patel). It interprets the concept of existentialism with the help of a love story. It kind of connects quantum of physics to what the Vedas say," he says.

The music has been composed by Himesh Reshammiya. Five contemporary songs in the film have a strong classical base with the Banaras gharana touch, while lyrics have been written by Sameer, who hails from Banaras.

Singh says the message they have tried to convey is that "You build your own path. What kind of a world you create is up to you. Compassion is really what we've tried to propagate through the film", he adds.

The film's other credits include cinematography by Nirav Shah, art by Nitish Roy, screenplay by L.C.Singh and Javed Siddiqui, dialogue by Javed Siddiqui and choreography by Saroj Khan.

The story is written by producer L.C.Singh himself, who grew up in Banaras and studied at the Banaras Hindu University. He says the film is an attempt to introduce a young Indian audience to the wonders of Banaras. Singh firmly believes in remaining rooted to his heritage and wanted a medium to communicate this to the younger generation. The choice of film as a medium to communicate this message is incidental, as he felt that films enjoy tremendous popularity amongst the youth and is capable of leaving huge visual impact. The ideas that gave shape to "Banaras A Mystic Love Story" existed in Singh's mind for a long time but the constrains of time and commitment to IT business held him back. Finally, he took some time off from the board of Nihilent Technologies to pursue his crative urge.

"People do not know that it has been the center of Indian spirituality for centuries, perhaps millennia. Every Indian spiritual leader from the rishis to Buddha and from Nanak and Kabir to J.Krishnamurthy have lived there", Singh says.

Singh continues, "Banaras is the epitome of everything that we call Indian.  I wanted to make a film that would reflect the beautiful Indian tradition to the youngsters. Youngsters of today have lots of talent and energy. They need to belong somewhere, they need to be proud of belonging to India. The only way we can make them realize what India is, is to show them its rich culture and heritage. This film is my attempt to do that."

"The film is meant to be entert