Adil Hussain-starrer short Meal doing good in the festival rounds

Encouraging young filmmakers for their innovative and creative ways is not uncommon these days. So, after graduating from Prague Film School when Abhiroop Basu decided to make short films, he found many renowned artistes eager to portray his characters. If it was Adil Hussain, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee and Arun Mukhopadhyay in his short film Meal, then it was Pankaj Tripathi and Ekavali Khanna for Laali. Now, when Meal is making waves at the international film festival circuit, a proud Abhiroop said, “Meal opened a lot of gates actually.It led to Laali, an unforgettable experience of working with Pankaj Tripathi, and then my upcoming film with Simi Garewal as well. She said and I quote ‘It’s powerful and the underlying violence is palpable without a spoken word! Incredible!’.”
The prestigious selections include Arizona Short Film Festival (an American premiere), International Film Festival of South Asia-Toronto (a Canadian premiere) and FilmStrip International Film Festival Romania, where it is the only Indian entry. “I’m ecstatic at the news. It’s a good short by a very young director. He has captured the characters’ world and their emotional turmoil without a single spoken word. It was also a pleasure working with such brilliant co-stars,” said Adil.
Abhiroop, who broke the news to his team, seemed extremely happy to have built a team of dedicated specialists. He was all praise for his DOP Deep Metkar. The admiration was mutual. “It’s a true honour to be featured in the Arizona International Film Festival. Working on this film was a very challenging but memorable experience and to see our work being recognised at this stage is a validation of all the hard work that’s gone into it. The story by Basu and the performances by Adil and Ratnabali deserve this platform,” said Deep.
Abhiroop is elated with all the rave reviews coming his way for Meal. “I showed it to Bejoy Nambiar, director of Shaitaan and Wazir and he loved it too. He said ‘I am bowled over by it! Hope it has a good festival run!’ The news of selections has just started coming in. Hopefully, in the next few months we will be able to get it across to a worldwide audience and then soon after release it on one of the OTT platforms for all to see.”