Sunit Sinha’s debut feature film Ranj (Slow Burn) will have its Delhi premiere at the upcoming Woodpecker International Film Festival (WIFF) on November 30 at Siri Fort Auditorium. Globally acclaimed for its focus on popularizing issue-based cinema, WIFF will be organizing its seventh annual edition this year from November 29 to December 1, 2019. Sixty-seven films from 16 countries have been officially selected for screening in this year’s festival.
Ranj (Slow burn) is the story of Amanpreet, a youth from a village in Punjab, who is forced to migrate to New Delhi, for livelihood. But he is not wired for city life. He yearns for all that he has left behind- his days without a care; and Geetu, his bride-to-be. He constantly struggles with the unfamiliar way of life. He appears painfully disoriented. Employed at an automobile tools shop, while Amanpreet’s co-workers jump at every opportunity to humiliate him, his boss constantly threatens to fire him.
His harassed work-life, the pressures of the impending marriage and pennilessness drive him to total despair. He roams the streets in pitiable silence and guilt like a cursed loner. He soon cracks. Amanpreet engages in a murderous assault and self-destructs the very life he set out to build. Now an uncertain fate looms large. Will he survive the city? Can he make peace with himself?
The 80-minute long film is directed by Sunit Sinha. He is an independent filmmaker, and a practising theatre artiste for over two and a half decades. In the mid-90s, he essayed major character roles in TV Series such as UTV’s Trikaal, Nimbus Television’s Farz, Sippy Films’ Gaatha, and Hansal Mehta’s debut feature film, Jayate (1998). Sinha has written and directed several notable plays for Actor Factor Theatre Company, including Khudgudi, Taxi, The Red Corridor, and Three. As a filmmaker, his short fiction films Pratihinsa (2014), and Subah Ke Pehle (2015) have won acclaim at international film festivals.