Anamika Haksar’s Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon (GKJKLJRH) has proven to be a true dark horse of contemporary Indian cinema as the director’s first feature is the only Indian film selected to be screened at the New Frontier section of the Sundance Film Festival 2019. I didn’t want economics because we all know why people leave their villages and travel to cities. Our country is full of vibrant people and they have humour in the face of all kinds of things. Anamika, who is battling a slight disability herself, says, “Either you look at people with pity and allow people to look at you with pity, or you just look at everyone equally and give them solidarity. The questionnaire was then handed out to friends who used it interview those living and labouring on the streets of Old Delhi. “The Sundance selection came like a bolt from the tie wire anchors blue and I feel blessed that my film has been included in a category that champions experimental works and the labour of visionaries,” says the director.)
“Women spoke a lot about their dreams and feelings, whether it was domestic violence, dreams of another man, or another woman. Rather, it straddles the genres of light and black humour, reminding us that humour can be found in the bleakest spaces..” The filmmaker, who has conducted street theatre workshops with people in the unorganised sector, and once, worked as an acupressurist for underprivileged women and children, wrote down 25 questions that were designed to tap into dormant fears and dreams. On looking at the script, people would say ‘this is the weirdest script we’ve ever heard’,” reveals Anamika, who then went ahead and self-financed the project using personal funds and with a little help from friends, relatives and people from the theatre fraternity.Anamika, who is a veteran theatre director, says it’s her background that emboldened her to take on such an unconventional project, something even established Bollywood directors often shy away from. But, what else is there? What do these people live with?” asks Anamika. To give shape to the fantastical, Archana Shastri was roped in to paint out dreams, while VFX specialist, Soumitra Ranade, sometimes animated these paintings. So you end up breaking them; sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly,” says the 59-year-old.” (I remember my old well, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to extricate myself from this well.
This film is about them and I know theyll relate to it. We don’t know enough about the people living on the margins of society.Though the film focuses on people who have to struggle for or even do without basic necessities, it doesn’t take a pitying stance. Dont be taken aback if you see vivid 2D-animated drawings sharing the screen with gritty, realistic imagery, because the film is bursting with such syncretic visuals. The film zooms in on the dreams, desires and fears of those occupying the margins of society in Old Delhi, like the pickpockets, daily-wage labourers, hawkers, beggars, street singers and others and to give voice and visual representation to the inner landscape of these individuals, the filmmaker opted to combine documented footage with elements of magical realism. I was curious to understand what they think about, what their fears are. But these people cannot afford multiplex tickets, so were thinking of other ways to take this film to them," says Anamika.Debutant director Anamika Haksar speaks about Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon, the only Indian film to be selected for the New Frontier section of the prestigious Sundance Festival. “My theatre is very experimental. “The questions asked were personal. Cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi too used the tricks of his trade to give form to these fleeting fantasies and fears.
When asked why she chose to make the film around the marginalised, Anamika, who has spent a lot of time in Old Delhi says, “I’ve always been fascinated by this multi-layered city and the people living there.The experimental nature of the film stems not only from its mercurial, non-linear timeline, which flits from one moment to the next but is also spied in its filmmaking style, which fuses together the real and the imagined. Anamika gives an example of one of the dreams: “Mujhe apna puraana kuan yaad aa raha hai, maloon nahi mein is kuan se nikloongi.However, despite the prestigious selection, the director says that her film is still struggling for a release, as it is yet to bag a producer and the reason for this impediment is the avant-garde nature of her film. “We were refused all around. The prestigious section is known to showcase only the most cutting-edge, experimental cinematic works and hence, the director is delighted to see her film being part of this category.”
In fact, the title of the film too was inspired by a funny interaction with a tonga wallah, who when asked for a ride, declined his services as he had to feed his impoverished horse jalebis!Although Anamika and her team are currently basking in the radiant glow of success and are busy charting the films course along the Film Festival map, the directors thoughts still linger on the people her film is about. In fact, even financing the film proved to be an uphill task as almost no one was willing to invest in a project as experimental as this. Plus, when you’re from a different background, you don’t know the rules. You always live with a certain fear when you are displaced from the place of your birth,” adds Anamika. And I’m against pitying anyone, either myself or anyone else on the road.The answers, which included dreams, were often cryptic. "I want people living in street shelters and working on the streets to watch the film
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