From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 10:34 AM IST
Imagine 2 actors portray 22 characters in a one night story. ‘The Artist’, written & directed by Sunil Prem Vyas, the film is weaved in an unusual story of two stage actors Prithvi & Sapna, getting locked inside the theatre after their show & what happens later takes the audience on an artistic & entertaining voyage of thrill, intellect, love, drama & psychic actions cherished with classic performances by two debutants Mamta Bhatia (playing Sapna) & Sunil Vyas himself as Prithvi. Sunil plays 17 outstanding characters & Mamta gets the opportunity to portray 5.
Late veteran actor Sanjeev Kumar once portrayed 9 astonishing characters & amazed the audience. ‘It would be unfair to compare such great legends to the new generation actor like me’, says Sunil, but I have tried to live all 17 characters to my full capabilities as an artist’.
The film no doubt speaks a lot about the practice & method of an actor to really get in to the character but the film also has a very new & refreshing plot of 2 actors being trapped in an auditorium. How they spend the night, how they find the love chemistry & how the artist psyche (shown very intelligently & creatively as a Joker) pushes the actor (Prithvi) to portray the character so truthfully that the actor looses his identity & starts living himself only as the character & that too…a negative one . What happens with the beautiful actress when locked with a villain character portrayed by the love of her life? The film very efficiently brings out all the human sentiments in such an unusual situation.
Though this is a stage based film starring just two actors in a huge auditorium, it doesn’t fall into monotony as Sunil and Mamta play the role of 22 characters in different colorful costumes lending variety to the film.
It requires extra guts & talent to clearly tell this complex but unique story & Sunil has proved his story telling capability as writer/director in this film. Surprisingly he has never assisted anyone but is a self-learned film maker. Late Gurudutt & V. Shantaram are his idols.
‘The kind of passion & immense talent I saw in him was the only reason to invest all my hard earned money for this project’, says Mamta Bhatia, who is also the producer of the film. Further adding to this she says ‘though Indian film industry is growing but unfortunately we do not have much producers/financers for such experimenting & unique subjects. I was so amazed & inspired to hear Mr. Amitabh Bachhan in one of his interviews stating that ‘instead of we look forward to WEST, let’s make our industry so powerful that WEST look at us for our appreciation as we have immense talents & creativity’. I could see a combination of both along with a sparkling passion in Sunil’s eyes when he narrated the script to me. Practically contributing to the inspiration she produced this film ‘The Artist’. I knew Sunil for last 6 years through his theatre group ‘Darpan’. Not only me but anyone who has seen his work would believe in his talent as actor/writer/director. He is an intelligent & technically sound film-maker; she states this with a confident smile.
On asking about casting herself in the film she clarifies’ she never wanted to act in her debut venture but it was Sunil who convinced her to portray Sapna. Being a producer is always a very responsible job & handling two jobs at a time was very tough but we worked like a team as we work in theatre. We had full rehearsals & a small workshop for the film. I learnt a lot from Sunil. He was the one who brought me in.
Answering to the question’ why should one watch this film?’ the duo team states,
‘For it’s strongest spine is the concept.. It is Unique, Unique & Unique & is never made before. It’s entertainment with substantial content giving some food for thought. It is surely an artistic journey through beautiful medium of film making’.
The film is complete & the makers are looking for the right distributors. May this film get the break that it truly deserves.
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