Mumbai – The national award winning team of producers Bindiya and Sachin Khanolkar and director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan [they won 4 National awards for the internationally acclaimed biopic Mee Sindhutai Sapkal] are back with another highly feted biopic in Hindi, GOUR HARI DASTAAN-THE FREEDOM FILE, a film that encompasses the past in a stinging modern day satire on “free” Indiathrough the eyes of Gour Hari Das, probably amongst the last of the living freedom fighters in thecountry. The film has been slated for nationwide theatre exhibition on 14th August 2015.
Vinay Pathak plays the titular role in the film top lined by names like Konkona Sen, TannishthaChatterjee, Ranvir Shorey, Asrani, Rajit Kapur, Vipin Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, Vikram Gokhale ,MohanKapur, Bharat Dabholkar and Siddharth Jadhav amongst several others. The film has the most reputedtechnical roster ever assembled including Emmy award winning cameraman Alphonse Roy, 9 timeNational award winning editor Sreekar Prasad, Violin maestro Dr L Subramaniam who has composed thescore and Oscar award winning sound designer Resul Pookutty.
Based on Das’ memoirs, the film is a dramatic tale of two mind generations locked in a see-sawbattle…one extolling values, the other groping in the dark, with the future of the country at stake. Thefilm has been an Official Selection at 14 international film festivals so far and has already won for VinayPathak, the Best Actor Award at the Paris Extravagant India Film Festival and for Konkona Sen, Best Actress Nomination at the New York Indian Film Festival.
Vinay Pathak connects deeply with the character. Speaking on essaying the title role, he said “The demeanor, discipline and resilience of Das were a revelation and it was a challenge to play Das not as an actor who copies a living character but as a flesh-n-blood character. Needless to say, the most satisfying exercise of my career so far as an actor.”
Konkona Sen finds Laxmi Das’ character, “The perfect conscience keeper to the film. In trying tomaintain a balance between her disbelieving son and disillusioned husband, I had to maintain the perfect poise and pitch”.
Ananth Narayan Mahadevan finds “Biopics of living, unsung heroes more challenging to make than thoseon well known heroes. Das was a super hero in many ways… his demonstration of patience in the face of political apathy, is a lesson that, unfortunately, might never be learnt by the younger generation”.
GOUR HARI DASTAAN—THE FREEDOM FILE will be exclusively marketed and distributed by a bright new entrant on the distribution sector – ENTITY ONE, the brainchild of veteran exhibitor Girish Wankhede who will put more than a decade of valuable experience with Cinemax and PVR Cinemas to good use. “I am very particular that my first acquisition would be a tent pole film for me that will make me go the extra mile. Gour Hari Dastaan meets the requirements perfectly. Moreover I am now the sole aggregator of Marathi films for PVR. Gour Hari Dastaan, I am certain will be a memorable debut for me and make ENTITY ONE a brand for quality cinema in the country”.
