Anup Singh, director of “Qissa” and “The Song of Scorpions,” is directing a new short film, “Lasya: The Gentle Dance,” shot on Mumbai’s streets, produced by Mumbai-based Pretty Pictures.
“The Gentle Dance” follows a father and son, beggars on Mumbai’s roadside, over the course of a day in their lives. Monsoon rains repeatedly destroy their shelter, and the city offers them little beyond hostility and indifference. It is the father’s stories about the boy’s late mother – her boldness and her refusal to let go of playfulness even as she navigated the city and the natural world – that allow the son to see himself as more than a victim, and give him the will to dance among the ruins as she did and rebuild his life.
“This will be a short film,” Singh said. “It is for me an attempt, call it a desperate attempt, to see if in this time of AI, quick and violent action, and celebration of various demogogueries in storytelling, whether there is still a way to reaffirm cinema’s gentle ways of reaching us.”
The film is produced by Pretty Pictures, the Mumbai-based banner helmed by Zeeshan Ahmad and Pretty Aggarwal.
“Anup Singh’s work has always been about people on the margins,” Ahmad said. “His cinema has consistently insisted that their life not be documented only for the pain, but that the joys and the beauty of their life also be affirmed. We would like to support that vision in our work together.”
Following the short, Pretty Pictures plans to begin work with Singh early next year on his next feature film, which would mark the third film he was set to make with Irrfan Khan. The project returns some six years after the actor’s death.
“After this short, we are ready to start working with Anup Singh on his next feature film early next year,” Ahmad said. “Anup Singh is finally ready to return to the film. We are very excited to make this film in homage to Irrfan Khan.”
