Varadraj Swami and Shahzad Ahmad, the writers of Manjhi The
Mountain Man recently tasted sweet
success again when their short film Akhbar Ka Ek Panna won at the New York short Film Festival and Rasika Agashe won
the Best Actor Award. The shorts is written by Shahzad Ahmad and Varadraj Swami
and directed by Varadraj Swami as well.
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| Varadraj Swami, director, Akhbar Ka Ek Panna |
Interestingly, the film seems to be straight out of the life of
the writers, who even after Manjhi await the world to know that they have been
responsible for the research and dialogues of the acclaimed film. Says
the duo, “Metropolitan life brings with it urban chaos. The stress and
the need to prove oneself at every step is not just painful but at times
suicidal. Success in a metro spells the beginning of a stressful journey, not
the end. Here, at every step one needs to go through so many complications that
it is not easy living the life. We are glad our feelings on the metro madness
made sense even in New York.”
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| A Still from Akhbar Ka Ek Panna |
The writers plan to take
the film on a world festival tour before embarking on their next. “This time it
will be a feature,” discloses Varadraj. “You can say Akhbar Ka Ek Panna was the fourth leaf from
our book, replete with exciting stories waiting to hit the celluloid.” The
other short films by the duo are The Endless, Shades and Recession. "Our short films are
our short stories coming to life," avers Shahzad Ahmad.
