Director Ram Kamal Mukherjee’s film ‘Rickshawala’ virtually travelled to Melbourne and Madrid. It has been selected for the prestigious ImagineIndia International Film Festival in Madrid, Spain, and the 11th International Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Raj exclaims, “It was unexpected and surprising especially as an independent filmmaker to get such recognition as these are prestigious film festivals.
More so because of Covid-19 as several film festivals are not being held but the situation is slowly improving with certain virtual film festivals. From sending the film to getting selected was an exciting journey as the competition is worldwide.” On weaving hard-hitting and relevant issues in the story, he says, “With Covid-19 the migrant issue became more important but this film was made before the pandemic. I was concerned about the migrants, rickshaw pullers who are slowly going off the road since the court had passed an order banning the handpulled rickshaw. Numerous people do this in Kolkata, it’s a sign of the old times and is eco-friendly too but is still a form of human oppression which is not good. They don’t have an alternate occupation or solution but we are asking them to do away with what they have which the movie tries to depict. It was a calling to make ‘Rickshawala’.”
Being born and brought up in Kolkata and aware about the city, its lanes helped him picturise it with a particular vision. Only two actors who have portrayed the role of rickshawala in films are Om Puri in ‘City of Joy’ and Balraj Sahni in ‘Do Bigha Zamin’. The director did not want to project rickshaw pullers as victims, so both good and sad side of their lives have been shown. He wanted to tell a human story with multi-layer plot. It has rickshaw puller as the protagonist intermingling with a few other characters who are equally important. Avinash Dwivedi, Sangeeta Sinha and Kasturi are all fresh faces. Raj likes to work with newcomers as he sees potential and hunger in them to perform which helps both the film and the director to push the envelope. He elaborates, “Established actors come come with baggage. I casted someone who is dedicated, spent time with rickshawalas, walked barefoot on the streets of Kolkata and was able to face the rain and sun. Although Avinash is a Mumbai boy, I could see something in his eyes, there was pathos which I wanted in Manoj’s character.
He took it up as a challenge and did justice to it.” The film has been receiving overwhelming feedback and critical acclaim internationally. It already fetched Best Actor and Best Director award at 13th Ayodhya International Film Festival. Avinash attended workshops and under – went training to get comfortable taking the load of the passengers, balance the rickshaw on the roads of Kolkata and followed a diet to look like a tough Bihari boy who can pull a rickshaw. On the transition from a journalist to an author to a director, he reveals, “I was telling a story of a person or an incident even when I was a journalist o r a n editor of a magazine. After becoming an author, I began telling stories of people. The next upgrade was the audio-visual medium, I only changed the medium but am still a storyteller. This decision was made since I wanted to tell a different kind of a story which was visually enchanting and got my feel and flavour so chose a different medium to talk about it.”