CAST
NATHA - Omkar Das Manikpuri
BUDHIA - Raghubir Yadav
RAKESH - Nawazuddin Siddiqui
DHANIYA - Shalini Vatsa
AMMA - Farrukh Jaffer
NANDITA - Malaika Shenoy
DEEPAK - Vishal Sharma
PHOTOGRAPHS - Lalit Nene
CREW
Writer & Directer - Anusha Rizvi
Producer - Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao
Co-Producer - Ronnie Screwala
Associate Producers - Zarina Mehta, Deven Khote, Siddharth Kapur
Co-Director & Casting Director - Mahmood Farooqui
Director of Photography - Shanker Raman
Editor - Hemanti Sarkar
Sound Designer - Hari Kumar Pillai
Sound Mixing Engineer - Anup Dev
Production Designer - Suman Roy Mahapatra
Costume Designer - Maxima Basu
Make-up - Vikram Gaikwad
Publicity Designer - Sukanya Ghosh
Background Music Composer - Mathias Duplessy
Song Composer ‘Des Mera’ - Indian Ocean
Song Composer ‘Chola Mati Ke’ - Nageen Tanvir (Original Gond Tribal tune of Mandala Dist.M.P.)
Song Composer ‘Sakhi Saiyyan’ - Bhadwai Village Artistes
Lyrics- ‘Des Mera’ - Sanjeev Sharma
Additional Lyrics ‘Des Mera’ - Swanand Kirkire
Lyrics -‘Chola Mati Ke’ - Gangaram Sakhet (Chattisgarhi Folk Poet, Raipur)
Lyrics- ‘Sakhi Saiyyan’ - Bhadwai Village Artistes
Line Producer - Alan McAlex
Executive Producer - B. Shrinivas Rao
Charted Accountants - Bimal Parekh & Co.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE ( Anusha Rizvi )
I am an accidental filmmaker. I neither trained nor ever wished to make films before the story of Peepli Live came to me in a flash. Some stories have a tendency to appear in the most unlikely places, this one appeared when I was watching a TV news capsule on farmers in India, some five years ago. It is a different matter that it took me one whole year to write and rewrite the script and to decide whether I wanted to direct it! But there it was in its entirety and something needed to be done about that. I was immensely fortunate therefore that Aamir Khan took this unconventional film on board without any hesitation and has supported it to the hilt.
I was clear from the beginning that the film had to grow outwards from the people and the village rather than being an imposition of an outsider’s vision. I wanted to capture reality rather than to create it. I am overwhelmed and humbled by the hard work that the entire unit, including all the background artists, put into achieving that. The lightmen who stood for hours as policemen, to the media extras who ran for hours on end for that perfect shot, the set decorators who fed the animals, this film is their achievement and I am proud of being part of their team. And this to my mind will always remain the strength of this film, the people in it and behind it.
Peepli Live is a personal film. And I say this with full recognition of the fact that the script that was written and the film that was made is from an outsider’s point of view. Born and brought up in New Delhi, I am an outsider to the rural scene. Yet the characters are people who I have known and interacted with, laughed with or laughed at, eaten, observed and sang with. These are people that I have known in a deeply personal sense and in that sense this film is almost a sum total of my politics, personal and professional.
None of this would have been possible without Mahmood, my husband and co-director and key collaborator from the first stage to the last, in what has been a very long journey for us both.
PRODUCER'S NOTE ( Aamir Khan )
In the year 2004–5, I was shooting for a film called Mangal Pandey, also called The Rising. While I was working on this film, I kept being pestered by some girl called Anusha Rizvi to read her script called The Falling. At first I thought that someone was just trying to be cheeky. But the requests kept coming and were very sincere. While I am in the middle of something I don’t usually like to look at scripts but this time for some unknown reason I decided to give it a shot. So I called her and she read out her script to me.
From the time that the narration began I was drawn into it. I found it to be very funny and at the same time very heartbreaking. Very engaging, entertaining and enlightening, but a very unusual script for Indian cinema. In other words, it was right up my street.
Anusha and her team have done a superb job of putting on screen what was on paper. And I am very happy and proud to be associated with such a fine film.
Only now it’s called ‘PEEPLI LIVE’.
This is the first of the films that I have produced with the hope of entertaining a world audience. It’s a world that I am unfamiliar with... and scary. Let’s see how it goes.
SYNOPSIS
Natha a poor farmer from Peepli village in the heart of rural India is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan. A quick fix to the problem is the very same government’s program that aids the families of indebted farmers who have committed suicide. As a means of survival Farmer Natha can choose to die!!! His brother is happy to push him towards this unique ‘honor’ but Natha is reluctant. Local elections are around the corner and what might’ve been another unnoticed event turns into a ‘cause celebré’ with everyone wanting a piece of the action. Political bigwigs, high-ranking bureaucrats, local henchmen and the ever-zealous media descend upon sleepy Peepli to stake their claim. The question on everyone’s lips - “Will he or Won’t he?” As the mania escalates what will be the fate of Farmer Natha; nobody seems to care how he really feels?
FULL MUSIC INFORMATION
MATHIAS DUPLESSY ( BACKGROUND MUSIC COMPOSER )
Mathias Duplessy is a music composer and a multi-instrumentalist, and shuttles between Paris and Mumbai. Mathias has composed music for a number of films including Ze film, Mona Saber, Hymne à la Gazellea and Bombay Summer, among others. He performs year-round on the international jazz and world music forums along with Sophia Charaï, Bevinda, Monica Passos, Ameth Male, and Sara Alexander. Mathias specializes in Guitar, the “Morin Khuur” (Mongolian Cello), and Throat-singing.
INDIAN OCEAN ( SONG COMPOSER / PERMORMER, DES MERA )
19 years and five albums later, Indian Ocean is a band which is the true voice of contemporary India. With a rich mix of folk, jazz and contemporary world music, this versatile group of four truly connects to every citizen of the world using the language which is universal and knows no boundary, the language of music. The band has performed in over fifty countries in all five continents. Known for creating political music, they have worked sporadically in films and are proud to be associated with Peepli Live.
NAGEEN TANVEER ( SONG COMPOSER / SINGER, CHOLA MATI KE )
Daughter of Indian theatre stalwarts Habib and Moneeka Tanvir, Nageen Tanvir has trained extensively in Hindustani classical vocal music. Her music experience also spans a practical knowledge of the folk and tribal traditions of North and Central India, specifically the musically rich region of Chattisgarh. As a member of the famed Naya Theatre, she has been involved in creating music for many of their internationally known productions.
BADWAI VILLAGE ARTISTES ( SONG COMPOSERS / PERFORMERS, SAKHI SAIYYAN )
The village musicians of Badwai are part-timers who make music during festive or ritual occasions. A motley group of school teachers, farmers and other servicemen, they create music by using basic instruments and simple, traditional folk tunes. The song they present in the film was a truly homespun take on the plight of poor farmers set against international inflation. The song was recorded live on location in one night and no changes have been made to it since. This is the first time they have appeared in a film.
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