A Death in the Gunj

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
​McCluskiegunj has always been a magical place for me. It is an isolated, sleepy town where we used to visit my grandparents in my childhood. It is a place where many stories were born, one such story is the birth of the Gunj.

The Anglo Indian community, most of whom never felt that they belonged in either India or England, were forever in search of home or ‘muluk’. That was how McCluskiegunj took birth with 300 Anglo Indian families in 1933. This Utopia began to fade soon after Indian Independence and by the late 70s, most of them had left in search of better economic prospects, leaving the town to its original tribal
inhabitants.

While these two marginalized groups, the Anglo Indians and Adivasis, struggled to integrate with mainland India, Shutu, our protagonist too, finds himself increasingly alienated from his own world. The search for home and identity is reflected in Shutu who struggles to fit in and belong. This is the story of what happens when he doesn’t.

Perhaps it was an attempt to recreate for myself my childhood and my parent’s youth that made me set the film in 1979. Most of my crew were either not born then or too young to remember very much! Our main challenge during pre-production therefore was to re-create a forgotten era. My Cinematographer Sirsha Ray, Production Designer Siddharth Sirohi and I felt it was imperative that we shoot on real location. Even though no other films had been shot there and the infrastructure was so poor, the local residents made everything possible. On our recces, they opened up their hearts and homes to us. Soon we were taking copious notes and pictures and even carting off their furniture to dress our set! Thanks to them, our wonderful cast, Music Director Sagar Desai and the whole team, we were able to create an authentic time and place to tell our story.