Write Angle

The author shares that the movie is being directed by well-known documentary film-maker Gurvinder Singh,who is a 2001 graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTTI),Pune,and has assisted stalwarts like Mani Kaul. “Gurvinder approached me and stated that he wants to make a film based on the novel. My only condition was that I did not want him to tamper with the novel and he agreed,” says Singh.

Well-known for his writings in the Malwai dialect,Singh’s work deals primarily with the conflicts that take place in the changing and dynamic times. Talking about the novel,Singh says,“There is a practice in the Malwa region where Dalits and members of the Schedule Caste beg at the time of lunar and solar eclipse. They cry out ‘anne ghore da daan’ and in return the people from higher castes donate grains. This novel projects how changing times have forced the Dalits to move out of villages,as they find it hard to find work there. They face a similar problem in the urban areas. The conflicts,pain and the social changes arising out of such a situation is the basic subject of the film,which has been titled Chann Garahn,” says Gurdial Singh,adding that the shooting of the film will begin in January 2011. This is the author’s second work that will be converted into a film. In the 1990s,his work Marhi da Deeva was made into a film of the same name.