“We have spent the last two years in darkness due to the global pandemic. This year we are finally able to spend the festivals with full fervor and enthusiasm. The way women are treated in society is not correct. Hence I thought that we should promote the film during Diwali and hence I organized the pre-Diwali celebration with the team of Mahishasur Marddini. The film also raises its voice against the atrocities committed against women” said Rituparna Sengupta.

The pre-Diwali celebration took place at Rituparna Sengupta’s residence.

The film is written and directed by Ranjan Ghosh.

The film is presented by AVA Film Productions Pvt. Ltd. & Pawan Kanodia and co-produced by Vinayak Pictures.

The cast of the film consists of Rituparna Sengupta, Saswata Chatterjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Sritama Dey, Aryuun Ghosh, Arunima Halder, Abhyuday Dey, Purbasha Mal, Koushik Kar, Shaheb Bhattacherjee, and Poulomi Das.

The music has been composed by Avijit Kundu.

Durga Puja in Kolkata is a part of the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity maintained by UNESCO. It is a religious and cultural celebration that honors the female aspect of God and symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Goddess Durga is also known by the name Mahishasur Marddini. The story of the film shows a night before Kolkata’s Durga puja is set to start, and a ten-year-old deaf-mute homeless girl was gang-raped and killed. She just so happened to spend her days and nights at the nearby Muslim and Hindu cemeteries.

The focus of the plot then turns to a landlady’s home where her four college-bound tenants are occupied with last-minute festival preparations. They have a few planned and unplanned guests throughout the night. The events that follow demonstrate the struggles that women experience globally. The characters experience a catharsis moment when they realize that a girl kid or a woman in trouble is nothing less than humanity in danger. The film is a letter of apology to women and addresses the historical and contemporary wrongs committed against her.

The film indeed will be a mirror to society!!

Priyanka Dutta