Liars Dice (film)

Liar's Dice is a 2013 Hindi road drama film, written and directed by Geetu Mohandas. The film stars Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles. The film deals with the issue of the human cost of migration to cities and the issue of migrant labourers and their exploitation, through the story of young mother, living in remote village, whose husband goes missing after having left to work many months ago.

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Geetu made her debut as feature film director with the film, she had previously made short film Kelkkunndo in 2008, which received wide acclaim. The film had its world premiere at the Mumbai Film Festival in October 2013, where it took part in the Indian competition section. In January 2014, the film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam. It won a special jury award at Sofia International Film Festival.

The film went on to receive two National Film Awards including, Best Actress for Geetanjali Thapa and Best Cinematography for Rajeev Ravi at the 61st National Film Awards. The film is India's Official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

Plot

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The canvas of the film stretches from a small village on the mountains called Chitkul, which borders China to the industrial land of big dreams, Delhi city.

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It’s about a young mother, Kamala and her 3-year-old daughter from a tribal community who embarks on a journey leaving their native land in search of her missing husband. Along this journey she encounters an army deserter who decides to accompany them to their destination.

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This film talks about a sense of futility; anger against the system and also explores the dynamics of a man woman relationship. It’s a linear narrative travel story with a more alarming backdrop of the socio political conditions of India today.

Cast

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Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Nawazuddin

Geetanjali Thapa as Kamala

Manya Gupta as Manya

Vikram Bhagra as Hotel Owner

Murari Kumar as Hotel Boy

Production

Director Geetu Mohandas is a noted actress in Malayalam cinema. She had written the script of the film in 2007, before her debut short Kelkkunndo (Are You Listening) in 2008. However she was unable to get the film financed because of unusual storyline and a relatively unknown cast. Nevertheless, due to the critical success received at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) for the short film, she managed to get a project development grant of €10,000 (around Rs.8.45 lakh now) from the IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.

The film faced difficulties in raising funds before Alan McAlex and Ajay G. Rai, producers from Jar Pictures stepped in and produced the film. The film is co-produced by Geetu’s own production company, Unplugged.

Alan McAlex, with the experience of line producing small budget independent films such as Frozen (2007), Harud(2011), also helmed the production of the film. Liar's Dice was shot on a low budget using a small crew in under a month in March, 2012, at the Chitkul village in Kinnaur district, Shimla, and various location in Delhi, including the Jama Masjid. The cinematography was by Geetu’s husband, Rajeev Ravi, who has previously worked in movies such as Dev.D (2009) and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) directed by Anurag Kashyap which were line produced by Ajay G. Rai.