I can remember only two things about last year. One, when Arindam called and asked if I wanted to make a film on this concept and the other, of filming Saluun.

I have tried using my experiences of Patna where I grew up. The nuances, people’s behaviour and small-town politics. It has been a very enriching journey. I also realised that storytelling is not one person’s medium. Here, every person’s opinions and thoughts matter. Gaurav, Razak Khan and the whole gang never made me feel that I was a new comer. I feel, the entire team, everybody, just fell in place and Saluun happened!

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Asok, a small-town simpleton gets entangled in a thick web of corrupt government machinery when his road side salon gets picked up by the local municipality. He is desperate to free his salon from the clutches of the corrupt officials. But before he realizes, the Salon is burnt in front of his very eyes on the eve of Holi, the festival of colors.

Pushed to the wall, Asok, takes on the municipal officers. His weapon is deceit. He puts up an elaborate scheme of his non-existent well being stolen. The news spreads like fire upsetting the political bosses. As pressure mounts, the very existence of the officials gets threatened. The machinery can’t deal with this bizarre case. Asok manages to do the impossible; brings the machinery down to their knees.

There are some movies that you hope will change the world around you. Saluun is one such.

No, heavens forbid, it is not an educational movie nor an art house one. It’s funny, clever, heart warming and it introduces a new director, Nikhil Nagesh Bhat who brings fresh insight into where popular Bollywood cinema can go, given half a chance. It chucks formula out of the window, casts fresh talent, reaches out of the multiplex format to rediscover a brave new cinema that can reach out to people anywhere and touch their hearts with love, humour, hope.

The ensemble cast, Gaurav Kapur, Razak Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Brijendra Kala, Murli Sharma, Gayatri Choudhuri, all remarkable actors, capture the magic and beauty of small town India where people often live with a corrupt bureaucracy but, instead of bemoaning their faith and complaining, how they rise above their day to day problems and their immediate environment to find charming, creative solutions that can redeem their lives as well as teach their tormentors a lesson.

The movie is based on a real life incident that took place in Shirole, Ambadi and Jhidki villages in Bhiwandi taluka in 2000 where the villagers decided to teach a lesson to the Government officers who had filched all the money sent for digging wells under the IRDP scheme. But the film transcends that specific event and becomes a story about middle class, middle India that you rarely see in today’s Bollywood movies. It’s a narrative of hope and magic. It shows how people, ordinary people can take adversity and turn it on its head to make their lives so much more fun.

Watch Saluun. It will show you another India, the real India. An India that will enchant you, sweep you off your feet.

Pritish Nandy