Kabootar

By Pickle November 24, 2024

India | Hindi | Drama

Synopsis

In a 600-year-old monument in Delhi, a strange ritual still occurs- people from all over the city submit letters of personal problems seeking justice from a Djinn believed to be haunting this monument. In Old Delhi, more cases are brought to this blue Djinn than to the police. Mehboob, an illegal squatter in the monument, makes his living by reading these hundreds of letters and honing on to potential clients- whose problems he solves for a small fee. These cases are not murders or violent crimes- but more mundane- like finding missing cats or locating alcoholic husbands. It is through the monument and it’s peculiar ritual that he meets Naoko, an art teacher from Japan, who has escaped to Delhi after a tragedy back home. They strike an unlikely friendship and find they have much in common, despite coming from two different corners of the world. One day, Mehboob and Naoko find a lost child carrying a strange letter inside this monument. Tracing this child’s past proves to be a transformative journey for the trio, who realize slowly, that some wounds can never heal, but can only find a home to rest, sometimes in old rituals, sometimes in
people.

Ishan Sharma
Director
supertrampspeaks@gmail.com

Director(s) Statement

When I first visited the monument of Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, I was surprised to find people submitting handwritten letters to spirits called Djinns. These letters contained personal problems, property disputes, even their own photographs. I laughed it off as superstition- until I returned during Covid. Letters overflowed that day, and a young girl, who had recently lost her father, told me why. ‘you have the government, news channels, we only have our Djinns’ Who was I to tell her that Djinns didn’t exist? I wondered- what would happen if these letters were answered? And so, Kabootar was born.

Budget
USD 700, 000

Financing in place
USD 150, 000

Production Company
MDC Filmworks Pvt Ltd

Looking for
Co-Producers, Financers, Sales/Sales Agents