Manjha is a 40 minute short film directed by Rahi Anil Barve. It was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). Talking about the movie Barve says, “Manjha is a revenge story of a nine year old poor boy, who lives with his three year old mentally challenged sister and makes manjha for a living.”
Danny Boyle adds, “I’m delighted to include Manjha on the Blu-ray DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire. Manjha is an extraordinary film. With little resources it is visually stunning and emotionally captivating, surprising and gripping. It is everything a short film should be.”
Although Manjha will be packaged with Slumdog Millionaire’s Blu- ray DVDs internationally, it may not make it to India DVD. A source says, “Manjha is an extremely well made film, but it is also very dark. Due to which, the Censor Board wants various scenes to be removed. Moreover the Indian audience is not ready for such a hard hitting film. Hence in India some other film may be included in the bonus features of Slumdog Millionaire.”
“Manjha was made on a shoestring budget of Rs 60,000. Initially, we did not show the film to anybody as we were not pleased with its quality. But one day we screened it at MIFF, after which Anurag Kashyap sent it to Danny Boyle and he liked it a lot and is now including it in his Blu-ray DVD,” Barve adds.
Barve is currently busy preparing for his directorial debut with White Cloud Pictures. His forthcoming film is titled Tumbad and is based on folk tales of Maharashtra with an underlay of horror. Anurag Kashyap is the creative producer of Tumbad.
