Keet Insectum India

Keet

Insectum

India | Hindi | Drama

Budget USD 601,250 Financing in place USD 162,562 Production Company Metanormal Motion Pictures

Present at Film Bazaar Bhaskar Hazarika Shyam Bora Looking for Co-Producers Financiers Film Festivals/Programmers

Synopsis

In a low-income colony in New Delhi, Gagan Baudh (27) has an immersive dream from which he wakes up in a strange state. He tries to rise from bed but all he can do is flay his limbs about, ineffectually like an upturned bug, as if his brain has forgotten to command his limbs on how to move. He loses the ability to talk, making only strange clattering sounds with his teeth. Gagan’s worried family takes him to a hospital, where they are told that he might have epilepsy, but further investigations may help reveal the truth. His family, being poor, takes Gagan back home, hoping he will heal with time. Soon, his family stops treating him like a human. The family’s gradual detachment with Gagan is punctuated with vignettes from his life, all the way back to his infanthood. Each of these vignettes unravels what really happened to Gagan.

Keet is loosely based on Franz Kafka’s short story The Metamorphosis. When I first read it as a 19-year-old, I was struck by how graphically literal it was. It was my first experience with surrealism in literature. I aim to approach Keet with the same spirit of making the magical and the surreal feel common and real.

I’m also motivated to tell this story in the context of a world that is becoming harsh and cruel. Displays of sensitivity and compassion are projected as timid at best and a conspiracy at worst. Through Keet, I seek to arouse pathos and empathy; emotions lying dormant inside us, forced to the nether regions of the heart lest they be construed as weaknesses. Everybody in this world is here by chance and not by choice. In that respect, we are all one. Insects get it. It is time we did too.

Director(s)’ Biography

Bhaskar’s most recent (sophomore) feature, Aamis, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in the International Narrative Competition Section. His debut film Kothanodi, received the ACF Post-production Grant and had its World Premiere at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival. He is also the Writer and Creative Producer of Metanormal’s new feature Emuthi Puthi, which was released across the regional cinema screens of Assam in June, 2022. Currently, Bhaskar is in the post-production stage of his latest short for a feature length anthology by the makers of Tumbbad.

Bhaskar Hazarika Director

Producer(s)’ Biography

Shyam’s latest feature, Emuthi Puthi, is the first film from North-eastern India to be shot completely on a phone (iPhone) and was released across cinema theaters of Assam in June 2022. Earlier, his debut feature as a producer, Aamis, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2019. Currently, Shyam is at the editing stage of his third feature, Second Chance (Produire au Sud Kolkata, Film Bazaar Co-production Market, Film Independent Global Media Maker Program). He is an alumnus of the Busan Asian Film School and the Buncheon NAFF Fantastic Genre Film School.

Shyam Bora Producer

(+91) 9833275912 shyam@metanormal.in