Set in the sleepy town of Raigarh, Mor Mann Ke Bharam (An illusion of my mind) is a surprise treat from the unexpected state of Chhattisgarh. The short film revolves around an author who is in a creative dilemma of sorts. He is torn between what he really wants to write for his novel and what his readers might want to read. Thus, we enter into his thinking labyrinth where the fine line between reality and imagination gets blurred. Fiction characters as well as real ones from a dingy lodge where he resides, form a rather surreal novel. It all translates into a brilliantly erratic narrative, where a certain “room with the window” is on everybody’s subconscious mind.

Still from Mor Mann Ke Bharam

Still from Mor Mann Ke Bharam

The director trio of Karma Takapa, Heer Ganjawala and Abishek Varma have made a remarkable effort to keep the film as authentic to Chhattisgarh as possible. Theatre artists from IPTA Raigarh make up for the majority of the cast. The local flavour is further sprinkled with the inclusion of four different and popular folk songs from the area. The spoken dialect and physical nuances of every character have been detailed in accordance.

Mor Mann Ke Bharam is an unprecedented homage to the depths of the human mind. The mind is singularly capable of engaging all its faculties into a state of illusion. Fresh from a grand reception and standing ovations at the recent Jio MAMI Film Festival, the film definitely does live up to the acclaim. The directors and the extremely small crew, all debutants, have doubled up in various capacities to practically handle everything about the film. Watch the film for it is a sheer labour of toil, and a tribute to the mind and Chhattisgarh.

-Shikhar Goyal

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