Sudhir Mishra To Take On Avengers This Week

It takes a whole lot of guts to stay in the reckoning when your competition is a big overblown Hollywood franchise.

 But the gritty Sudhir Mishra, who hasn’t had a feature-film release since Inkaar in 2013, is sure that his film Das Dev will find an audience. “My film has nothing to with Avengers: Infinity War. I don’t think those who will flock to that will be interested in my film. Das Dev has  a different audience profile from the one for the big blockbusters,  from Hollywood or home.”

 Mishra is all praise for his cast. While Rahul Bhat was “borrowed” from Anurag  Kashyap(after Mishra saw him in Kashyap’s Ugly)Richa Chadha and Aditi Rao were the director’s second choice and first choice, respectively.

Though he wouldn’t admit it, Sudhir Mishra’s first choice for Paro’s part was his favourite actress Chitrangda Singh who disappeared from the scene for a while.Apparently, Aditi Rao who plays the modern day politically-motivated Chandramukhi, recommended  Richa and even set up  a meeting between Sudhir Mishra and  Richa.

So much for the cat-fights between the two heroines that were reported to spice up proceedings. No matter how much the tabloids wish for it there no fights between  Richa and Aditi.

Says Sudhir, “Das Dev doesn’t need any spicing up. It is a dark and enigmatic tale of passion and retribution. More Shakespearean than Saratchandra.I shot it in my favourite  city Lucknow to give the  tale  that rugged  heft which yokes  Saratchandra to Shakespeare.”

Film critic Raja Sen says the new interpretation of the Sarat Chandra classic would be interesting in Sudhir Mishra’s hands. “Although it is hard to muster up enthusiasm for yet another Devdas adaptation, Sudhir Mishra is never conventional.So here’s hoping he surprises us.

Trade analyst Atul Mohan says he ’s looking forward to seeing what Sudhir Mishra has done to Devdas. “Coming from a veteran filmmaker like Sudhir Mishra  I would like to see how he has reinterpreted the Saratchandra classic in the present-day political context. I wonder  why  nobody thought of this  before.”

Adds film critic Shreehari Nair, “Sudhir Mishra has a natural flair for subversion.So let’s see what he has done.”