Mumbai: Director Majid Majidi, known for films like Children of Heaven and The Song of Sparrow, has praised actor-turned-director Himanshu Malik and his directorial debut Chitrakoot.

Himanshu is the actor who starred in Anubhav Sinha’s musical film Tum Bin in 2001, in which he shared the screen with Priyanshu Chatterjee and Rakeysh Bapat.

Recalling the time when he watched the film at Himanshu’s request, Majidi said, “Sometime back I saw Himanshu Malik’s Chitrakoot in a private show. I remember I was part of the jury committee for a function in Kerala. At that time a young man named Himanshu came to me and wanted me to watch his film. Though it was a tight schedule, we managed to watch the film together.

The veteran filmmaker added, “Chitrakoot is a sensitive and mature film, which was very interesting for me because of the direction. Although keeping aside the angle that his world is very different from mine, as my personal preference is a different cinema altogether, but as a director I felt that he is a young emerging talent and I am sure if If he continues this work, he can become a good filmmaker for Indian cinema.

He shared that the film is different from the usual ups and downs of a Bollywood film and highlights an important theme.

That said, it seemed like an offbeat effort and a far cry from the normality of the Bollywood genre. For this reason such outputs are highly valuable. I hope that during his time he has carved a niche and makes films dealing with social issues and human hardships. I believe Himanshu is a director with a bright future.

On how Majidi was contacted, Himanshu said, “A few days after the final print out of the film, I got a call from my colleague Akbar Arabian, a Pune-based Irani who was a respected member of his fraternity and also a patron of the arts. . He had asked Mr Majidi to watch a brief trailer of the film and had created some interest in him. Akbar called me at 11 in the morning.

Sharing how the journey to meet Majidi was met with adversity, Himanshu further said, Mr Majidi was in Trivandrum, leading the jury of a film festival and had agreed to meet me. But that evening the flight was delayed, there was a thunderstorm in Trivandrum, there was a traffic jam, I was only 2 hours late for the coffee meeting and Mr Majidi was busy with other work.

He continued, finally, later in the evening I met an onlooker with him, a childlike glint in his eyes, that was the first thing that struck me and the most generous smile I saw. All the time he looked at me intently, he didn’t bother to listen. The very next moment he got up and asked the organizers to fix a screening room for Chitrakoot the next day.

Presented by Akbar Arabian Mojdeh and Mojtaba Movies, Chitrakoot is produced by Akbar Arabian and Himanshu Malik. It stars Auritra Ghosh, Vibhor Mayank, Naina Trivedi, Kiran Srinivas and Shruti Bapna.

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