Triggering a debate on marijuana

With 30 releases all over India and eight in Kerala, Anup Kurien, who shot to fame after his critically-acclaimed film Manasarovar, is up for something big this time as his next flick Naseeruddin Shah-starrer The Blueberry Hunt is readying to hit the screens in April.

Shot in Vagamon, the movie revolves around a man with an unknown identity, who grows highly-potent marijuana in his remote estate bordering the jungles of Kerala as his final chance to get rich. The director, who hails from Kottayam, is highly confident about the film and even believes that the movie would help start a conversation about marijuana legalisation in the country. The movie can also be downloaded from the website in selected countries and selected states in the country.    

“I  love challenges and I think  this has attracted me to the film field. In the film, the character of Naseeruddin Shah has no back story and no real name. I left it to the actor to mould the character and when I explained it to him, he at once agreed to do the movie for free. I think this is one of his greatest performances and a textbook example of how a master actor portrays a character where we do not know the character's history,” says Anup.

“What I do as  a filmmaker is always different. Sometimes I tend to deviate from the screenplay. It is a huge risk but there is also a sense of freedom associated with it. I enjoy it and believe this has helped me get good reviews for my first movie,” says the alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.

Anup has also been able to extend the sense of freedom to his career; he is not a full-time filmmaker. Anup is a postgraduate in computer applications and has been working as a computer programmer in the US. “I work in the US for six months. That is the maximum I can work at a stretch and I save the money to produce movies. So my movies are low-budget films. This is also my philosophy as I believe that the money spent on anything that is not seen on the screen is leisure,” he says.

The movie has no trailer and instead, the director has decided to go with a graphic novel, which was well received in social media. “The movie is a thriller and I thought a graphic novel would increase the curiosity of it and with the comments and likes the movie has been receiving in social media, I think it was a success,” he said.

The director has a liberal view on the use of marijuana, the central theme of the movie, and says that the movie will open up a debate on the subject, which is banned in the country. “Marijuana is a substance that is closely related to our culture and we should think beyond it as drugs. I believe it should not be banned and hope the movie would open up a debate in the country about it,” he says.