Raj an aggressive sub-broker in a prosperous broking firm and Abha a marketing professional are a couple in their early-thirties. They move into a new 2-bedroom flat in a Mumbai suburb expecting peace and quiet. Life is sweet as their promising careers now seem to be nicely complemented by domestic stability.
Cracks start appearing in their ideal existence when Raj who is light sleeper is disturbed by noises at nights. They wake him several times in the nights (Abha is undisturbed though). Finally one night, Raj goes down to investigate and discovers that it is the night watchman blowing the whistle periodically in the night to scare thieves away. Raj scolds the watchman and forbids him from making any further noise but the secretary Janardan insists on the whistling continuing in lieu of the building security. Raj tries to garner support from fellow-residents but to no avail.
An issue that starts out lightly and amusingly trivial begins to escalate to take the shape of a serious problem for Raj. He begins to slowly go to pieces. Not being able to sleep at night begins to take a serious toll on him, both professionally and personally. At work, he becomes edgy and his usual smart sense of judgment suffers. At home, he becomes obsessed with any loud noises in the environment. His disgust at being unable to solve a seemingly simple problem such as this begins to drive him crazy. Moreover, to his great irritation, no-one really sympathises with his problem – not Abha, not Dev – his friend at work, not any of the neighbours. It annoys Raj immensely, because he genuinely believes that this nightly noise-making is an illogical, uncivilized act (there is also a hint that it is Raj’s conscience that’s not allowing him to sleep, rather than the whistling, but it is deliberately left ambiguous).
“Hulla†is story of a simple annoyance affecting a person’s life and bringing about dramatic unexpected change that brings the real character and emotions of the Raj and the people surrounding him, to the fore.
Cast
Sushant Singh, Rajat Kapoor, Kartikadevi Rane, Vrajesh Hirjee, Chandrachood Karnik, Mandeep Mazumdar, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Darshan Jariwala, Sushil Parashar, Dinesh Thakkerr, Balaji Deshpande, Nasser Abdullah, Datta Sonawane, and more.
Crew
Writer-Director: Jaideep Varma
Produced by: Handmade Films & Adlabs
Executive Producer: Cartwheel Features
Music: Indian Ocean
Cinematography: Paramvir Singh
Editing: Nimish Gaur
Sound: Vivek Sachidanand
Art Director: Alok Haldar
Casting: Joginder Singh
Assistant Directors: Nimish Gaur, Sumit Kilam, Shriya Ghate
Assistant Cinematographer: Dhiren Shukla
Location Sound: Santosh Kumar
Production: Gurudas Pai, Hanumanta Yalka
Line Producer: Shamim Khan
Director’s Bio
A published novelist (Local, 2005) Jaideep Varma has also made a full-length documentary feature film on India’s most significant music band Indian Ocean (Leaving Home, 2007). Based in Mumbai, he has worked previously in advertising for 12 years, and written pieces for prominent Indian and international publications (mostly essays and reviews on music). Hulla is his first feature film.
Director’s Note
Given the richness of diversity in India’s city life, it is surprising that real stories about real people rarely get told these days in Indian cinema and fiction. This film is an attempt to fill that gap, and yet maintain a universal accessibility through concerns, characters and tone.
Many of the events in this film actually happened to me, so the authenticity and conviction was the easy part to achieve in the film. Whether this is a realistic comedy or a drama with a sense of humour, I am myself not sure about, but I do believe the contemporary sensibility of the film (especially the performances, music and cinematography) should be relatable anywhere in the world.
Jaideep Varma
