PARAM KALRA: From sci-fi to Rom Kom

PARAM KALRA: From sci-fi to Rom Kom

Writer-director Param Kalra began his career rather modestly, with sex romps. He learnt about the basics of shooting any film during this period. Fate then got him opportunities to work for off-beat film-maker Anurag Kashyap and showman Subhash Ghai. Today, he has already made a sci-fi drama, ZIPCODE 47, and is working on his feature debut film, Rom Kom.

Through a reference, Param joined showman Subhash Ghai in his story department, where he worked with Anjum Rajabali, who teaches screenplay writing. Anjum is known for bringing a new take, a new vision and different perspective to any scene given to him. Param used to make notes and convert them into the screenplay, which he would then narrate to Subhashjee. He also vetted the various unsolicited stories that were sent to Subhashjee.

Before joining Subhash Ghai, Param had worked with Anurag Kashyap, as assistant director. A great admirer of his work, he was sorely disappointed when he initially refused to take him on board. He showed him four short films he had made, and he liked them. Moreover, Param claims to be a poet, and Anuragjee was impressed by his poetry. But he already had several assistants, and there was no place for one more. Nevertheless, Param was persistent. Ultimately, Anurag relented, and appointed him on a trial basis, as assistant, in his film No Smoking (2007). After 15 days, he was confirmed, and given the onerous task of writing continuity.

One would expect a newcomer to make the journey from Subhash Ghai to Anurag Kashyap, but in Param’s case, it was the reverse. In No Smoking, Param got credit in the end-credits as “assistant director: continuity/assistant director: post-production”. He was Chief Assistant Director to Kireet Khurana in Toonpur ka Superhero (2010, starring Ajay Devgn and Kajol; on imdb, seven names appear under assistant director, with none named Chief Assistant Director), a comedy-action outing. Even before joining Subhash Ghai, Param had written a feature film, Thodi si Manmaaniyan, directed by Aditya Sarpotdar (who later made Munjya, 2024), which took a while to go on the sets. Wikipedia credits the story, screenplay and dialogue to Param, Ajinkya Kishore and Amjad Khan, while Param, in person, claims solo credit. A tale about a band, the distributors got very few cinemas to show this film, and it got very limited viewing. It is now available on Shemaroo. During Corona, Param directed a 21.37-minute short film called Saala Bastard (2021), which was streamed on Disney Hotstar and is currently available on YouTube, through Reliance Entertainment. In the credit titles, Param shares the writing credit with Amjad Khan.

Kalra feels that no writer can claim that he can write any kind of subjects with equal ease and perfection. That is why he has assigned writing duties of his next, Rom Kom, to Arjun Bhandegaonkar (who co-wrote the recent The Sabarmati Report) and Abhishek Pandey. Kalra is a fan of directors Clint Eastwood—who has not made any film without morals–and Vijay Anand, whose range of films, from Guide to Jewel Thief to Johnny Mera Naam to Teesri Manzil show what a versatile director he is.

“Take the example of a dish that you want to prepare. I have brought the vegetables and spices, as well as prepared the recipé, but I am not the cook. The cook is the writer. That is exactly how I make my films now,” he says. Param felt that the story of ZIPCODE 47 would be best told through a hand-held camera, and, before deciding the body and the lenses, he and his DOP chose a camera which the DOP could carry easily on his shoulders, for long hours.

So, where did the sci-fi come from? He had read a Ray Bradbury (author of Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953 and filmed in 1966) short story that set him thinking. Along with his own inputs, he got a writer on board, and ZIPCODE 47 got underway. A socio-political sci-fi, futuristic drama, it takes you into a totalitarian state, with Big Brother watching everything and everyone (shades of Mrinal Sen’s Chorus and George Orwel’s 1984?). A woman, who has been in coma at a hospital, awakes, and manages to give the security a slip. While she was in coma, everything has changed in the country, and she is now pursued by a drone. The woman is desperately seeking her lover, who is imprisoned in a facility that is known as ZIPCODE 47. Luckily, she meets two persons who are willing to help her get to him.

It took some convincing, but Vikram Kochhar, of Dunki fame, finally agreed to play the ex-army-man, a medium through whom the woman hopes to meet her lover. Then there is Piyush Raina, who was also in Dunki, playing a ‘dhabewala’. For the female protagonist, he chose Chandni Somaya, who has lived in the USA and done plays there, including Manto (Sadat Hasan Manto, legendary Urdu writer of films and plays) dramas. They met at a film festival two years ago, and hit it off. Soon, Pram and Chandni joined hands to form a production house, Colaba Cats. Before he cast her in ZIPCODE 47, they had worked in Aplam Chaplam (not to be confused with the 1961 production), a 2024 short, inspired by Saadat Hasan Manto’s characters and written and directed by Param. His relationship with Chandni is not clear. Are they mere work partners? Is she the financer of his films? Or are they in a relationship? Currently, the duo operates from restaurants in Mumbai’s metro train network, with Chandni constantly at her laptop.

ZIP Code 47

With an enigmatic title like that, you would need to use your brain to conclude that the hint is towards 1947, the year India got independence. The film is slick, deceptively so. It begins with the protagonist escaping from a high security hospital, after being in coma for years. How she manages to do that, we are not told. After she escapes, she runs amuck, because she does not know which way to go. She wants to find her lover, who, she thinks, is waiting for her somewhere. All along, she is pursued by a drone that asks her to give her credentials, and tells her she is indulging in illegal activity. But it does nothing about it. No message is passed on to the authorities, no report made to the persons in charge, and no restrictive move made on her movements. Along the way, she meets another man, who hears her story and protects her. He then leads her to a man who worked with the dictatorial regime as a lawman, till recently, but has gone rogue now. An idiosyncratic person, that man might help her reach her lover. To her joy, he connects her to her lover via a phone line, and she is delighted to learn that he is alive and waiting for her.

It sure is sci-fi, but everything is not hi-fi. I mean, the writer and the director take too much for granted, and expect the audience to do the same. In a totalitarian state, with the latest of gadgetry available, the three persons in the story would stand no chance of moving an inch, let alone mounting a revolution against the state of affairs. Why is he the woman chased by an impotent drone all along, a drone that only questions and warns her, but does not take any action? In its extreme, the situation would demand that the woman be killed the moment she is unable to answer protocol. The end, too, is disappointing, offering no conclusions, perhaps in the hope that there might be a sequel. Amjad Khan is listed as associate producer of the film, on imdb, while the writer’s credit is missing. A hand-held camera is no novelty, and an uncommon story is not necessarily palatable.

It would appear as a breakthrough for Vikram Kochhar, as the ex-army-man, and it must be said that he is more impressive here than in the feature, The Networker, released last week, which also presents him in a brave new look, very different from his character in ZIPCODE 47. Chandni and Piyush have done a fair job.

ZIPCODE 47 is more like work-in-progress, a film with lost opportunities.

Rating: **