By Smita Sarkar
From The London Indian Film Festival

Smita Sarkar

Moh Maya Money turned out to be the most secretive film in the London Indian Film festival. While other filmmakers discussed the highlights of their film openly, Director Munish Bhardwaj kept his film closely guarded, with no trailers, just a short film clip and a summary.

“I am struggling to talk about the film because my film works on reveal. Anything about the story is a giveaway. I wanted my audiences to keep guessing throughout the film, and I kept out-guessing them,” laughed Munish.

The film is a Delhi-based thriller drama about a crooked real estate broker (Ranvir Shorey) who gets into frauds/scams and drags his wife (Neha Dhupia) into some serious crimes.

Munish Bhardwaj

“I wrote the film with Ranvir and Neha in mind. We know about Ranvir and his range (of acting) but Neha is one of the most underutilized actors in the industry,” he said.

“There was this difficult scene where Neha had to speak to Ranvir on the phone from a different city. Neha asked Ranvir to be called in so he could give her the queues, and make her responses convincing. It was Ranvir’s day off, but he came to the shoot on time. That was wonderful for a small project like ours,” he said.

The film has a non-linear format. It keeps going back and forth in time. “The standing joke everytime we decided on the shooting sequence was ‘where does this shot come, exactly?’ laughed Munish.

Bollywood Journalist asked how he viewed the phenomenon of crime moving away from criminals and gangsters to normal people – educated middle-class mainstream professionals one would least expect to be involved in misconducts?

Neha Dhupia in a scene from Moh Maya Money

“I am from Delhi and the city’s news is filled with instances of how normal people can commit gruesome acts that are often worse than criminals and professionals. I am moved by rather fascinating stories of crime and how desperate times can change people, and their actions change the course of their entire lives.”

The talented co-writer, Mansi Jain has been selected by the NFDC script lab for a project in Sarajevo and will be directing (and scripting) their next comedy film.

Moh Maya Money premiered at the New York International Film Festival in April this year, and will be released/distributed in India, Singapore, the US, Pakistan and Sri Lanka by Drishyam in September 2016.

About LIFF:

The London Indian Film Festival, described as Europe’s largest Asian film event, is branching out to Birmingham this year. Cinemas and venues across the city will be hosting film premieres alongside screenings of specially-selected work from a number of acclaimed directors and producers from South Asia.

The Midlands Arts Centre and Cineworld Broad Street will host screenings as part of the growing film festival. Organisers say they included Birmingham in their line-up because of the city’s cultural vibrance. The festival will run here from the 14th to the 24th July, 2016.