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The last 24 hours

Short film maker Sushant Sudhakaran's latest 20-minute thriller The Dealer has all the elements of a feature film.

Sudhakaran says that he is very serious and passionate about film making, it is not the words of a novice but of someone who has the statistics to prove his fervour. Sushant has already made 12 short films which have been nominated in various film festivals and he made some of them using a handy cam. Perhaps the biggest achievement to have come his way was when his one-minute What it means to be Human was selected for the Big History project as a part of the Bill Gates online course. Sushant’s 10-year journey as a film maker also saw him dabbling in various media — he worked as a copywriter, media producer as well as cartoonist. He quips, “All I wanted to do was to tell stories and so I experimented with the media.”

The story teller in him made a 20-minute short film The Dealer that brought him several steps closer to his dream of making a full-length feature film. He explains, “The film has the look and visual appeal of a feature film and has Shaheen, son of actor Siddique playing the lead. Another interesting aspect is that the name of Shaheen’s character is never revealed throughout the film and the film is shot in a thriller mode.”

Sushant elaborates on the story, “Shaheen is a high-profile corporate wheeler dealer who has a lot of contacts with influential people and many corporates approach him to set things right in a covert manner and he gets things moving. The story is about the last 24 hours before he decides to retire from this kind of work, after an ultimatum given by his girlfriend. He promises to come clear provided he gets 24 hours and if his girlfriend agrees to marry him on the 25th hour.” Unknown to his ladylove is Shaheen’s has character’s 40 crore debt as well as enemies baying for his blood. He has to solve all these and only then can retire. The film traces those 24 hours.

There is a big reason why Sushant chose Shaheen; they are close friends and he had Shaheen in mind when he wrote the script because he knew he could pull off the character which had a lot of emotional shades. Sushant adds, “We had been discussing a lot of scripts for some years and I have a team of talented cameramen, musicians and actors who are struggling to find a toe hold in the industry. I was born and brought up in Bhopal and my crew also hail from different states. We are all outsiders with no industry connections and this film is a showcase of our collective talents.” Incidentally, none of the technical people or actors have taken any remuneration for the film.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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