Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) Debutante director Sona Jain, whose human drama “For Real”, about the dilemma of children staying in metros, has been invited to compete at the Pyongyang International Film Festival, says she is “completely blown away by the honour”.
Having already covered quite a few film festivals across the world, the English language movie starring Sarita Choudhury with original songs by tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, will participate in the competition section of the North Korean gala starting Sep 17.

“I was just completely blown away when I got to know that ‘For Real’ has been invited by North Korea and that our country is going to be represented in that closed corner of the world by ‘For Real,” an elated Jain, 35, told IANS.

“I am so excited. How many in their life can claim to have visited North Korea and I’ll get to see that through my film,” added the director who holds a Masters in Fine Arts from New York University.

Also written and produced by Jain, “For Real” is the story of a family staying in New Delhi seen through the eyes of an imaginative six-year-old girl who refuses to accept that her parents are unhappy and starts believing that her mother is an alien from another galaxy, Orion.

“It is her tryst to find her real mother. It is a look at adult life through the eyes of a child. It is a very heart-breaking and funny human drama. It is about a child’s flight of fantasy,” said Jain, who is from the capital.

“‘For Real’ is a reminder to parents that they are the single most important thing in a child’s life and their happiness is the number one thing for their child. If the parents forget to be happy then the unhappy home situation is going to have an effect on kids,” said Jain.

The film conveys that parents in urban India are “caught up in shackles of life and not being able to manage their personal and professional life”.

The film will be commercially released here Sep 17 by PVR Pictures.

“I have studied the market and I am releasing it in a manner that my seven investors will get the money back,” said Jain, who is now ready to direct her next film called “Delhi Aah”.

“My next is set in West Delhi and it will have five interconnected stories. The screenplay is ready and by the end of the year we enter into production.”

The Pyongyang International Film Festival, held once every two years, is deemed a once in a lifetime opportunity for any filmmaker.

S.M. Khan, director general, DFF, said: “‘For Real’, an Indian Panorama film, has been selected for the competition section of the Pyongyang International Film Festival on the basis of an entry sent by Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF). DFF wishes the film all success at the film festival.”