Headstrong, feisty street dancer Rani works hard to care for her daughter while reclusive weaver Shahdab discovers a new world in his friendship with an Israeli tourist. Exploring the love and hate dimensions amidst the ancient city of Varanasi, their cultural and political identities come to the fore. Will the luminous fabric of our diversity soon turn into an iron curtain, dividing those who belong & those who don’t?
SYNOPSIS
Writer & Director: Ritesh Sharma
Produced by Hardhyaan Films
in association with Veda Film Factory
Producer: Visvesh Singh Sehrawat
Co-Producers: Sampat Singh Rathore, Abhinav Pareek & Ritesh Sharma
Director of Photography: Priyashanker Ghosh
Editor: Bhisma Pratim
Sound Design & Mix: Piyush Shah
Music Composer: Anjo John
Colorist: Shashank Jha
Megha Mathur - Rani
Muzaffar Khan - Shahdab
Sivan Spector - Adah
Utkarsh Srivastava - Baba
Roopa Chaurasiya - Pinky
Shweta Nagar - Shazia
Cast
"Stunning, breathtaking, disturbing, evocative. Jhini Bini Chadariya is a tour de force from Ritesh Sharma & his incredible team. Here is a filmmaker who takes you on a personal journey of pain, suffering & loss. One of the most evocative and hard-hitting films I have seen in a very long time."
Nikkhil Advani, Filmmaker
"My takeaway from Dharamshala film festival,2022 so far is Jhini Bini Chadariya. No pussyfooting about current Indian situation violently impacting people’s lives. More power to director Ritesh Sharma."
N.S Madhavan, Malayalam Writer
"Jhini Bini Chadariya (The Brittle Thread): First-time filmmaker Ritesh Sharma’s Jhini Bhari Chadariya is arguably one of the most politically charged films to be showcased at DIFF this year. Jhini Bini Chadariya is a debut to remember."
Paulomi Das (India Today)
"In a throwaway line, director Anurag Kashyap who was present at Dharamshala International Film Festival and has worked in Varanasi in the past, mentioned how moved he was by the depiction of the city in Sharma’s film as rotting yet brimming with life."
Prathyush Parsuraman (Film Companion)
Proud to present this powerful little film made independently with almost no resources , with power-packed performances and keen insight in the world its set in. Set in my hometown of Benares, amongst the lost tradition of weaving, bhojpuri song videos, hopes, dreams, and the world thats crashing on to us. Left me numb for a while when it ended.
Anurag Kashyap, Filmmaker
The performance, the writing, the young, raw heart, the genuine turning away from all kinds of tropism and inconvenient solutions and playing with the audience. This film doesn't go on this but in this film, you see how in the place, with the people who are there, you make a very raw film where you see you are near to the pain of people and you are watching them and when the film ends, you want the film not to end. These are the feelings that you have after watching the film. You must go and see.
Dibakar Banerjee, Filmmaker
"Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this."
Martin Scorsese, Filmmaker
"Varanasi has people from all faiths living together for centuries. Regular people, with regular jobs and dreams don’t care for loud proclamations, both in real life and in this movie. The title starts as a reference to the saari weavers of Varanasi. Gradually it extends beyond textiles into the very fabric of identity, tradition, and survival in a city where life itself hangs by fragile threads. Exploring the love and hate dimensions amidst the ancient city of Varanasi, their cultural and political identities come to the fore."
Sucharita Tyagi (Vice Chairperson of the Film Critics Guild
of India and Film Critic)
PREMIERE
BEST DEBUT FEATURE FILM
FCCI Award at the New York Indian Film Festival, 2022
BEST FEATURE FILM WITH SOCIAL IMPACT
Indo-German Film Week, 2023
BEST FEATURE FILM
Druk International Film Festival, 2022
BEST COSTUME AWARD
Supriya Das Gupta Award, Kolkata, 2022
SPECIAL JURY MENTION
Best Actress award (Megha Mathur)
at Bengaluru Bengali Kannada Film Festival, 2023
BEST ACTOR AWARD (Muzaffar Khan)
Indogma Film Festival,2022
BEST EDITING AWARD (Bhisma Pratim)
BEST ACTRESS AWARD (Megha Mathur)
International Film Festival of Ahmednagar, 2023
Frames of Freedom, Kolkata
IIT Kanpur, Kanpur
Soho House, Mumbai
Cinema House, G5A, Mumbai
Creative Adda, Mumbai
Sophia College, Mumbai
Kappanna Angala, Bangalore Film Forum, Bangalore
WORLD PREMIERE
34th Tokyo International Film Festival, Japan, 2021
INDIA PREMIERE
26th International Film Festival of Kerala, India
AWARDS
SCREENINGS
OFFICIAL SELECTION
2019 NFDC Film Bazaar recommends
22nd New York Indian Film Festival, USA
23rd UK Asian Film Festival, London
11th Dharamshala International Film Festival, India
13th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, Australia
17th Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, USA
11th Indo German Film Week, Berlin
11th South Asian Film Festival, Montreal
6th Pame International Film Festival, Nepal
10th Nepal Human Rights Film Festival, Nepal
17th Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Indonesia
8th Kolkata People's Film Festival, Kolkata
3rd Habitat International Film Festival, Delhi
19th Abuja International Film Festival, Nigeria
10th Bakunawa Festival, Phillipines
Manatarang Film Festival, Mumbai
Anti-Fascism Film Festival, Kolkata
Indogma Film Festival, Faridabad
Something Like a Film Festival, Kathmandu
Bengaluru Bengali Kannada Film Festival, Bangalore
Lift-Off Filmmakers sessions @PinewoodStudios
Druk International Film Festival
BEHIND THE SCENES
