MAARAQ (2018)

Content Runtime: 90 minutes | Adventure, suspense, biography, drama | India 2018

In an effort to establish direct communication with the god, an anonymous person calling himself ‘maaraq’ gives up food and water till he dies. A struggling documentary film maker ‘Pratishtha Singh’ decides to shoot Maaraq’s journey till his demise to earn a few bucks along with some attention from the market, due to the desperate and chaotic measures they encounter a series of events and characters that shape their lives eventually granting ‘Maaraq’s ultimate wish.

About the project:

Storytelling should not be bounded by equipment and money, an honest team with authentic approach can tell a story which is much needed to be told. Maaraq is India’s first and only feature film made entirely through a smartphone camera, household lighting and cheapest sound equipment available in the market. The choice of equipment was purely due to budget constraints and solid faith of the team in each other, although the choice of micro budget film making was taken due to lack of resources, the approach to the film making was professional.

A renowned American photographer says “the best camera is the one you have with you”. Maaraq is india’s first feature film shot on phone but we are confident that there are many more films to come out of common people after watching us. Film making is amongst many other artforms used to express oneself, and it shouldn’t be bounded by expensive equipment and properties, people should be able to tell their stories or express themselves with the available resources.

Maaraq is an honest effort to tell a story irrespective of limitations and promote microbudget filmmaking in the country so that we can have more films from filmmakers who longed to tell their stories but were restricted by budget and equipment.

Director: Nishanth Tripathi

Writer: Nishanth Tripathi (story/screenplay), Pratishtha Singh (dialogues)

Producer: Neelam Chaturvedi

Executive Producer: Ashutosh Singh

FULL CAST AND CREW

Directed By

Nishanth Tripathi

Writing Credits

Nishanth Tripathi (Screenplay)

Pratishtha Singh (Dialogues)

Produced By

Neelam Chaturvedi (Producer)

Green Virus Studios (Producer)

Direction Department

Deivik Vipra (Associate Director/Casting Director)

Lucky Sahu (Assistant Director)

Production Designer

Aishwaria Guha

Cast

Krishn Deo Sanwariya (Maaraq)

Pratishtha Singh (Documentary director)

Ajay Singh Chauhan (Lucky)

Arvind Yadav (Police Inspector)

Naresh Verma

Dr. Omendra Gupta (Spritual Guru)

Ramesh Shukla (Prisoner)

Aishwaria Guha (Psycologist)

Deivik Vipra (Camera man)

Suraj

Mukesh Srivastava

Pari

Music By

Ross Bugden (Composer)

Tanishq Awasthi (Assistant)

Cinematography By

Nishant Tripathi (Director of Photography)

Costume and Makeup

Aishwaria Guha

Location Courtesy

Sakhi kendra

Ashish Clancy

Prachi Tripathi

Sumit Singh

Ram Naresh Kushwaha

Dr. Omendra Gupta

Moziki Shivam Shukla

Story line

Based on a real life character and a true story. In an effort to establish direct communication with the god, an anonymous person calling himself ‘maaraq’ gives up food and water till he dies. A struggling documentary film maker ‘Pratishtha Singh’ decides to shoot Maaraq’s journey till his demise to earn a few bucks along with some attention from the market, due to the desperate and chaotic measures they encounter a series of events and characters that shape their lives eventually granting ‘Maaraq’s ultimate wish.

Spoilers

The synopsis below may give away important plot points.

Synopsis

Our very existence is a big question which we mostly ignore after pondering unsuccessfully over it for a while, but rarely we meet people like Maarak who doesn’t give up easily. Bored and unsatisfied with the existing theological and scientific enlightenments about existence, a small town alcoholic man in his early 30s decides to establish direct communication with the god by giving up food and water. A Delhi based, 40 year old documentary film maker, Pratishtha Singh stumbles upon this story via a local friend and finds an opportunity to earn her the popularity she deserves, landing in Kanpur she realises that the subject (Maarak) is not only an alcoholic but may also have made a false promise about his crusade against god. Although warned by a local Kanpuria and a self-acclaimed line producer (lucky) ,pratishtha decides to give Maarak a chance and rigs his room with the cameras to document his physical deterioration over the course of time. Maarak’s inability to control his urge for drinking lands Pratishtha in a tight spot, before quitting the project she agrees maarak’s proposal of locking him in a room for 7 days without food and water to jump start the project and stop him from drinking alcohol. During the sudden and forceful change in the routine, maarak becomes quitter than usual and breaks down physically and mentally, excreting water and waste from everywhere possible.

While the story slips into the busy details of the town and its characters, the self-acclaimed line producer lucky (26), couldn’t stop himself from self-promotion and broadcasting the film’s process at local tea stalls, locking someone inside a room and waiting for him to die is supposed to be a revolutionary approach for lucky, but not for the police inspector overhearing the conversation at a midnight junction. The project almost comes to a halt as the cop break open maarak’s room and interrogates Pratishtha and her team aggressively, but the situation is later resolved with the little money that maarak has to offer.

Realising her desperate approach, Pratishtha takes maarak for a psychotherapy session to keep her on a safer side, but the session fails drastically due to maarak’s disrespectful burst of laughter at the psychologist. Failing to get a certificate from the medical authority she decides to go to a spiritual guru but the session again ends up with dissatisfaction as maarak’s belief about purity and help has been altered by now, understanding that pratishtha wants to help him, he proposes to her to meet a friend of his who is extremely pure and a man of god, this man is none other than a dangerous murderer, a criminal spending the rest of his life in the central jail.

It has been over a month now and maarak is not showing any signs of weakness, he is fit and started sleeping a lot while seated at random places, pratishtha’s only friend her beloved mother dies after suffering from cancer and her financer ‘robin’ is nagging about why the documentary is not going as planed as maarak is still alive and ticking. Pratishtha tells robin that the project has taken a very good shape and something beautiful has come out of what was planned, despite threats and warning from robin pratishtha decides to accept the film the way it is and leaves maarak in peace to complete his journey.

Lucky who has been using maarak for his political connections and petty business by declaring him as an undead siddh baba makes it popular that baba’s hair strands can make all the difference in once life if kept in a book, although Maarak was unresponsive it didn’t stop lucky from expanding his business. After several successful meetings lucky once invites a politician asking baba (Maarak) for his hair strand, but Maarak hands him a bowl full of hair after shaving his head and walks away on the road, although lucky was shocked with baba’s action but he uses that to his advantage and doesn’t bother chasing him doesn’t the road. Maarak walks for days until his hair grow and whether changes, he walks for thousands of kilometres till he reaches a dense forest and meets a 10 years old girl who is pointing at him and asks him about his dreams, while answering the girl’s question he realises how close he is to the creator as she disappears in thin air, as he walks further he discovers a mucky pond where he meets his creator as he looks down upon his own reflection in the water. he starts asking question to the reflection about the creation but is astonished and shocked to hear the truth about the existence and the ultimate revelation.

Plot Keywords: Suspense, Mystery, Drama, Self-Discovery, True Story, Spiritual, True Adventure, Identity Crisis, Isolation, Freedom.

Taglines: Explore the darkness, into the zero.

Genres: Mystery, Drama, Suspense.

Motion Picture Rating: Not Yet Rated

Details

Official Sites: www.green-virus.com/maaraq

Country: India

Language: Hindi | English

Release Date: Not Yet Declared

Filming Location: Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Company Credits

Production Co:

Green Virus Studios, Sakhi Kendra.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 Minutes

Aspect Ratio:

16:9

Camera:

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Smartphone

Resolution:

4k