Anur (Eyes on the Sunshine), an Assamese language film by Monjul Baruah has been selected for the prestigious International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). Anur got the official selection in the ‘Indian Cinema Now’ section along with the six best contemporary Indian films. The 27th edition of the IFFK will be held from December 9 to 16 in Thiruvananthapuram. “We are really excited and happy about the development. IFFK is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious film festivals not just in India but across Asia. This means a lot for us,” director Monjul Baruah told the press.
Acclaimed actor Rajat Kapoor has played a role in the film along with Boloram Das, Jahanara Begum, Udayan Duarah Bibhuti Bhushan Hazarika, Rajjashree Sharma and Bidya Bharati among others. The story is about an aged widow who is a retired teacher living alone in the house built by her late husband and for whom the house and everything associated with it, are inseparable from the memories of her husband she carries through her lonely days and nights.
One day she comes across a trespasser who happens to be a widower and this suspicious intruder, through some happenings, comes across to her as a person whom she badly needs to break open the shell of her claustrophobic life, to whom she wants to confide her fear and desire. It is based on a short story by Anuradha Sharma Pujaree.
“Anuradha Sharma Pujaree has always been one of the few Assamese writers I read for a nuanced understanding of the society I belong to. With my father’s death barely a month behind when I was contemplating a new project, the producer handed me a copy of a story by the novelist. I was stunned by the uncanny coincidence of the central character being a sensitive widow and my perception of my mother’s state of mind in the aftermath of my father’s death,” Baruah said recalling how it started.