Lajwanti (The Honour Keeper)

Cast And Crew:
Cast: Sanghmitra Hitaishi, Pushpendra Singh, Gaurav Lavaniya, Sugna Devi, Nirmal Sapera
Directed & Produced by Pushpendra Singh; Co-produced by Sanjay Gulati; Cinematography: Ravi Kiran Ayyagari; Editing: Shweta Rai; Sound: Amala Popuri; Sound Mix: Niraj Gera; Story:  Vijaydan Detha; Art, Costumes, Screenplay:  Pushpendra Singh

Synopsis of the film:
“Lajwanti / The Honour Keeper” is a love story set in a village in the Thar desert in Rajasthan, India. A group of women in their daily long walk to collect water recite songs and exchange words that reveal their hidden desires. But one day when a crazy dreamer whose only passion is collecting doves crosses their path, one of them, Lajwanti, starts a journey that will take her out of this closed world.

Director’s Biography and Filmography
An alumnus of the Film & Television Institute of India, Pune and Berlin Talent Campus, he began his career as an actor playing one of the leads in Amit Dutta’s Venice award winning film ‘Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniya’. He then went on to assist Amit Dutta on his next feature ‘Nainsukh’ and the latest ‘Sattvi Sair- The seventh walk’. He has also assisted Anup Singh on his feature ‘Qissa- The ghost is a lonely traveler’. His other credits include acting in the German feature ‘Asta Upset’ directed by Maximilian Linz which premiered at the 64th Berlin Film Festival and acting in theatre with Barry John on his Honey Trilogy.

Pushpendra is a visiting faculty at the Film & Television Institute of India, Pune. Lajwanti premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2014.

Filmography:

Lajwanti (The Honour Keeper), 2014

Ashwatthama, 2017

Director’s statement:

‘Vastu’- architecture; ‘Roop’- form; ‘Chaal’ –movement; ‘Nazar’- gaze are the four main aesthetic principles around which the film has been developed.

A well is not only a reservoir of water but also stories which people share while being there. The story thus arises from the well.  It is a film in ‘Shringara’ – of love and beauty.

I have also taken great care in using local people mainly the Manganiyar, Jogi, Tera-Taali singers and Kalbeliya dancers as cast and crew and thus engaging them in the process of the story itself. This has reiterated my belief that stories of the ‘other India’ also have to be made with the help of indigenous people themselves.