One film wonders are not rare in Bollywood. But Raj Singh Chowdhary has managed to bounce back on the scene before one could brush him aside in the category. Raj Singh, who debuted as the lead character with Anurag Kashyap’s Gulal, is back with an equally powerful film, Antardwand, which takes a hard look into the villages of Bihar, back in the 80’s when the word of the Khap Panchayat was equal to the law. “Groom abduction or pakrauah shaddi is still rampant in Bihar and Eastern UP. This topic is touched upon in Antardwand. The film is a peep into reality.
It portrays a rotting society while the country surges ahead to be a global power. Antardwand is a film that strokes the sensitive, thinking viewer’s ire, concern and empathy,” says director Sushil Rajpal who is a former graduate of FTII, Pune.
Raj Singh plays the groom who is abducted for marriage. The director then goes on to reveal that the film is based on true incidents. “The story is inspired by a real life incident. An associate of mine was kidnapped by an over-zealous father of a village girl.
The young man was a prospective entrant into what is widely known and accepted as the cream of the Indian Bureaucracy — the IAS (Indian Administrative Service). The father orchestrated a forced marriage between his daughter and this man.
“These kind of crimes are perpetuated to escape the dowry money that parents of the prospective grooms demand, coupled with the fact that a prestigious marriage like thatwould of course secure the girl's future and climb up in the social ladder,” the director adds giving an insight into the minds of people who indulge in such acts.
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