Busan Asian Cinema Fund Recipient 'Mariam' Tackles the Plight of Migrant Workers and Illegal Surrogacy in India

"Mariam" by Arvind Pratap, which receives post-production support from the Fund for the Asian Cinema from the Busan International Film Festival, tackles a range of social issues in India.

Millions of families from rural India are moving to big cities in search of a employment and "Mariam" follows such a family of migrant workers. The breadwinner is Mariam, who has to look after her three daughters and also accepts an illegal surrogate pregnancy to support her family in Mumbai.

Pratap, who previously directed the famous "The Reluctant Crime", came up with the idea for the film from a newspaper article detailing amendments to the Surrogacy Regulation Bill by the Supreme Court of India, where single parents were barred from surrogacy.

"At that time I thought about what would happen to the baby and the mother carrier if a couple had divorced during the pregnancy period. Who will be responsible for the baby? This thought lingered for a long time and it was the seed to generate the story of 'Mariam'," Pratap told Variety.” Later I read other articles about illegal surrogacy in a small town called Anand in Gujarat, India. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected migrant workers who have come from distant cities to find employment in a big city like Mumbai. Although a large number of them have returned to their villages, there are many who have remained. This backdrop inspired me to write the story of "Mariam".

The family at the heart of “Mariam” happens to be Muslim. “I used to tutor a boy in Mumbai. At their house a Muslim housekeeper worked and sometimes she served me tea and snacks. I could feel the grief on his face. Her personality gave me the image of Mariam. This housekeeper also lost her job during the pandemic. And from there, I decided to keep a Muslim family in my story,” says Pratap.

Mariam is played by Chitrangada Satarupa ("Ahare Mon"), who prepared a backstory for her character and watched a few Pratap-recommended movies about the less pleasant side of the pregnancy experience. It helped her broaden her perspective on the portrayal of pregnant women in film. The actor has also researched pregnant women, especially women who have conceived more than once or twice, and was lucky to have two people close to her pregnant at the time.

Satarupa did a workshop with the three girls who play his daughters in the film. "We worked together for several days to create a bond, to bring the natural essence to our alchemy and also to appropriate the characters as much as possible. This is the first time that all three of them have played in front of the camera, so it It was hard for me to get them comfortable and play at the same pace as mine,” Satarupa told Variety.

Through his mother who runs an NGO, Satarupa got to know migrant workers in Mumbai. "To be honest, during filming, when we shot in a place that was literally a migrant worker's makeshift camp, my idea changed," Satarupa said. “It was a different world. People travel with their families to a distant city without knowing the language, living in plastic tents, without electricity and filled with dust, just by the side of the highway just to earn a few dollars. It was a workshop I hadn't planned, but it gave me a reality check and a lot of strength and experience for a lifetime. »

The film is supported by Red Carpet Moving Pictures. "At the heart of every film is the story, the uniqueness of the idea, the director's humility in how he told the story made us support this film," producer Sanjay Bhutiani told Variety. . "The director was also keen for us to be part of this film and help him reach more people."

Red Carpet previously received post support from ACF for "Hotel Salvation" (2016). "His ...