Pragya Patra of Odisha had left her handsomely paid job with Google to jump into music and singing and was a prime contestant for Singing reality show The Voice India featured in And TV. She has started with a debut in the movie The colour of darkness.
The filming of the Australian scenes of “The Colour of Darkness” has recently been completed, with filming taking place in Melbourne over a number of weeks during the summer of January 2015. Girish Makwana headed a talented team on various locations around Melbourne. All those involved both in front of and behind the camera worked with great dedication and intensity to bring Girish’s vision to life. “The Colour of Darkness” has now entered the post-production phase and the final edit is expected to be ready by August 2016.
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Background
In 2010 the city of Melbourne became the focus of intense media scrutiny after a series of violent attacks on Indian international students.
Girish Makwana, in the early stages of his career as filmmaker, found the inspiration for the film “The Colour of Darkness” in the coverage of these events. He observed the escalating media frenzy in both Australia and India and was shocked at the media’s readiness to portray these random acts of senseless aggression as evidence for deep-seated racial tensions between Australians and Indians.
His research and enquiry into what lay behind the media story allowed him to examine both the complexities of the Indian historical and cultural landscape and the contrasts and contradictions of modern-day Australian society. His script juxtaposes scenes in India and Australia and explores discrimination as it occurs specifically in India within the historical context of the caste system and its perpetuation in the 21st century, both in India and beyond its borders. The unfolding of events in Melbourne highlights a relatively young society coming to terms with uncomfortable truths hidden below the surface of the cosmopolitan lifestyle.
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Story
“All the colour, depth and mystery of India’s complex and riotous cultural heritage is brought to light in a single action which changes two countries forever.
A proud Indian international student is attacked in a brightly lit train carriage against a backdrop of darkness.
Unknown to his attackers his high caste status has little relevance, and in one poignant moment, he is rescued by his counterpart, an ‘untouchable’, a low caste.
They are united by what would otherwise be impossible.
The highly publicised event sends shock waves through the international community.
As the climate escalates, Maria Kris a young Australian journalist of Indian descent is sent to investigate, and what happens from there uncovers long established and inherent prejudices between the two countries and what lies between ….
In her quest for truth, she meets a young Indian student Giriraj, who changes her life forever through an unlikely meeting. Throughout their ensuing friendship, Maria is taken by Giriraj for a journey through the darkness of India’s social history and via the laneways of her own city, exposing a side she had never imagined.”