Private Project

Mannat

Mannat is a prayer of Sandhya, a forty five year old lady who is desperate to get a baby, which is not possible biologically now. Sandhya is in immense pain for this incompleteness of her life and surrenders herself to all kind of worships and religious rituals, which her husband Vijay doesn’t believe in. Vijay, on the other hand feels helpless seeing her wife’s unfulfilled wish to have a baby and her gradual surrender to depression and loneliness. Mannat is a prayer and wish of Sandhya and Vijay both to fulfil the incompleteness of their lives which is possible only with a strong belief system.

  • Arpita Pattanayak
    Director
  • Arpita Pattanayak
    Writer
  • Sooraj Khanna
    Producer
  • Mandakini Goswami
    Key Cast
    "Sandhya"
    III Smoking Barrels
  • Ashwath Bhatt
    Key Cast
    "Vijay"
    Raazi, Manto, Kesari
  • Anamika Shukla
    Key Cast
    "Stranger Girl"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 24, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    32,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Arpita Pattanayak

Arpita Pattanayak, the director of this film "Mannat" has come a long way from a very small town of West Bengal to the city of dreams - Mumbai. A topper in her school and a student of English Literature Arpita's journey of becoming a writer-director, is itself a tale : not fairy but fierce. An introvert Arpita was a storyteller from her childhood. When her fellow students were seeing the dreams of becoming an engineer or doctor, Arpita was busy in her own world of stories, mysteries and psychology of human behaviour.

It has been a real challenge to break all the taboos and barriers of middle class thought process which always pushed her not to believe that becoming a film director will be easy. "But when you know what your heart wants nobody can stop you." - With this belief Arpita started her journey with documentary filmmaking in Delhi after completing a filmmaking workshop in Delhi itself. Doing a 5-days night shift B.P.O. job and still pursuing the film direction dream was not so easy. In 2014, when she first came to Mumbai, she felt ecstatic at the same time scared : "Will it be easy to enter the big Bollywood world?" With this question mark, which all outsiders in Bollywood have, Arpita started off with a small Hindi feature film as an assistant director. Then there was no look back. With her passion, dedication and skills, She managed to get success first as an assistant director, then associate and then ghost director-writer in many Bollywood films. Balancing survival and achieving a big dream was always a challenge. Simultaneously doing corporate and ad films for reputed brands like Big Bazar, Ajmera Groups, Raunak Groups, Faircent, Birla was not only a game saver but also a big learning. 2018 proved to be really lucky for her when her short film "Sandwich" got viral with 55 million views.

Still stumbling with her feature screenplays and knocking on the doors of different film production houses, Arpita ventured into this beautiful film called Mannat, written by her only. It's a film which reflects the pain of a woman who wants to become a mother but not able to deliver a baby. It's an ironical portrayal of our society taboos and class differences. Only a woman filmmaker can decipher this kind of pain of a woman. It is an allegory that the woman in pain somehow resembles a woman filmmaker who wants to give the world a beautiful film, but her society does not allow her to do so.

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Director Statement

"Mannat" the film can definitely be called as an epitome of women substance in its content and making. As a woman filmmaker I have struggled a long way to break the taboos of a male dominated middle class society to become a film director; the protagonist of the film is also a woman who is unconventional and goes extra miles to fulfil her desire. Though it is a woman-oriented film it can never be called as feministic as the male protagonist Vijay unlike a typical stereotype male, tries hard to appease the madness of her depressed wife Sandhya. Vijay is not only a very sensible human who has embraced the infertility of his wife with happiness, but also a writer who dwells between his own battle of beliefs and disbeliefs.

Mannat is an ironical portrayal of our society taboos and class differences. Only a woman filmmaker can decipher this kind of pain of a woman. It is an allegory that the woman in pain somehow resembles a woman filmmaker who wants to give the world a beautiful film, but her society does not allow her to do so.

With a crew of 120 people and renowned technicians of Bollywood Mannat has pushed all the boundaries of a short film. This film will give you the cinematic ecstasy of International treatment. The grandeur of this film is worth watching and the subject will definitely touch every viewer's heart nationally and internationally as well.