Private Project

The Nair House

Nisha Nair is the wife of a successful entrepreneur, living the high life in Silicon Valley, but soon enough the high life becomes a cage. She quickly realizes that her only path to happiness is to finally focus on the person who matters most - herself.

  • Archita Mandal
    Director
  • Archita Mandal
    Writer
  • Soma Mitra
    Writer
  • Archita Mandal
    Producer
  • Soma Mitra
    Key Cast
    "Nisha Nair"
  • Vishwas
    Key Cast
    "Alok Nair"
  • Unni Raveendranathen
    Cinematographer
  • Farhan Mohamed
    Music
  • Giju John
    Co-producer
  • Archita Mandal
    Executive Producer
  • Ryan Fallini
    Executive Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    36 minutes 43 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    70,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Archita Mandal

Archita Mandal is a writer, director and producer with many film festival accolades. Her directorial debut, Untread, is a science fiction thriller short film that was screened at the Women’s International Film & Arts Festival, 2015. Several short films, music videos and corporate videos later Archita took the plunge and has taken up film making full time after a successful career in tech. Archita grew up in 4 different countries and calls herself a global citizen. Her life experiences range from the gulf-war to cultural assimilation to developing keen respect for diversity and most of all empathy for people from all walks of life. She has dual bachelor’s in management information systems and business administration degree from Wayne State University, Michigan and a one-year Executive Education in Corporate Innovation from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Archita lives in SF Bay Area with her husband and two kids. Recently Archita wrote, directed and produced, The Nair House. The Nair House is a 36 mins film about a couple from South Asian descent in the Bay Area, and the film deals with high life of Silicon Valley - ambitions, relationships, social conditioning, emotional disconnect within a marriage. Archita is currently working on developing a talk show on technology and a documentary film on DIPG Cancer (rare form of children brain cancer).

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Director Statement

The Nair House, a 36 mins film, was conceived, shot and post-produced in 6 months, with cast and crew of 75 members all total. One of my largest projects in terms of complexity in development and schedule.
After being slotted as a speaker with the executives on Women in Engineering International Day at my day job, I came up with a speech that was close to my heart. The topic was about gender parity and we were asked to talk about experiences that showed growth. My speech was called "Finding yourself in chaos". I delivered it. Shared my personal experiences about not following a path and bars set by society but setting my own rules and pace. I concluded with how I found myself in that. This was received with thundering applause but to my surprise I received texts, emails and in person kudos for talking about the difficult things and being an inspiration.
On my drive home that day, the story of "The Nair House" started germinating. By night, I had the story in my head. The rest is history.
In South Asian diaspora, the richest minority in the country, the complexities around being first generation immigrant is an area that hasn't been explored much before. I wanted to shed light on this topic. People question traditions, family values, norms and sometimes even the duality of things. There are many topics that are more relevant to the generation today as opposed to the generation which settled down in the 1960s and 70s in the United States. I wanted to etch the matrix in where two such people, Alok and Nisha Nair live in. High life of Silicon Valley - big dreams, ambitions, relationships, social conditioning, emotional disconnect and marriage.

It was a pleasure to work with the actors because they were on top of things and understood each nuance I was trying to communicate, effectively. The crew was outstanding.
We had so much fun making this movie, that I'd do it all over again despite of the rigorous schedule we had (7 days).
Post-production was slightly longer than expected but I decided to take the time to do it right.
I hope what we have now entertains for sure, but most importantly raises some important questions and people take a slice of "The Nair House" home.