The Window

The Window is a drama about an artist’s struggle between staying true to his art and giving in to the ruthless reality of life. Lekh fights with his own demons of angst, arrogance, selfishness, and denial while not being ready to compromise with the art that he thinks cinema is.

LEKH is a 31 year old man, who is living in a borrowed apartment on borrowed money. He is filled with doubts about his future and his life decisions. He hates his wife, AYESHA, for cheating on him and leaving him for another man. He is angry at his separated parents for ruining his childhood and youth. He is angry at people for ignoring him despite his talent and hard work. And he is angry at himself for getting into this mess.

IRFAN, Lekh’s only friend and agent, gets Lekh an assignment to write a remake of a Telgu blockbuster. Lekh detests the idea. When Irfan threatens to stop lending him money, and breaking off his friendship, Lekh agrees to write the script. But Lekh’s hits the writer’s block.

Unable to write, Lekh becomes infatuated with a mysterious girl he sees from his gallery. lekh finds out that the girl is being held captive by her brother in the apartment. Lekh decides to rescue the girl and he starts getting deeper into the dark world of the girl.

Lekh tries to gather his life together as he struggles with writing the script, being a responsible son and a brother, making his living, dealing with his wife's memory, and rescue the woman from her own family.

  • VK Choudhary
    Director
    Obsessed, Art of Murder, Janu Calling
  • VK Choudhary
    Writer
    Obsessed, Art of Murder, Janu Calling
  • Amit Jain
    Producer
  • Suresh Kodnani
    Producer
  • Amit Kumar Vashisth
    Key Cast
    Driver on Duty
  • Teena Singh
    Key Cast
    Sense8, Akira, Fitoor
  • Preeti Sharma
    Key Cast
    Doppleganger, Garbage, Blouse, A night with the suspects
  • Dhruvan Gautham
    Cinematographer
  • Satish Dewangan
    Editor
  • Sanal George
    Production Sound
    Dangal
  • Jigar Nagda
    Associate Director
    Bombay Velvet, Ugly
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Drama, suspense, romance, mystery
  • Runtime:
    2 hours 1 minute
  • Completion Date:
    October 13, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    110,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English, Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    RED 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - VK Choudhary

VK was born in a village named Khamari , near Gondia , Maharashtra. His parents moved to Raipur with him when VK was 5. VK finished his HSC in Raipur, then his parents shifted him to Khamari to live with his grandparents. VK did his higher secondary school and Graduation at Gondia. His grandfather was the Nautanki writer, director, and performer. His grandfather used to take him to the nautanki rehersals and shows. VK spent a lot of time at the backstage of nautanki in his childhood. VK taught Spoken-English for 4 years at Bhatia's sir institute while he was in college. VK also ran a cola manufacturing business in summers for those 4 years.
In 2009, VK decided to persue writing and filmmaking. He moved to Pune and worked in BPO while he would write in weekends. In 2010, he moved back to Khamari to write full time. He wrote three novels in those two years.
In 2011, He moved to Raipur to work at Era Films, while trying to make indie films. Since then he has been executive producer for 2 regional films, 2 Hindi films, several documentaries and ad films. He has written and directed 8 ad films, 2 short films, 2 music videos, 4 documentaries, and 3 feature films.

VK's works as Writer-Director:

Feature Films:
1. Obsessed: A backhand CBI officer is sent to an unknown city to prepare reports on amurder case of a young woman. Obsessive and insomniac, his world starts falling apart when he starts mixing his personal life with the case discoveries he makes.

2. Art of Murder: Influenced by the philosophy of "Murder as art" Kabir convinces Atul to kill their best friend and hide his body in Atul's office. They throw a birthday party to check out whether they get caught and their crime is perfect.

3. The Window: Lekh is a lonely struggling writer-director who is living on the money borrowed from his agent cum friend Irfan. Lekh's wife recently eloped with her friend. Her memories keep haunting him. His last hope fails when a producer refuses to take his script and asks him to write the remake of Telgu blockbuster movie. Unmotivated and constantly questioning his life decisions, Lekh is unable to write. He is distracted by the woman he sees in an apartment opposite to his. Lekh gets more involved in the woman's mysterious life... and soon his life starts falling apart.

Documentaries:
1. Jatan: Made for the Government of Chhattishgarh, the documentary explores the origin and functions of Kharun river in Chhattishagrh.

2. Kuposhan: Made for the government of Chhattishagrh, the documentary explores and educates about the malnutrition and its effects on children.

3. Vikash Chakra: A documentary on the changes that took place in Chattishgarh in last 15 years.

4. Children of Wild: The documentary is about the initiative of an NGO to open schools in the remote forest-villages of Chhattishgarh for the children of Baiga and Gond tribe. It explores the world and lives of those tribes, and the need of education for the children.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Every filmmaker or artist struggles between staying true to his/her art and accepting the reality of life.
The window comes from my own anger and frustration towards the world and myself. Like Lekh, I struggle everyday with my inner demons, my arrogance, my angst, and my selfishness. While there is a special joy in being an artist, one also carries the guilt of not being a good husband, son, friend, or father, or brother.

I feel sometimes the people you love can be source of your pain. They become the only barrier in path of your desires. The film talks about a man’s temptation to break away from the responsibilities of family to be what he desires to be.

Lekh is extremely flawed man. He is neither a nice person, nor a sociopath. His fights is as much against himself as it is against the world. He is ridden with rage and guilt at the same time. He is haunted by his past. He is conflicted by his arrogance, selfishness, denial, and his life choices. Lekh doesn’t know how to be happy. He can’t feel joy. Writing and filmmaking is the only way for him to escape his reality and create an alternate world.

To me, Maya is symbol of Lekh’s art. I feel art is seductive, manipulative, dark, and mysterious, like Maya.
Kuber, Maya’s brother is symbolism for capitalism, cults, religious groups. Their father is symbol of Society. Maya and her world is exteriorization of Lekh’s inner turmoil.

The film makes fun of itself and its makers. The producer tells Lekh to put guns and sex in the film if he wants his film to run. Though this film talks about cinema as a pure art, midway through the film, it breaks into sex with Maya and gunshots by Kuber and his security. I want to present this film itself as a corrupt cinema, and the director being corrupted by the notion of film’s commercialization.

I found Window to be a perfect symbol to tell this story. To me window is a portal. Through window you can see outside, while still being in safely of your house. This is what Lekh does. He sees the world through a window, having a look outside while still keeping himself into his self restricted zone. What he gets is a blocked view of the world, and that’s why he has a rigid and limited perception of the world.

My influences and Inspirations: I have been infatuated with films that deal with darkness of human psych. Vishal Bhardwaj was the reason I wanted to become a filmmaker. His Maqbool, Omkara, and Kaminey left a lasting impression on me. I am inspired by Anurag Kashyap's films and his approach towards making of films. I have been infatuated with the cinema of Martin Scorsese. It sounds clichéd now, but Taxi Driver introduced me to the power of cinema. The tale of a lonely man's gradual inclination towards insanity was awe influential to me. Lately I have been inspired by films of Asgarh Farhadi. Watching A Separation made me realize what cinema can achieve. I find my voice closest to David Fincher. He is my hero. Fincher's Fight Club, Se7en, and The Social Network are my all time favorites. Except his love for VFX, I am influenced by his entire sensibility and approach towards cinema.