Thought-provoking film on apartheid “Delhi Dark”

"Dibakar Das Roy's film 'Delhi Dark' will have its world premiere at the 23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and its international premiere at the 27th Tallin Black Nights Film Festival."

The whole world is struggling with the problem of apartheid. Film director Diwakar Das, who was born and brought up in Kolkata and later settled in America, has also been a victim of apartheid. For this reason, he has made a film 'Delhi Dark' based on his experiences, for the production of which he left New York, America, and returned to India. Now Dibakar Das Roy's film 'Delhi Dark' will make its world premiere at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 in the South Asia competition section. The festival will be organized from 27 October to 5 November 2023

Produced by Religion Films, the film will have its international premiere at the 27th Tallin Black Nights Film Festival as part of the ‘First Features Competition Section’. The festival will run from November 3 to November 19, 2023.

The 100-minute dark comedy film in Hindi, English, Yoruba, and Pidgin is about a Nigerian boy living in New Delhi who wants to pursue an MBA and settle in India. But his part-time job gives him a suspicious double life in a city. Very difficult for outsiders.

‘Dilly Dark’ stars Samuel Abiola Robinson in the lead role and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Shantanu Anam, and Stuti Ghosh in the primary roles. Samuel Abiola Robinson made his India debut in the lead role in the Malayalam film Sudanese from Nigeria. Geetika Vidya Ohlyan made her screen debut in Ivan Eyre's Sony.

Excited about the world premiere of his first feature at Jio MAMI, writer-director-producer Dibakar Das Roy says, “Delhi Dark was a challenging film to write and direct because of the unique nature of its story and the way it brings together very different worlds. I had to create an African hero who would go through different levels of Delhi and expose our innate prejudices. However, ensuring that the language and dialogue were believable was extremely difficult. However, I was sure that once completed, it would be a film that the audience had never seen before. Why I'm most eager to share it with the world is because it's a film that is rich with meaning yet also very entertaining and accessible – exactly the kind of cinema for the kind of life I want to make. "

Director Diwakar Das adds - "I was educated in a boarding school in North India, but as a dark-skinned Bengali boy from East India, I faced a lot of bullying from the average fair-skinned student, but generally it was swept under the carpet as a friendly joke. So much so that I realized the only way to deal with it was to grow thick skin with extra melanin. This has stood me in good stead because in India the ‘joke’ doesn’t end with boarding school. This is why the seeds of the idea of the film 'Delhi Dark' came to my mind years ago. Because I had seen firsthand that many Africans were being treated like this in New Delhi. The way I was bullied in boarding school, and the character of Michael Okeke became a metaphor for every person who is made to feel like an outsider in Indian society today. Casual discrimination is all around us in India. From film stars selling fairness creams to matrimonial advertisements demanding fair brides and grooms, skin color is one of the many ways in which prejudice, apart from religion, caste, ethnicity, gender, and class, exists in everyday Indian society and it is expressed very boldly. “This film is about the normalization of discrimination – an attempt to hold up a distorted entertainment house to show the mirror to the  society that perhaps doesn’t understand how deep its prejudices run or where they originate from.”

The film's lead actor Samuel Abiola Robinson says, "As an African man who has experienced some racial discrimination myself in New Delhi, I was drawn to the story of 'Delhi Dark' because I think it tackles racial themes. But it is an authentic presentation of discrimination but it doesn't preach to you. Instead, it delivers its message in a witty and unique way that I think forces the audience to sit up and pay attention to the core message. Despite living in South Asia for many years and working in many films, I have not yet seen a film like Delhi Dark.”

Actress Geetika Vidya Ohlyan says, “Mansi is the strangest character I have played so far! From the costumes to the characters, the weight of those layers was liberating and burdensome at the same time. I still giggle, giggle, and scream thinking about some of our shooting days. Dibakar seems to have created a cosmopolitan cocktail of imaginary flights and real situations mixed with humor. Anticipating the audience's reaction to this makes me very excited. I want to appear at the public screening disguised as a normal person so that I can see the real-time reactions of the audience to the truth!”

Summary of the story of the film “Delhi Dark”:

New Delhi is not as 'new' as the word suggests. It is an ancient cosmopolitan city that has seen many rulers, invaders, and inhabitants over the centuries. A city that is multicultural, yet hostile – always playing out a battle between the ‘insider’ and the ‘outsider’. Although Delhi has seen many kings, one can say that this city has the only true king, a god in itself. Michael Okeke is one of many Nigerians living in the city, part of a larger African diaspora, which is often looked down upon by locals and accused of being criminals, cannibals, and others. Michael is pursuing his MBA and dreams of joining the fast-growing corporate sector in India but is stuck. He works as a small-time drug delivery man to make ends meet, and it is this job and his African identity that bring his life back in a full circle. His quest for gainful employment takes him to the margins of society, where the only person to take him in is an ideal woman named Mansi – someone who doesn't judge him on the basis of his caste or color. But while she doesn't discriminate between blacks and whites, she also sees no difference between right and wrong – a sentiment that is reflected in every aspect of the city's DNA. As Michael navigates this intriguing landscape and tries to appease the Lord of Delhi, we are taken on a journey into Indian society's complicated relationship with race, color, and identity.

-Shantiswarup Tripathi

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