In director Abhijit Mazumdar’s fascinating independent film Body, a young man (Manoj Sharma) strips and roams around naked in public as a coping mechanism following a traumatic incident. “Trauma strips you bare,” reads the tagline for the film, which goes at a leisurely pace but builds up to a climax that is at once compelling and confounding. Body explores a sensitive subject that Indian cinema rarely delves into, and for this alone, Abhijit deserves plenty of plaudits. The film stars actors whom Abhijit knows from his days at The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), something which has aided him considerably in its making.
After its long and arduous journey in the development stage and the subsequent festival run, the film is finally out on the new streaming platform Brew TV. It is an essential watch both for its socially relevant subject and its adept handling of the material. Abhijit recently sat with Cinema Express to discuss Body’s themes, the challenges in shooting it, the performance by Manoj Sharma, his fond association with the Kerala audience, the film’s complex climax, and more.
Excerpts:
Body deals with a unique psychological issue that Indian cinema often shies away from. How did you come up with it?
This film is inspired by a recurring dream where I find myself naked in public places that I have been having from my childhood. I was struggling financially and mentally at one point in life and was not finding any monetary support to make a film, which is when I thought, ‘Why not turn the recurring image in my dream into a feature film’. That is how the journey started.
The film had its world premiere in Kerala in 2024. What was the response to it like back then?
It was the first time that we got some real recognition from the outside world. Until then, we were quite struggling with the film. It was screened at the Independent and Experimental Film Festival of Kerala, where it won multiple awards. Kerala is one of the few places in the world that celebrates cinema in the purest way. We still treasure the love and support for the film from the Kerala audience so deeply and dearly in our hearts. Where it is today, it is all because of that.
The characters in the film are named after the actors themselves. Is there a personal connection in the story?
The personas of the characters took off from the real people. The idea of nudity that we explore in Body works in a certain way for actors, unlike for others. After all, actors are always in the process of stripping themselves bare in front of the audience. So once I started imagining these characters as actors, and they are also played by real-life actors, whose personalities I have borrowed to some extent, I thought of not changing the names.
Of course, I fictionalised them, providing them with different character arcs and characteristics. This process happened because I knew them very well for many years. Most of them hail from the same batch of the film institute that I attended some 12 years back. They have an internal relationship, which involves much friendship but at the same time, it is also complex. All of that internal interpersonal dynamics between them started reflecting in the characters they were playing and when they were in the process of making the film.
Manoj Sharma has received much appreciation for his role in Body. Was he always your first choice?
When I envisioned this character who goes naked in public places, I could only imagine him. I found him suitable for the role because he has an unpredictability to him and while he is polite and nice in real life, there is some internal darker layer to him.
You mentioned complex relationships. Khushboo and Manoj share one such dynamic, don’t they? Despite being his girlfriend, she exudes empathy not just to Manoj but also to those who bullied him…
Khushboo Upadhyay and Manoj are partners in real life. In the film, she encompasses the qualities of a caregiver in terms of how she looks after Manoj. I was a caregiver myself and have seen several caregivers around me. And I have observed that a caregiver also has some darkness in them, which they often navigate. Hence, their empathy can pave the way for a certain kind of anger or frustration as well. Sometimes, the act of constant commitment and dedication for a patient can give rise to such a complex mind space, as what Khushboo occupies in the film.
What does the climax imply? Manoj reveals the truth about him at the end and then he leaves a mask behind. Is he finally unmasking himself and embracing the truth about who he is?
This is an interesting interpretation, I must say, and I haven’t looked at it thus. It is a slightly vague and poetic ending, showing a dream representing Manoj’s complex headspace. I drew from my own dream to develop the moment where Manoj crosses a bridge, goes to a slum-like area and encounters a headless shadow with a mask next to it. The shadow represents the dark character Manoj encountered in his wet dream, about which he talks to the therapist at the start of the film. Entering that zone and confronting that dark passenger illuminates Manoj’s mind. This is where he actually takes that final step of leaving that mask behind, which you point out very beautifully.
The long takes, the out-of-focus camera movement and meandering dialogue in Body are reminiscent of Andre Tarkovsky’s films, such as Solaris and Stalker. Is Tarkovsky an influence?
Tarkovsky is a master. And yes, he is a very big influence in my filmmaking journey and what I am trying to do with it. In Stalker, they discuss very profound ideas of life and death, while making the conversation seem quite casual. It is a little like this in Body as well.
I'm also very influenced by Ritwik Ghatak, who is Satyajit Ray, and by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr who is also a master of long takes. There are hardly any cuts in Body.
The long takes with a static, occasionally out-of-focus camera, adds to Manoj’s sense of isolation in a way. But sometimes, characters are also cut in half. Does it from budget constraints?
I won't say my composition decisions are dictated by budget constraints. If I have sort of done a composition, it is intentional. For example, the long monologue where we see him out of focus to start with, at the beginning of the film. At different places in the film, we see him in that particular composition. All of this is intentional to make the audience feel like being part of the film by creating a sense of proximity to the character.
It is fascinating how people close to Manoj take him for granted and look at his issue with some disregard for it…
That is true. Sometimes, we absolutely do not have the tools to get deeper into a person’s mind space and understand exactly what they feel. This also happens to Manoj in a very big way. Even his longtime partner Khushboo does not understand his issue fully.
Did you actually go to public places and actually film the naked sequences? How did you navigate filming permissions?
For some shots, we had to get permissions, such as the one where Manoj takes a staircase naked and enters a crowd. Regarding the on-road scenes, if we had sought permission from the police, saying that there would be public nudity, they would not have let us shoot at all. So we sort of managed those permissions with local location managers. We also found out places where there are less number of people or a time when the crowd would be minimal. Some people did not even realise we were shooting a film, because the camera was so far away. Interestingly, several locals, including vloggers, started filming the production. They even started blackmailing us, and we had to pay them off to ensure the footage does not get leaked online.
Is it possible to make such a film in mainstream Hindi cinema?
Commercial actors are so guarded and have a public image to protect, so it would be difficult. It is easier for an independent actor to experiment with a space like this. And Manoj is also an actor who deeply loves experimenting. By the way, Manoj also features in the recent film Daayra, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor.
Body materialised only because he was brave and felt safe enough to do it. He said that, ‘As long as people are around, ensuring my safety, I will do everything that the film wants me to do.’ And he delivered his part in a manner that felt quite authentic and non-performative. That said, I must definitely mention the rest of the cast also—Khushboo, Amol Deshmukh, Jatin Negi, Shivam Parekh, Sandeep Dhabale and Kritika Pande. They are all very capable actors and extremely good people, and they understood the space of the film and were quite supportive.
Did you approach all major OTT platforms for the film?
Yes, we did. However, most of them just read the synopsis and said, ‘No, this is not our space.’ For an OTT deal with a major platform, your film should hit theatres first and do a certain kind of business. Finally, we found Brew TV. They were also coming up at the time and have been slowly sort of constructing their OTT platform with a catalogue of titles.