Vishesh Azad, Filmmaker & Academician
Vishesh Azad in Majaaz, India
His Name Means Special Freedom in Hindi …
He dances, sings, and makes movies. And can he ever dance! Take a look at his video (below) from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi - the Campus Fresher’s Party 2016 in which he dances with the student dance team. He’s an Assistant Professor of Photography, and I think he must be the choreographer for the students.
After Vishesh lost a friend in 2016, he made a solo drive from Delhi to Goa. It was their plan to drive down together after Vishesh bought his first car. Vishesh made the trip alone to celebrate his friend’s passion for life. You can watch his video Soul Trippin’ here.
This is a link to Vishesh Azad’s recent film Dear Shalini with subtitles in English. His synopsis of the story follows.
What happens when you receive a reply for a letter you never posted? Vinod, a fifty-year-old publisher, stands at the crossroads of marriage, nostalgia, duty and desire, writing his heart out to a long lost love. Vidhi, a young, ambitious, kind hearted girl, who lives next door helps the old man, Vinod, with his ailing wife and everyday chores and a special task of posting his letters to that one girl, maybe against what she believes is right. Only till she realizes that being old may not mean that everything in life is answered, that we may seem to have all the peace in the world but still be at war with our heart’s desire much like the concept of Yin and yang, Vinod yearns for a lost love finding solace inspite of her absence but fails to find meaning in his married reality. His letters may not have the accurate address but his heart hopes that they reach their destination someday. So, when a reply of the letter that never got posted arrives, the question is, will his duties let him believe in his obscure love? We often mistake and forget that both black and white walk hand in hand to balance the tears and laughter floating in this enormous universe that hangs along a dotted line of perspective. For some black is white and for others white is black.
“The bad news is that nothing is forever, but the good news is… that nothing is forever.” -J Cole