An article in The Hindu...

Funny folds

• 
  From 'Love, Wrinkle-free'
• 
  Sandeep Mohan

interview Independent filmmaker Sandeep Mohan's debut comic film Love, Wrinkle-free holds a mirror to our obsession with good looks

Drinking more red wine and less beer apart, directing a feature film topped Sandeep Mohan's resolutions for the year 2010. As a young writer, who had assisted Sanjay Leeela Bhansali on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and had written the script of popular TV show ‘Siddhanth', India's nominee to the 2007 Emmy Awards, Sandeep was not clueless about the process of filmmaking but had to gear up for the many challenges. Foremost was finance but perseverance helped the film come through.

Curiously titled Love, Wrinkle-free, which will release on May 25, Sandeep's debut effort stars Ash Chandler, Shernaz Patel, Seema Rahmani and Ashwin Mushran. Set in Goa, Love, Wrinkle-free is a story about Savio, a 38-year-old senior area sales manager who works in an innerwear company. Savio's mundane life gets hit by a bolt from the blue with the unplanned pregnancy of his 46-year-old religious wife Annie. Their adopted teenage daughter Ruth's reactions to this pregnancy and Savio's chance meeting with Natalie, a travel photographer, who wants him to do something unique for her, throws the protagonist off-balance.

In this day and age when corporate funding and big banners/production houses are de rigueur, ask Sandeep why he chose to make an independent film and pat comes the reply, “Having worked as a writer for a few years, I realised that the only way I could get creative control over the film is by going independent. As a writer-director, I bring in my own unique vision based on my life-experiences, and I wanted to stay true to it while telling the story. So in that sense, the decision to go independent was taken even before I wrote the script of Love, Wrinkle-free.”

The story, Sandeeps adds is purely fictional. “My job as the director was to make it believable which I think I have managed to.” Explaining the name of the film, he says, Love, Wrinkle-free is a reaction to urban Indian society's obsession to look young and have a flawless complexion.

Sandeep claims that this is one of the better movies made about Goa in the last 10 years. “Goa is shown the way it is and not as seen through the eyes of a tourist. Love, Wrinkle-free is an entertaining film, made with a lot of heart, and sensible audiences are going to come out smiling from the cinema halls,” he says.

Getting a talented star cast was another challenge. “The casting was done by me. I got in touch with Ash, Shernaz, Seema, Ashwin and Sohrab, and after reading the script, they were so keen to do the film that I didn't have to do too much convincing. I always wanted these actors, and their performances are the highpoint of this comedy.”

And social media chipped in when Sandeep required finances.

“Crowd Funding, as they call it is a boon for people like me. Forty investors from all over the world invested in this film. Since none of these investors get involved in the creative process, it helps you tell a good story,” he says.

Sandeep will soon begin work on his next film based in Himachal Pradesh.