Sagher Manchanda
Book Title : Pluck Out The Heart
Pluck Out The Heart is something beyond an anthology; It is a unique venture by five authors. Based on the horror/dark genre, this book stands out to be a variation in the approach to scary tales. Just as it will manage to run a long nail down your freezing spine, Pluck Out The Heart is manicured with an intention to tell newly thought stories to the readers, page by page. The macabre wave of the revenant has been woven through the emotions in each story, as the characters in them are created to touch your heart and their darker part is sure to pluck it out! Another differentiating feature of this book is that the authors haven’t gone for the usually read and clichéd commercial plotlines. Each tale that is told in the further pages is a well-chiselled work of art by the respective writer. We chose this topic after analyzing that the excitement about horror tales among the readers/audience is declining, owing to the fact that the creators are consistently failing to give the readers something fresh. That’s where Neelam Saxena Chandra and Nalini Srivastava came up with the idea of coming up with a compilation of such stories. All the authors have made the best use of available sources to conduct a stern research on the theme. Selecting or inventing the backdrops has been time-consuming, as many modern story books have already used the regular ones. Nevertheless, we stuck to a self-chanted motto: “Feed Them Fresh”. Unlike other genres, horror runs through a different pipeline and is viewed with a completely different perspective. It requires an extravagant mindset and sense of creativity to pen stories on such a genre as the readers expect avant-garde level of novelty when it comes to horror. Keeping this in mind, we five authors, viz. Neelam Saxena Chandra, Shail Raghuvanshi, Nalini Shrivastava, Nikhil Katkar and Sagher Manchanda, have joined hands and resolved to bring out our best through this book.
“Sometimes, we do not get a chance to thank each one who has helped us in our Journey.” Let the readers get a chance to know about all the important people who have played a part in this ‘Creative Journey of Yours’.
One’s beliefs, choices and reactions make and break the person. However, there is always a pivot (or many) in everybody’s journey who influences us and helps us get through. In my journey, my parents have been those two pillars. With all the efforts and sacrifices that they have had to make while supporting me in my journey, they’ve also accepted my choice of profession with utmost patience and understanding, which is still a rarity in families. Filmmaking and writing (and most forms of art for that matter) are still looked down upon in our society, and still struggle to fight for their place as preferred career options next to the mainstream ones. My parents have gone through all sorts of criticism coming from our relatives, friends and peers for my “different” career selection. Most remarks made have been quite derogatory and discouraging, and yet my parents have bravely supported me against all odds. So yes, I would definitely like to thank them first.
Then I express my gratitude towards my mentor in the literary writing field, Mrs. Neelam Saxena Chandra ji, the renowned and respected Indian writer who, inspite of being on a much higher stage in her career, was the first person to recognize my writing talent and patiently read everything that I used to write back when I started writing as a teenager. It was Didi’s (as we lovingly and reverently call her) humble nature, her guidance, and her insurmountable support that groomed me as a writer and poet. And then she was kind enough to offer me to collaborate with her and two other well-known authors on an anthology in 2015. This book gave me the centerstage and the adulation that I needed (and still do) to build my future upon in the years to come. Neelam Didi can be rightly called my “Guru”.
And, I thank my English teachers, the readers of my writing work and the viewers of my short films for relating to my vision and understanding my intent behind telling the stories that I have told so far, and for duly appreciating them heartily.
Tell us a bit about your shift from writing to movie making? Which is your favourite visual media creation by you till date?
Films have always been my most preferred escapades ever since I was a kid. Growing up in a small and forlorn town in Maharashtra, my tryst with films began in traditional and minimalistic single screen theatres since there were no multiplexes there. I never cared what language a film was in if it was checking the boxes on my list of expectations. I’ve always looked for enthrallingly unique and layered stories in films that would leave the viewer lost in thought. If a film managed to have me zoned out as I walked out of the cinema hall, it stayed with me for the longest time. I ended up forming theories and solving them about what might’ve happened in the world of such a movie further.
And eventually, I grew up to writing what I would love to read and watch myself. So, my transition from literary writing to movie-making is all about having the viewers’ jaws dropped by the excellence of the story, and not by showing sneak-peaks of a woman’s person or by showing action that defies both physics and common sense. Well, that is a slightly different argument, but it only tries to ascertain that my sole intent is to set viewers thinking.
I can’t pick my most favourite media creation till date, but I can tell you about the one that is extremely close to me for a host of reasons. In 2017, on a budget of 3000 rupees, I made a short film called “The Out”. It’s a one-man film about a lonely salesperson who discovers the mind palace memory technique and then goes crazy using it. This project remains the closest to me because I had a near-fatal experience while shooting it. And the other reason is that the film went on to be selected and screened in two important film festivals in California and Italy, and I got offered a broadcasting contract for it. It also led me to win a prestigious award in my college.
Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?
I have been developing my debut feature-length film (as a writer/director), a psychological thriller, since late 2018. After passing through several phases including the coronavirus lockdown, the project now sees light at the end of the tunnel, and should go on floors in the coming months. It offers an intriguing plot and a completely unpredictable and layered conclusion. We hope that it will resonate with the viewers in India and overseas.
Besides this, I have developed a mini-series of the fantasy/mystery genre which has fortunately evoked the interest of a few producers. I have my fingers crossed.
With so many controversies and issues revolving around Indian Cine Industry these days, how do you feel a new comer or an independent moviemaker should navigate his/her way? As a budding movie-maker, how much experimentation have you done with your craft?
I feel that if a filmmaker is dedicated to their craft and is truly determined to tell stories visually, there’s nothing that can stop them. If one has a goal or a target, they eventually invest all their time and effort into achieving it, without caring about the ongoing noise. Yes, the recent controversies may have tainted the image of the Indian Cine Industry, but they also now throw the spotlight on younger talent with an opportunity for them to take control and restore the lost pride of this country’s cinema. I am certainly a part of this new league and have been working towards doing the same. It’s all about valuing your own potential (because it is highly unlikely that the others will) and staying consistent despite all the negativity that comes bundled with rejection. I believe in the adage, “You have to bring yourself”, and that keeps me going without relying on anybody else for the most part. That is how an aspiring filmmaker should venture forward in today’s scenario.
Since I am a student of English literature, my approach to filmmaking is heavily influenced by the elements of modernism and post-modernism. However, since I am also an avid reader of books on science and technology, psychology, etcetera, my stories tend to explore (and at times artistically exaggerate and expand) the horizons of human mind and the wonders that it can perform. This experimentation is evident in almost all my work.
You have been a contributing author to a horror anthology, ‘Pluck Out The Heart’. Please tell our readers a bit about it.
Pluck Out The Heart was a golden opportunity gifted to me by Neelam Didi. When she and the others involved in the book were conceptualizing it, they agreed upon a common intent of revolutionizing the horror genre by telling stories that aren’t only riddled with jump scares, but also have rich plotlines that weave the eerie effect throughout subtly. When I was offered the project, I happily agreed to do it because apart from being an opportunity to give my writing a platform, Pluck Out The Heart was a project, a collaborator would be proud of.
Since I was the youngest writer in the team (20 years old then), the others were humble enough to give me center stage by letting me have the maximum number of stories in the book (5) and by placing these stories right in the beginning of the book. That is an honour I can never forget. The book did garner a wonderful response from the critics and readers. It is still available for Kindle readers if I am not wrong.