Blue Jean Blues

Synopsis:

The film is about Krishna(Kris) played by Raj Thakur, who develops depressive behaviour following a series of unfortunate incidents making him withdraw from his friends, family and college. His best friend Madhu (played by Shweta Bist) and mother(played by Ashwini Ekbote) try their best to reason him out of it, but to no avail. His confrontational Uncle(played by Dr.Sanjeev Kumar Patil) tries his best too, but it is up to Kris to realise that all the answers he seeks lie within himself.

​Director's Biography:

Nitin is a first-time feature filmmaker. He has trained his film making skills at the Livewires Film School in Pune, India. His first short that was shot as a student film with the same title won the "Special Mention Award" at the Kolkata International Film festival. The film was also selected in the open category at the Canada International Film festival, Roma DC Film festival Rome, Cameroon International Film festival and several others. He has also written and directed other short films like "Blankets of Virgo", "Dabook", "Condolence". He has several ad films, corporate films and industrial shoots under his belt. He is a regular blog writer. He is a member of a weekly writers club in Pune. He curates a monthly meetup group called Socrates Cafe. Blue Jean Blues is his debut feature film.

 

Director Statement

The seeds for the film were sown when I was narrating an incident to my Film School colleague about something that had happened to me when I was in high school. He encouraged me to write the screenplay for a short film but when I started writing there was enough material there to make a good film out of it. 
The protagonist of the film undergoes a lot of emotional stress arising from strained relationships. The film is about his attempts to cope with it. Making the film was an extremely cathartic experience for me as there is a lot of "me" within it. 
I approached the subject not as a film maker, but as someone who has suffered from crippling depression in most of my late teens and early twenties. That is the reason I could relate to the problems faced by the protagonist quite well. 
Youth depression is on the rise across India and the rest of the world. The onset in the previous decade was in the 30s but it is much earlier these days with kids under 20 needing medical intervention. 
What I have tried to acheive through the film is looking at depression through a kind and humane way. Depression is a necessary process of getting over painful phases of ones life. Just as physical pain has evolved to signal injury, depression has evolved to protect us from mental agony. It gives us time and space and the solitude helps us from taking rash decisions. 
Depression helps us re-evaluate our priorities and help us develop a more refined understanding of ourselves and life in general. To quote Marcel Proust "Happiness is good but it is grief that develops the strength of the mind".