03 April,2018 01:48 AM IST | Mumbai | The Hitlist Team
Kajri Babbar will wield the directorial baton for a British film, Burning Bride, produced by Jacqui Miller Charlton, Craig Conway and Clare Cahill. The project was announced at the Newcastle International Film Festival 2018, which concluded over the weekend. Niece of actor-politician Raj Babbar and daughter of film producer Kishan Babbar, Kajri, 23, was accompanied by cousin Juuhi Babbar Sonii at the festival.
Kajri Babbar has also collaborated with Sashaa Agha now known professionally as Zara Khan for a short film titled Khoj, on the subject of young Punjabi brides who are abandoned by their NRI husbands. Khoj is scheduled to open at the Shorts Corner at the Cannes film festival in May 2018.
Zara plays a 19-year-old girl from a small village in Punjab who can't speak English properly and is married off to an NRI. Abandoned by her husband, she tracks him down in London. Kajri is helming directorial duties.
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Kajri Babbar is currently completing her Masters in film direction at Arts University, Bournemouth, UK. She also directed the short Pardaa in 2017, which shows an Indian-Muslim girl secretly sacrificing her religious morals for monetary gains.
Groomed and raised to be a socially responsible individual, Kajri Babbar believes that her work should convey her convictions. She attributes the fascination for NRI grooms to the belief that "India is still living under a colonial hangover. We believe everything from abroad is better including the food, money, cars, brands, government and even Indian men born on foreign land."
She adds, "In a country like ours, women should stand together and help each other but we hear several horrible cases of mothers-in-law torturing their daughters-in-law or even grandmothers abandoning their granddaughters because they are female. The issue of patriarchy becomes even more complex with the participation of women, and that frustrates me the most."
Also read: Why short film by Zara Khan and Raj Babbar's niece Kajri is a must-watch
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