FATAL ATTRACTION

In I Want to Talk, Shoojit Sircar continues his exploration of death with the portrait of a tenacious man who beats it time and again

- Suhani Singh

Shoojit Sircar has learned to love the hospital. In 2004, he spent three months in one, being by the side of his comatose mother. It would lead to October (2018), which took audiences deep into the abyss of one and captured in vivid detail the uncertainty that comes with being on the premises. But more than that, Sircar is fascinated by death so much that it has become a leitmotif in his films, as can be seen in the gutwrenching Jallianwala Bagh massacre sequence in Sardar Udham (2021) where the titular character witnesses it in such close proximity that it scars him, or how its fear lurks around Bhaskar in Piku (2015). Says Sircar, "After Vicky Donor (2012), I was like, let me face death straight on. I have to conquer this fear."