Marzi

Marzi means One’s Own Will. It started from something I kept noticing about how children grow up now: every hour is supervised and every risk is managed. Abhay isn’t allowed street food. He’s told constantly not to fall sick. He walks home from school only with older boys from his colony, who are there to keep an eye on him.

The film asks what that costs him. A child who never gets a small hazard, a wrong turn, or the consequence of a forbidden treat doesn’t get to practise deciding things for himself. So the whole story is one afternoon: the boys take a detour, and Abhay makes his first choice.

I wanted rehearsals to feel like play, so we didn’t lock down blocking. The camera followed the boys through neighbourhood alleys, dusty stairwells and street corners, and they ran around the way kids do.

Nothing dangerous happens on the detour. Once they leave the usual route, the streets they know look unfamiliar, and Abhay is torn between the thrill of it and the guilt of disobeying his mother. The shared popsicle is the payoff, because it’s the one thing in the film he chose himself.

We shot in 4:3 instead of widescreen, for two reasons:

• A child’s scale. The frame is tall and narrow, which keeps the focus on faces and matches how small Abhay’s world is.
• Enclosure. The squarer frame feels like the house rules around him, so open street corners and sunlight feel bigger when he reaches them.

The colour starts muted and disciplined in the morning routines, then turns warm and golden as the afternoon heat melts the ice cream.

Marzi was an official selection at eight festivals. It won at the Aasha International Film Festival 2023 and was a Quarter-Finalist at the Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF) 2023. It also screened at ZeroPlus International Film Festival, Black Cat Award and the Lift-Off Global Network.