1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production

4. References

5. External links

Pihu is a 2018 Indian drama thriller film written and directed by Vinod Kapri and jointly produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Shilpa Jindal.^[2][3] It stars Myra, a two year old girl, in the title role, who gets trapped inside her house with no escape.^[4] Pihu was premiered at the 2017 International Film Festival of India in the Panorama section and was screened at the Fajr International Film Festival.^[4][5] It won the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film in the International Competition category and the People's Choice award for Best Film at the 14th Trans-Saharan International Film Festival.^[6] The film's official trailer was released on 24 October 2018,and was released theatrically on 16 November 2018.^[7][8]. The film was shot in Gandharav society of Greater Noida.

Plot

The movie starts on the day after Pihu's (Myra Vishwakarma) second birthday party. She wakes up and finds that her mother, Pooja, (Prerna Sharma) is not waking up. Her father, Gaurav (Rahul Bagga, voice only) has left for Kolkata for a conference. She feels hungry and tries to wake her mother up, but she does not wake up, causing Pihu to cry.

Her mother committs suicide after a horrible fight with her father and her face and hands are bruised indicating domestic violence. Gaurav had come late for Pihu's birthday party which made Pooja angry. Moreover, she thinks that her husband is having an affair with her friend, Meera, which aggravates their fight. She kills herself due to the domestic problems, leaving a suicide note on the bedroom mirror, saying that she would've killed Pihu too, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Gaurav continuously attempts to call Pooja, but to no response. Pihu manages to pick up the phone but her father is not able to understand what Pihu wants to say, asking to speak to Pooja. Gaurav says that he has left the iron switched on and asks her to turn it off because Pihu might touch it. Shortly after, Pihu burns her fingers. She also almost electrocutes herself with exposed wires, burns two rotis in the microwave and on the stove, turns on the geyser, which after a few hours explodes, causing a large bang that concerns the other tenants of the apartment block and she hangs on the balcony railing in order to get her fallen doll. Luckily, a lady sees Pihu hanging dangerously and persuades her to get down. The tap water overflows and even comes out of the main door. Neighbors see the water, but they think the owners are on holiday.

Gaurav calls multiple times throughout the movie, and it is discovered that he went to Kolkata for a conference. After his meeting, when Pihu tells him that Pooja has been sleeping all day, he realises something is wrong and leaves Kolkata immediately in order to get home. Pihu eats the leftovers from the party, along with few of her mother's sleeping pills, causing her to fall asleep. During the night, the neighbors see the smoke coming out of the house and are trying to break in the house. At the same time, Gaurav comes home and finds his wife dead and Pihu playing with her blocks, below her bed. The movie ends with Gaurav mourning the loss of his wife in the burnt apartment, while Pihu asking her dad to wake up her mom.

The film attempts to show how people have become least bothered and less alert due to their busy working lives. Even though, people hear the geyser blast, see Pihu hanging on the railing and see the water coming out of the house, still nobody once comes to check up on the flat and find out what's wrong.

Cast

• Myra Vishwakarma as Pihu
• Prerna Sharma as Pooja
• Rahul Bagga as Gaurav (voice only)
• Hrishita Bhatt as Meera (voice only)

Production

Director Vinod Kapri said that the idea behind making the film was the question of "what does a toddler do when she is left alone at home?" He also based it on a real life incident that he read in 2014 in a national daily about a four-year-old girl who was left alone at home. He decided to have minimal dialogues in the film, wanted the story to depend on "how the girl behaves", and felt that "every shooting schedule [was] unpredictable."^[9] He also mentioned that the film explores the issue faced by a married couple, compulsions about the concept of family and children. Kapri spent four months with the child, getting to know her and familiarise her with the other crew members.^[9]

The girl had never acted before and Kapri is close friends with her parents, so they agreed for her to act on this project.^[9] The film was shot for two hours a day with three cameras placed on the set since Kapri felt "you can’t ask a two-year-old to give another take."^[7] Kapri made some changes in the script based on Myra's behavioral patterns.^[10] For two months, Myra moved to the flat that was rented for shoot.^[10] Kapri had to wait for six months after he had finalised Myra for the film due to production issues. Later, his friend Kishen Kumar came on board as a producer. With a budget of {{INRConvert|45|l}}, they started shooting the film, but Kumar suffered a cardiac arrest and Kapri had to again seek help for the film's post-production budget.^[10]

References

External links

• {{IMDb title|tt8458202}}

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