Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has been receiving rave reviews for his latest, Netflix original Choked, has said his girlfriend Shubhra Shetty was the one who brought the script of Choked to him. The film opens with a credit to Shubhra – “For Shubhra Shetty”.
Speaking to India Today in an interview, Anurag said, “She (Shubhra) was the one who brought the script to me and this was around 2015. She didn’t see a lot of my films because she says that she gets disturbed by them. And she said if you made this movie, I will watch it. So, I made this film. It was like a thank you. She has watched it now and she is very happy with it.”
Directed by Anurag, Choked features Saiyyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash and Rajshri Deshpande in pivotal roles. Hindustan Times’ review for the film said, “Having confined not just his actors but also himself inside a cramped apartment, Kashyap displays an unusually restrained visual approach. In a lot of the film’s early bits, cinematographer Sylvester Fonseca’s camera seems to have been inspired by David Fincher’s sleek work in Panic Room — gliding across kitchen counters, and asserting an omnipotence over the action. Choked doesn’t have the slapdash appearance of a lot of Kashyap’s earlier work; instead it feels positively meticulous in its structure. The importance of music, however, is just as pronounced here as it has ever been in any film that the director has made. Karsh Kale’s jazzy, percussion-driven score is sublime.”
About the film, Anurag had written in Instagram, “Casting the role of Sarita was a big challenge for me. The main character of the film, Sarita, is a young housewife and mother who aspires for more than what her current basic life can provide. And her need for money alters the trajectory of her life and that of her family.”
