City group’s ‘Mike’ opens in six theatres

Nagpur: Starting from the road outside Deekshabhoomi, local film-maker Piyush Pandey’s Indie flick ‘Mike’ takes you through the best locations of Ladakh you could ever see from the saddle of a bike. The movie had a special screening on Friday at a local multiplex.
With a limited crew of seven people, 15 actors (all from Nagpur) and a budget of 25 lakh, the director has portrayed the life of a ‘boy-next-door’ Siddharth Jichkar, named Siddharth Agrawal in the movie, as he embarks on a journey to discover himself.With Rup Jyoti Sona behind the camera, the movie has been bravely pictured across one of the roughest routes and peaks of Northern India.
Assistant director Aditya Sharma told TOI that the movie is being simultaneously screened across six locations, Nashik, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru. He said, “We are also trying our hands at various film festivals like the Toronto Film Festival and Mumbai Film Festival. The results are still awaited.”
The movie starts when an average teenager, who is confused about his motive in life, rebels against his parents, leaves his hometown and land in the dream city ‘Mumbai’ to become an actor. After striving hard for two months, giving dozens of auditions, he ends up being deceived by his agent. With dreams shattered, Siddharth returns to his hometown and starts work at his dad’s office. The monotonous lifestyle, however, soon leaves him restless. He then decides on an introspective journey, a solo road-trip cruising over the highway between Manali and Ladakh.
The actor throws off his staid life to roar across the valleys on a rented Enfield motorcycle with his possessions strapped to the bike, without a pre-planned route or direction. The director has projected this aimless journey as philosophically profound, aligning it with the subtitle that reads, “All those who wander are not lost”.
The movie covers breathtaking locations that Ladakh has to offer, right from Keylong to Sarchu. But it is definitely not a travelogue. Throughout the journey, the hero encounters meaningful coincidences that lead him from one place to another and meets different people who leave a strong impact in his life. Like the beautiful Ladakhi girl or the Shepard named Stanzin he befriends on the trip, who expose him to a wonderful world beyond, which he had been missing out on.
It all ends after he meets British man Craig, with whom he encounters a snow leopard, named Mike, one of the most endangered cat species. That’s where his life gets shape and he teams up with Craig to shoot documentaries for National Geographic.
Pandey said, “Unfortunately, we had to release an independent movie like Mike at this time of the year, when most of the mainstream movies make their way to the theatres. So, it is definitely going to be a risk.”
(Reporting by Shakti Singh)