NEW YORK, NY (TIP): Mise Ee Scene held a private media screening of their short Hindi film ‘Back Up’ on Wednesday July 17th at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City, followed by an after party at the B Bar & Grill. Written produced and Directed by Eshwar Gunturu, ‘Back Up’ is an intense psychological thriller depicting love, hatred and other extreme emotions in life.

The movie is set and shot in New York City. ‘Back Up’ has an interesting plot. It starts off with a suicide bomber preparing to carry out his mission somewhere in New York City and all seems to be going well. On the other side, there is a very normal man, Dr. Haq,who has some abnormal issues with his wife. The movie takes a turn when suddenly the suicide bomber vanishes and the terrorists have no one to take his place.

That’s where Dr. Haq comes in. In the next 35 minutes, Esh and his team have worked really hard to show the play of human emotions and raw manipulations that can take a man from leading a quiet life to being a destructive monster and an abomination to the core. This movie is not about the story or the people who play roles in it. It’s about human emotions and interactions. It’s about the ability to brainwash people. It’s about the evil that resides deep within us…it’s eerie, dark and exciting to say the least.

The movie has some great talent. The first 7- 10 minutes are pretty intense and are well enacted by Ashok & Sweta. There is a lot of potential in the other actors who have come on screen for the first time. They portray their roles very well. The background score must also get a good applause as it keeps the momentum of the movie going. Editing was pretty good too! For a short film, the makers have spent a lot of money in the production of the film.

Other aspect to point would be the apt locations used in the film that gives a perfect look to the premise of the film. Sweta Keswani, (Deepti Mathur) has been known in the world of television and has been loved and admired for her stereotype shattering performances in ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki’, ‘Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand’, ‘Baa Bahu aur Baby’ and ‘Adaalat’ to name a few.

With over 20 years of acting skills, Sweta is the pivotal player in this movie,which Esh and Hemangi enthusiastically agree was the turning point of their quest for the right cast. The whole crew enjoyed working with her and she reciprocates the same feeling for them. Unlike, other productions where she would encounter chaos and lack of a strategic direction, Sweta was impressed by Esh and gang.

Ashok Chaudhary (Jai Mathur) plays the lead role in the movie. Ashok has done theater since his young age including TV soap operas like ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’, ‘Kavyanjali’ and ‘Left Right Left’. A graduate from FTII Pune, he has also studied at The Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg and H B Studio of Acting in New York. He was recently seen in an off Broadway English play ‘Sakharam Binder’ which is an adaptation of the Marathi play by the same name.

Esh mentions that Ashok was the perfect person to play Jai’s character and Ashok has definitely proved Esh right! An Engineer by profession, Eshwar is a filmmaker by passion. Eshwar or Esh as he is known to his friends and colleagues knows what he wants in life too. He claims to have written close to thirteen movie scripts and says that he will be making a full-length feature film by the end of this year if all goes well.

First, he wants to see the audience’s response to his short film, ‘Back Up’. One thing Esh did confirm though…and that was that he will never make a Sci-Fi movie in his life. In his own words, “I don’t know why, but I don’t like Sci-fi at all and I don’t think I’d be involved in making of a Sci-fi film in the future. I really like to make films that show relationships between people and narrate downto- earth real people stories.” There was no hint of hesitation in his voice when he said that.

Esh is a passionate filmmaker as his work will show and Hemangi ,who is the Coproducer of this film and Esh’s wife tells us that Esh used to work day and night even when she was pregnant. He would tell her to call 9-1-1 if she was to go into delivery. Hemangi has stood by him all these years to see this passion come through.

She is one proud wife and she supports him in his own projects. Well,we have already caught a glimpse of Eshwar’s work and his movie making style.We can’t wait to see what he has in store for us for the feature that he plans to shoot shortly.We wish him and his team the best for this film and his future projects.