KOCHI: What can happen over a piece of Banoffee Pie? Quite a lot. One can get to know each other and the world around us. Clearly, Inderjit Bansal knows a thing or two about serving it perfectly. Only that his bittersweet pie leaves us in a pensive mood.
Banoffee Pie, a brilliantly-made short film scripted by Malayali Sarat Prakash and Karan Bansal, tackles the very relevant subject of culture and cultural clashes, in the changing political scenario.
It all begins with two individuals who meet at a cafe to enjoy a Banoffee Pie and some sweet moments, only to find face to face with radical forces.
As thought-provoking as this sounds, Banoffee Pie is anything but preachy. It is a light and bittersweet food for our soul. “India as a country is going through a very interesting phase. I think we should discuss it. This is an attempt to initiate a thought process, to sit back and re-evaluate by showcasing different perspectives. The film deals with a socially-relevant issue, but we have not taken sides nor have we tried to blame anyone. What we did is trigger a thought process and let people decide for themselves,” says Inderjit Bansal, the director.
Content is the king in ‘Banoffee Pie’ and makers were quite clear it should be that way. Engaging without much dramatics, the film starts with banter between Gaurav and Ananya about the former’s addiction for Banoffee Pie. While their conversation shifts from the sweet pie to some bitter life truths, the flavour doesn’t change. It keeps you hooked till the end.
“I feel the foundation of the film starting with the pie makes it special in the first place,” says Sarat Prakash, the writer. The process was quite challenging too. “The key challenge was to ensure the dialogues are engaging and yet informative and to keep the surprise factor in place,” says Bansal.
Sarat explains how they had numerous rounds of revisions as the content was mostly dialogue-driven. “We revised it 11 times to be precise and to keep it tight, engaging and informative. Luckily, a lot of things like books, video content and paper articles that I had read and watched over the years came in handy. Also, I had a good bunch of friends with diverse tastes, interests and views. So all these helped give an interesting dimension to take the conversation smoothly,” he adds. Banoffee Pie is available on YouTube.