3 Deewarein
Three Walls
2003 · India · 120 min
- Director
- Nagesh Kukunoor
- Screenplay
- Nagesh Kukunoor
- Producer
- Elahe Hiptoola
- Music
- Salim-Sulaiman
- Cinematography
- Ajayan Vincent
Cast
What it is about
Three death-row inmates serve their sentences in an Indian prison: Jaggu, a lawyer and poet who killed his wife after discovering her infidelity; Nagya, a man furious at the world, accused of killing his girlfriend; and Ishaan, a carefree man who killed during a robbery. The warden Mohan tries several ways to reform them. When documentary filmmaker Chandrika arrives to record their rehabilitation, the inmates' stories begin to unsettle her.
How it was made
Nagesh Kukunoor became fascinated by how an ordinary person can end up locked away in an instant. He drew on a documentary about Yerwada Central Jail and on conversations with two ex-convicts, but took about three years to write the script, which he first drafted in English as Three Walls. The producer feared an English title would cost audience, so the film took a Hindi title. Around 75 percent of the dialogue is in Hindi, since the prisoners could not plausibly speak English. The film uses no songs, only a background score. Juhi Chawla, usually cast in light roles, plays Chandrika. Shooting took place in the old Musheerabad jail in Hyderabad, whose demolition was postponed 36 days by court order.
Reception and legacy
It premiered at the Kolkata Film Festival in 2002 and was nominated among the top five films loved by the audience at the Commonwealth Festival in Manchester. Kukunoor won the Filmfare Award for Best Story. At a special screening at Mumbai's Sterling Cinema, around 800 attendees gave it a standing ovation.
Stills
Trivia
No songs
Kukunoor had used songs in some of his earlier films, but felt they would interrupt the narrative here, so the film has no musical numbers and only a background score.
A vanished prison
Shortly after filming, the Musheerabad jail was demolished, and within a few months a new hospital opened on the site to the public.
More films by Nagesh Kukunoor
Dor
Lakshmi
Bombay to Bangkok
Hopes
DhanakOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.