Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon

Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon(Taking the horse to eatJalebis) is a 2018 Indian film produced by Gutterati Productions.
This film is a result of seven years of documentation of the lives ofstreet peopleofOld Delhi– beggars,pickpockets, loaders, small-scale factory workers, street singers, street vendors, etc. The film was directed by Anamika Haksar.
The film was described as a "masterpiece of contemporary Indian cinema" byKinoscopeIt has won awards both internationally and nationally and has been screened at numerous film festivals
Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoonfirst premiered at theMumbai Academy of the Moving Image(MAMI) festival in 2018. It was also the only film to be selected toSundance New Frontier Festivalin the year 2019.
Anamika Haksar's debut feature film,Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon, which released in selected theatres on 10 June 2022. Two years after it was selected to be screened in The New Frontiers section of the Sundance Film Festival,the only Indian film in that category.
Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoonfollows four main characters: a pickpocket, a vendor of sweet and savoury snacks, a labourer-activist, and a conductor of 'Heritage Walks'.
Patru, the pickpocket, decides to take people on alternative walks, showing them the underbelly of the city but this causes trouble with local merchants and the police. He  decides to conduct one last 'Dream Walk'When Lali, the labourer-activist, too joins the fray, giving a speech urging workers to unite, he lands them all in jail.
Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoonis Haksar's first feature film. To finance it, she sold her Delhi house, borrowed from friends and family, launched a crowd-funding initiative online.
According to Haksar. "I took an eight-month course in film-making and I had the direction part under control. But I didn't know about things like lensing, or how to place the camera," she says. "There were political issues too. There was a woman on the streets. She had been raped 10 times. Where do you place your camera when you show her? Saumyananda Sahi, is a very conscious person. He prioritized her dignity over the idea of a good shot."
Gautam Nair, the sound designer, usedambient soundonly; nothing was dubbed in a studio.
Archana Shastri, production designer of the film is also a well known painter from Baroda. She has very carefully crafted the art and has used paintings based on folk imagination, as well as animation. Soumitra Ranadee, and his team of animators helped bringing the fusion of paintings and animation together.
"The structure of the film mirrors the winding streets and lives of the homeless, who don't have a structured life and who don't know what will happen next." Haksar says she picked these characters because they are generally seen as types, or tasks, rather than individuals.
She created a list of about 25 questions — on fears, imagery, dreams, oft-felt emotions, attitude to money, daily routines. "I handed the questionnaire to a theatre colleague of mine who lives in old Delhi because it's better to do it that way than to just descend on people from the outside. We spoke to 75 people over two years," she says. Based on the answers to her questionnaire, she created her four key characters — a pickpocket, a snacks vendor a laborer-activist and a conductor of heritage walks..
Haksar also did a very small workshop for about 10 days. It  played an important role for her to understand the different styles, since each actor is stylistically different. Ravindra Sahu, for instance, has done a lot of physical theater and has an intense, psychological interior. He has used movements and psychological gestures and movements in his performance as the pickpocket.
The film title came from Harksar's Aunt... She told her an anecdote about hailing a Tonga seller who had an emaciated horse. He refused to come, saying he had to feed his horsejalebis. Anamika loved the humour of it.
It took over seven years to make the film.