Within a span of 11 minutes Mein, Mehmood tries to capture the plight of innumerable immigrants who are working in different parts of the world. The short film by Bengaluru-based Prataya Saha who has made award-winning films such as Just Another Day and The Good Wife, explores this thought-provoking subject that affects millions of lives across the world. Starring Ozair Abdul Aleem as Mehmood, the story follows this immigrant who works as a telecaller at a travel company. He has targets to achieve to ensure he retains his job and saves enough money to send back home to India for his daughter’s education. Prataya wanted to write and make a film about such immigrants who work in the UAE ever since he started visiting the country in 2013 for work.
“The Middle East is an amalgamation of so many different cultures. I have experienced this since I started visiting the place many years ago. I have travelled by public buses and I have also lived in shared accommodations. This is where I have seen the problems of immigrants first hand. Since I know how to speak in Dhakai Bengali and also speak in Hindi, I was able to speak with many of these people. This is where I found my inspiration,” says the director who wrote the script of the film at a coffee shop in Dubai within 10 hours, over a cup of coffee. This was soon after the first wave of COVID-19, and Prataya was visiting the country for a project. So there are references to the pandemic and also how people lost their jobs because of it. The lead actor of the film, Ozair, has delivered an impressive performance. What comes as a surprise though is that he is not a professional actor. Yet, the realism that he brings to the screen is quite convincing. “He is a writer and used to work for Sharjah TV since 1994. Not being a professional actor and as someone who has observed Dubai and life of immigrants so closely, he was able to perform as naturally as possible,” explains Prataya.
There are quite a few moments during the film that Ozair has improvised his lines, and this was a liberty given by the director. The film also explores how today younger professionals who know English are given preference over senior workers, and this is leading to the older workforce losing their jobs. The story also highlights how living away from family is emotionally draining for many workers who have no choice but to earn abroad. The cinematography and colour tone of the film gives it a very international look and feel, Prataya says he watched several Mexican films. “I watched many references like the show Narcos: Mexico. Mexico has a desert, and Dubai also has one, so I felt the same kind of warm tones would work for it,” he says. The film that has been screened at the UK Film Review Festival and has now been selected for a screening at one of the largest South Asian film festivals in North America. It will be released on a streaming platform in the near future.