''Nirvana Inn'' is a 2019 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...

film directed by

Vijay Jayapal Vijay Jayapal is an Indian film director. His directorial debut '' Revelations'' (2016) a Tamil language Drama premiered at the 21st Busan International Film Festival. Jayapal's second feature film '' Nirvana Inn'' (2019) was chosen to attend ...

and produced by

Stray Factory Stray Factory is an Indian Independent entertainment company founded on July 17, 2010 by Mathivanan Rajendran as a performing arts company before diversifying into online media in 2014 and independent film in 2017. Upcoming films include '' Nirvan ...

, Uncombed Buddha, Stop Whinging and Harman Ventures. The film stars

Adil Hussain Khandkar Mohammad Adil Hussain (; born 5 October 1963) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in several Indian independent and mainstream film productions, as well as international cinema, in films such as '' The Reluctant Fundamentali ...

Rajshri Deshpande Rajshri Deshpande is an Indian actress. She gained international recognition for her performance in Pan Nalin's drama film '' Angry Indian Goddesses''. She then portrayed the title character in Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's ''Sexy Durga'' and recei ...

Sandhya Mridul Sandhya Mridul is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films and television. She is most known for her roles in films like '' Saathiya'' (2002) and ''Page 3'' (2005) and was first runner up on the reality dance show '' Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (Seas ...

. and Saandeep Mahaajan. It follows the story of a boatman who becomes the caretaker of a Himalayan resort after an attempted suicide. ''Nirvana Inn'' was one of the 29 projects selected for the program, Busan Asian Project Market at the

Busan International Film Festival The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF; ), formerly the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), held annually in Haeundae District, Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held fro ...

. It premiered under the "A Window on Asian Cinema" section at the

24th Busan International Film Festival The 24th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 3 to October 12, 2019 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea. A total of 299 films from 85 countries were screened at the festival, including 118 world premieres and 27 in ...

. The film was released on OTT platform ''Cinemapreneur'' on 11 December 2020.

Cast

as Jogiraj Chakraborty *

as Mohini *

as Leela * Saandeep Mahaajan as Husband

Production

Director Vijay Jayapal said that the idea of the film came to his mind after reading an article about the

Germanwings Flight 9525 Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Luftha ...

crash where the pilot had crashed the plane, since he was having some suicidal thoughts. He said, "I was quite intrigued and disturbed by this story and the underlying themes of death and guilt." He then worked on the story for the next year and a half with an idea to make '' The Shining'' meets '' Winter Sleep''. Principal photography began in October 2018 in

Manali, Himachal Pradesh Manali () is a resort town, near Kullu town in Kullu district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is situated in the northern end of the Kullu Valley, formed by the Beas River. The town is located in the Kullu district, approximately ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. Talking about the films title, Vijay said " twas a deliberate choice of title. It refers to the cycle of birth and death and reincarnation." Jayapal had heard a series of strange growls from the roof on a resort in Kerala where he was on a family trip. He decided to use them in the film to show the character's guilt. He said, "You don't know whether the growling is real or just in his mind. It's meant to amplify his fear." After scouting for locations in Lonavala and Uttarakhand, Jayapal settled for a hotel in Manali for the film's setting. He wrote the dialogues of the film in a mix of Hindi and Assamese feeling that the "story determines the language because language is the tool used to communicate the story." Most of the scenes in the film were shot during the day of Manali's winter in 2018. The film ran out of funds for the post production process when they received a grant from the Asian Cinema Fund, with which he finished the film's sound mixing and colour grading.

Reception

Anupam Kant Verma of ''First Post'' wrote: "Adil Hussain-starrer works best when exploring its protagonist's tortured psyche." Arunkumar Shekhar of ''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...

'' wrote: "A thriller at a surface level that is wholly enjoyable for the way it uses a lot of Hitchcockian elements in the script like Tamil films and serials of yore."

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, tt9890322 Films shot in Manali, Himachal Pradesh Films shot in Kerala Films set in Manali, Himachal Pradesh Indian psychological horror films 2010s Hindi-language films Indian direct-to-video films 2019 direct-to-video films