Anuj Saxena has added another feather to his already chequered cap - his production house Maverick productions has launched a documentary, directed by noted dircetor, Sahana Bhattacharya. The documentary is titled Fables of Birth.

Anuj Saxena

Bhattacharya, who has been awarded the “Brouillion d’un reve” by SCAM (Civil Society of Authors and Multimedia of France) has taken as long as seven years to complete the project which she refers to as 'her labour of love.'

Fables... is a story about the midwives of India and the documentary traces the lives of two such mid wives in the village of Hessady in West Bengal. It's a poignant tale about the art of midwives, which is an integral part of the rural life in India.The docu moves forward following the two women as they go about their daily chores.

“As a producer, I am always on the look out for interesting and good subjects. This was an excellent subject for us to present ourselves as serious documentary filmmakers and the subject appealed to me both as a producer and as a viewer. Documentaries especially ones like this, have huge scope internationally and our aim through this will be to project ourselves as serious people in this business. We will be presenting Fables...at major International festivals and exhibitions, starting with the documentary Exhibition/Festival, ‘Sunny Side of the Doc’ in France in the end of June 2006,” says a visibly excited Anuj.

Stills from Fables of Birth

Bhattacharya on the other hand relied on her instincts for research to fuel her imagination to explore the subaltern lifestyle in the interior districts of Purulia in West Bengal where a large tribal population of Santhals resided. "I stayed with the community for months on end during my trips from France and closely interacted with the midwives of Hessady. Having established a comfort zone, I took my shooting crew to the villages. The tribal folk, skeptical of civilised people and their 'mean machines’ opened up with spontaneity and allowed the camera crew to take an intimate peep into their lives,” says the director.

Fables...seems to be an interesting piece of work and with this Maverick Productions seems to have made its first foray into thought provoking content in the industry.