The only formula to succeed is to have a positive mindset: Rahul Srivastava

A man in his 40s is finding everything wrong with his life. A domino effect takes place and one after another his day starts going wrong. He has a problem with barking dogs, his son and his house number. ITWAAR's lead character Anubhav Verma, played by veteran actor Kumud Mishra, is disturbed with the fact that his son is sitting idle at home while other kids in the surrounding have found a vocation for themselves. He doesn’t find peace in anything around him and soon it seems that the life will take an ugly turn, but a small incident changes the course of the day.

This is the story of the short film ITWAAR streaming on Disney+Hotstar, directed by Rahul Srivastava who explains his idea behind the film, “I faced a lot of such days when nothing was going as per my plan and I was finding fault with everything around me and when the tides turned, the same life looked beautiful to me. That was my core idea of the film that how one’s mental state changes one’s outlook for the world.”

The film showcases beautiful and nuanced performances by Kumud Mishra, Lubna Salim and Harshit Sidhvani. The famous playback singer Udit Narayan has lent his voice for the film with the song Man Bhala Toh Sab Bhala. The simple words and a deep philosophy make the song memorable.

"I find the song is the best tool to communicate an idea and hence I wanted to have a song even in my short film. Man Bhala Toh Sab Bhala epitomises the inherent philosophy of my film,” says Rahul.

This was Rahul’s first fiction film as a director while he had already directed more than 100 television commercials for famous brands like Tata Sky, Asian Paints, Ghadi detergent, Namaste India Ghee among others. The Namaste India Ghee film is one of the most humorous TVCs produced in the recent past, and Eid film for Ghadi detergent is still one of the most memorable works of his. Rahul joined Film and TV Institute of India, Pune to pursue film editing and after graduating from the institute, he edited feature films like Saheb Biwi aur Gangster, Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Returns, Bullett Raja and many more. He was nominated as the Best Editor by APSARA (Producers Guild Awards) for his work in Saheb Biwi aur Gangster (Dir: Tigmanshu Dhulia)

Rahul recalls the time while the film ITWAAR was doing festival rounds, “I would simply stand in a corner of the auditorium and wait for the people to laugh when Kumud ji goes on ranting about his bad day. A lot of people told me that they could see their lives in the film.”

Rahul attributes his craft to the lower middle class upbringing of Allahabad and its rich heritage of literature and theatre. He started writing stories and soon the most renowned Hindi literary magazines were publishing those stories.

Rahul loves directing emotional and humorous films and hopes that he would soon be directing the web shows and feature films, which would make people smile.

Itwaar has already received international acclaim at the RiverToRiver 18th Florence Indian Film Festival in Italy. It received the Special Jury Award at 16th Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival 2018 and Filmingo International Short Film Festival 2018. The film was an official selection at Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival 2019, 9th Jagran Film Festival 2018 and many more.