Content from For Films

Just when the people of an expanding Calcutta feel their dreams might be fulfilled, they hear the sound of things falling.

While Jonaki, an 80-year-old woman, searches for love in a strange world of decaying memories, her lover, now old and grey, returns to a world she is leaving behind.

Set in the crumbling environs of Calcutta, Labour of Love is a lyrical unfolding of two ordinary lives suspended in the duress of a spiralling recession.

The film follows the beginnings of a relationship between Preeti and Samrat, an aspirational couple in their mid-twenties who have just moved to the megalopolis of Mumbai. As they share their love story via reels on social media, where the immediate validation and promises of quick money initially seduces, and then propels them into the world of influencers.

Vidya, a single mother and staunch idealist, moves into Mahalaxmi Apartment as a tenant, a housing society with hidden cracks. One night, she encounters a terrifying elevator malfunction and reports it to Sharma, the egoistical building president, who refuses to believe anything could be wrong—especially based on the word of an “outsider." Alarmed by his ignorance, Vidya warns the residents of impending danger, but their blind faith in Sharma silences her. Determined to expose the truth, she uncovers the shocking corruption within the system, and when she tries to speak, she gets branded an enemy of society.

Next feature from Aditya Vikram Sengupta which explores the present-day Hindu-Muslim tension in India.