Neil Nitin Mukesh’s Life In Jail

According to Madhur Bhandarkar his upcoming film, Jail will be the first Hindi film to show life of a prisoner inside the anda cell and the psychological torture that prisoners undergo there.

While Bharat Shah, Ketan Parekh, Sanjay Dutt and Ajmal Kasab have been lodged in the anda cell, Bhandarkar’s camera doesn’t pan on the life of any celebrity behind bars. “I don’t know why an anda cell is shaped that way or even called so. I’ve never seen a real-life anda cell either. Hence, what I show is based on my research and imagination,” Bhandarkar says, adding, “High security prisoners in an anda cell aren’t allowed homecooked food. There is no provision for fans. Light rays filter into the cell through a glass flap on the ceiling. For anda cell inmates, life in prison normally means a blanket, a pillow, a cheap German silver plate and a bowl. One portion of the cell is reserved as a loo! During the initial days in these cells, most inmates go into a fit of rage and even scream abuses.”

The cell that was created for shooting Neil’s sequence was just 7 ft by 10 ft in size. “But, we didn’t create any oval-shaped cell. My cousin, Kalpesh Bhandarkar, is the cinematographer of Jail. He had a tough time setting the lights and placing the camera inside. I’d only shoot these scenes at night. The whole film has been shot chronologically so that Neil gets a feel of what his character must be going through when he is lodged there.”
One of the toughest moments of shooting were the torture scenes of Neil’s character. “During my research, I came across a kind of torture that’s called naal bandi. An inmate is made to lie down between the bars with his legs up. He is positioned in such a way that he can’t even move an inch while he is being beaten black and blue.

This kind of a torture is often done in front of other inmates so that they don’t dare misbehave,” Bhandarkar adds.Sources say that he wouldn’t even speak to anyone. And that also included interactions with his fashion designer girlfriend Priyanka. At times, credibility on screen meant getting hit hard and shedding tears that didn’t smell of glycerine. As Bhandarkar puts it, “It’s tough to even shoot sequences in an anda cell and I shudder to think of life for the inmates!” Source