Birsa Dasgupta explores the idea of a criminal born out of circumstances in his thriller Mukhosh

Birsa Dasgupta opened up about his psychological thriller Mukhosh that was released today. Speaking to Indian Express, he said that he zeroed in on the plot of the film, putting it as two parallel strands; one of a serial killer on the loose in the city, while the other of Kinshuk, a consulting criminologist who is studying psychology and how tries to unravel the motive of crime. That’s how the idea of the title ‘Mukhosh’, meaning mask, was developed.

The versatile filmmaker added that he is always drawn to stories of gritty reality, which exists not in black-and-white, but in greys. The idea of ‘revenge as the confession of pain’, seen in David Fincher’s Se7en appealed to him along with the fact that a killer is born out of dire circumstances.

Talking about casting Anirban, he revealed that the film required ‘non-acting’ which Anirban has successfully pulled off before, making him the perfect fit for the role of the criminologist.

This is Dasgupta's 11th film and given its genre of being a realistic thriller, he has done away with songs, citing no need for it. He went on to add that the film explores the side of Kolkata which is beyond ‘the glamour and lights’, and rather is ‘a colonial that is murky and decaying.’

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Reminiscing on his journey from assisting Anurag Kashyap in his 2004 crime film Black Friday all the way to helming Mukhosh, the Bibaho Obhijaan director said he explored languages through his work in the bilingual film Mafia, the Hindi film Black Widows and while learning filmmaking in its entirety when he met Anurag Kashyap. Learning from it all, Dasgupta said that he came back to Kolkata to make his first film in his mother tongue Bengali, and that is how 033 happened, which was appreciated by Anurag Kashyap and Mani Kaul. He went on to make 10-11 films in Bengali and the successful television series on the life of Uttam Kumar, Mahanayak.

The director now awaits the release of a Hindi film and series by the end of this year on OTT.