"Before Life After Death" explores the struggles of a young pregnant woman and a grieving gynecologist in Singapore. It sheds light on societal stigmas, urban poverty, and hidden traumas among the privileged, writes Vinta Nanda.

A rebellious female student and a reticent middle-aged gynecologist form an unlikely bond as they each confront life-altering incidents. Gauri, just out of her teens, works in her father's Indian food stall in Singapore where she meets Krishna and becomes pregnant. Forced by her parents to abort the child against her will, she leaves home seeking a better future, only to end up on the streets without money or food. Dr. Radhika’s kindness saves her life, despite Radhika having to relive her traumatic failures leading to her own teenage daughter's suicide. This, in a nutshell, is the story of Anshul Tiwari’s “Before Life After Death”.

I reach out to independent filmmakers, writers, and artists from all the different arts because I am a junkie for processes. Nothing excites me more than understanding the journeys artists take from inception to the final expression of their work. Following the travels of a number of artists, filmmakers, and writers has shaped who I am in profound ways. Getting deeper into their motivations and the experiences that drive them to tell stories in diverse forms has expanded my own horizons through the knowledge I've gained over the years. Just watching creative people at work, absorbing their methods, and aligning with their purpose gives me a kick like none other. Seeing their completed works and having conversations with them brings me full circle to the essence of their creativity.

Anshul Tiwari, the director of “Before Life After Death,” is a London-based Indian-origin filmmaker, screenwriter, and editor. A BIFA (British Indie Film Awards) Springboard fellow, he has created two feature films, five award-winning short fiction films, and nearly fifty documentary shorts. “Before Life After Death” was selected at the Singapore International Film Festival 2022 and acquired by Netflix Asia Pacific. His short fiction “Bin Bulaaye” was a Select Short at the Mumbai Film Festival (Jio MAMI) 2019 and garnered millions of views on YouTube. His key documentaries include “Break the Silence” (Best Film, Shorty Social Good Media Award, Los Angeles and SIMA (Social Impact Media Award) and “Rosario” (Best Documentary, IAFOR FilmAsia Japan). In 2023, Anshul directed his second feature film “Bayaar” (English title: Dust and The Wind), starring Vinay Pathak.

Debasmita Dasgupta, the lead producer of “Before Life After Death,” is a London-based, award-winning Indian film producer, graphic novelist, and screenwriter originally from Kolkata. A few weeks ago, I interviewed her and the powerful conversation can be read here.

Now, it’s a conversation with Anshul Tiwari, director of the film "Before Life After Death," produced by the multi-talented Debasmita Dasgupta.

Q: What is your film “Before Life After Death” about?

A: From my many encounters with women who have suffered domestic abuse from their parents or husbands and who often end up in a shelter home in Singapore, I have found many parallels. Many contemplate suicide, but live on for their children. Many are beaten, weakened, abused, threatened by their family members and have to flee to save their lives. Their shelter stint makes them stronger and they find unexpected strength from the depths of despair. While the shelter, the law and the police help them through this storm, it is through their sheer will they pull themselves out of the bog. Unfortunately, some fall through the cracks and never come up.

Gauri’s story is a testament to the urban poverty that goes unnoticed in the broad daylight. Her love story is the story of many who cannot marry or have families because they just can't afford it.  

Death is a recurring theme in my narrative work and this film is no exception. Back in 2013, I lost my father in an unexpected fashion and came face to face with Death. That event changed my life. Radhika, the doctor, is facing the trauma of her teenage daughter’s suicide. Death by suicide is increasingly common in Singapore and Radhika's story is an attempt to bring it up in conversation. In addition to their grief, the bereaved parents face societal prejudice which is rather perverse.

In that sense, I have been making this film for the past many years. In a diverse community like Singapore, getting your story told is part of being accepted as a culture, a race and even a person. Despite the strong negative currents in the story, the film does have a rather positive outlook where people are given a second chance to reshape their destiny and life prevails over death.

Q: What inspired you to set up your first feature film in Singapore?

A: It was part intention, part chance. While it is true that I wanted to make my first feature film in India where I spent my childhood, Singapore has been my home for more than a decade. Here, I have created works featuring Eurasian (film: Sugee Cake), and Chinese (film: Dear New Neighbour) communities. “Before Life After Death” is my first film set in Singapore's Indian community.

Setting the film in Singapore was equal parts challenging and liberating. Challenging, because the story rubs on Singapore’s touchy nerves - the rich poor inequality, the urban poverty, and culture divide amongst the Indian minority population. Liberating because, once we overcame our prejudices against a biased and closed-off media, Singaporean institutions were fairly smooth to chart. Singapore laws safeguard women's interests so they can speak without fear and exercise their free will. Our many interviews of women from across different age and economic backgrounds within Singapore's shelters gave a startling revelation of income differences, conservative mindset that suppressed their free will, and alarming presence of domestic violence in low-income groups. From these startling revelations, a story emerged on its own, so to speak.

The Indian population in Singapore has swelled over the past 20 years, but their image for outsiders has been skewed - reduced to stereotypes like Bollywood and Deepavali. There are hardly any mainstream stories that feature the growing complexity of being an Indian in Singapore.

Q: One of the key highlights of this film is the true to life performances by all the cast members. How did you achieve this?

Four months of acting workshops and a whole lot of improv work. The writer of the story, Debasmita Dasgupta is also an acting coach who has trained with Sohag Sen, the veteran Indian theatre actor from Calcutta. Debasmita conducted these acting workshops that included theatre techniques like body movement, improv work, imagination work, mental exercises and a lot of scene rehearsals. She and I co-wrote a base draft with suggestive dialogue, but the entire script was developed and dialogue was devised during the acting workshop. Every week, we wrote a new version of the screenplay and shared it with the actors to work on their scenes. We’d start with improv and let them run with it. Sometimes five-minute scenes ran into twenty. But the experience was liberating for the actors and us. We threw away most of it, and only retained its juices in the final draft.

Q: Was your director of photography part of these rehearsals since the cinematography appears very symbiotic with actors' performances?

A: The director of photography, Braven Yeo, came about half way into the rehearsals. Before this, we were talking about our visual approach, and the key narrative moments, which had to be built in a specific way. When he joined the rehearsals, the script was already finished and some of the important staging choices were made. I wanted him to plan his camera moves based on the staging choices we achieved in rehearsals. He didn't speak a word of Hindi and sometimes the rehearsals were done in English for his benefit. The feelings went from confusion to chaos to clarity.

By the end of it, each scene was rehearsed at least fifty times and none of the actors needed their scripts on set. It helped us make our scenes sharper and improve actor’s relationships with their characters.

Q: You have edited the film yourself. Many say, it’s not the best decision a director can make. How did you approach your editing process?

A: That is a loaded question! Let me give it a try. I have edited all my past films, so I am very comfortable with the idea in principle. In fact, I have very strong inhibitions passing on my child during its third and most defining trimester to another mother. Editing is an opportunity to hone, shape or even rewrite the story you originally crafted. I give a lot of space to my actors and crew during the production of the film. If you walk on my set, you will hardly hear my voice. I always discover my voice during the editing process. I thrive in that space where I am not answering phone calls and spending hours watching the footage, and studying the performances.

It’s a long haul, one that is not advised if you are short on time. After a while, I become numb as a director and my editor kicks in, breaking the footage, throwing stuff around and forgetting the politics of the frame. Whether I create a cut because it tells a better story or whether I hold back and let the audience find their story. Their story vs your story is the principal dilemma. Most of us who are in the business of telling stories through film want to tell our story eagerly and sometimes would go to extraordinary lengths to have our story told. But a certain restraint is required to allow the audience into your story.  

Q: When does music come in?

A: After I have done my first assembly, I throw some music into the mix and see how the material is reacting. The edit can sometimes break with the music choices and sometimes the two can jive together. I look for those moments. For this film, the music is composed by Tajdar Junaid. We began talking about the music after I had finished my editing with a temporary score. The sound is done by Sukanta Majumdar who has worked with Tajdar earlier. Their chemistry is already set, and the film took full advantage of that.

Q: How would you describe the whole experience of creating this film, in short?

A: Most filmmaking is beset with doubt and second guessing. It bites you in your worst moments and there is no magic trick to stop it, not that I know of. When I face doubt, I let it out by fighting with someone, by arguing my way out of things. I look back at these sessions as therapy. One cannot control their mind. You have to develop a very robust, hardy attitude to the commerce and keep a nimble attitude to the art.