SINGAPORE VIGNETTES
Featuring Anthony Morse, the well-known TV series show host of Hidden Cities (History Channel) and The New Silk Road (CNA, MediaCorp), and Shishir Sharma, veteran Indian film and theatre actor, the Singapore Vignettes (Filmwallas, 2020; 1 hr 7 minutes) is an anthology of three short films set and filmed in Singapore with local cast and crew. Produced and directed by Singapore-based writer and filmmaker Zafar Anjum,The Singapore Vignettes (SV) comprises three shorts: More Chai Please (set in Singapore and Lucknow, Urdu/Hindi), The Corporate Wolf (English) and Sirf Main (Hindi).
This anthology is a tribute to the beautiful Little Red Dot, telling distinct stories of the new Indian expats in Singapore, along with the story of a corporate fraud that delivers befitting justice to a group of disgruntled older workers in a factory. All the three films have been adapted from literary material (play and short stories).
This independent film was released on MX Player, one of India's leading OTT platforms with 280 million subscribers. It's free to watch here in many regions in the world.
Here are brief descriptions of the three shorts in this anthology:
In The Corporate Wolf, DAVID (played by Anthony Morse), a 32 year old, well-heeled and a proud member of the elite society of Singapore, decides to adopt drastic measures to revamp his late father’s cosmetics company. He audaciously changes the company’s culture by planning to lay off his late father’s two most loyal employees, POH (Wiggie) and YEO (Kenneth Goh). Do Poh and Yeo take this unkind cut kindly? The Corporate Wolf is an adaptation from the prize winning Singapore Crimes Stories.
Sirf Main (Only Me) is the story of AARTI (played by Renita S Kapoor), a middle-aged Indian woman who lives in Singapore. She is married to a wealthy businessman, SANJEEV (played by Neeraj Sujanani). When she finds out that her husband is having an affair, she is not able to live with any moral ambiguity in her life anymore. Does she leave her husband or does she choose to stay in the marriage and work on it? Her friend from her college days in India, VIREN (played by Bollywood actor Shishir Sharma), who gets transferred for a job with an MNC in Singapore, helps her choose the right path.
More Chai Please is about a young Muslim couple in Singapore who are about to get married. The would-be groom SALAAR (played by Charan Singh) is obsessed with a tea recipe for his soon-to-be-launched café in Singapore and its search takes him to the city of Nawabs, Lucknow, India. In his absence, his fiancee INAYAA (played by Neha Zest) pines for him. Does he succeed in finding the rare recipe or does his quest lead him to discover a deeper secret about food and the finer senses? This film features veteran Singaporean theatre actor Subin Subaiah and Bollywood actor Shishir Sharma in special appearance.
About the Producer & Director
As a publisher, he has published more than 60 titles and has authored several books. As an author, he has many bestsellers to his credit, including Iqbal (Penguin Random House), Startup Capitals (Penguin Random House) and The Resurgence of Satyam (Penguin Random House). He is the founder and series editor of The Best Asian Short Stories series, which is seen as a unique platform for Asian story writers.
In 2015, he started Filmwallas as a collaborative platform with the goal of connecting filmmakers across the globe and co-funded projects for more than half a dozen filmmakers. The platform has been supported by many top Indian film personalities such as Prakash Jha, Nagesh Kukunoor, and Ashish Vidyarthi, among others. Under Filmwallas, he has organised many acting workshops and talks by well-known Bollywood actors such as Shishir Sharma and Ashish Vidyarthi.
Zafar obtained script writing training from the University of the Arts, London, and has been coached by many Hollywood and Bollywood personalities such as Syd Field, Venita Coehlo, and Loveleen Tandon (Co-director of Slumdog Millionaire).
Zafar has produced and directed many short films, documentaries, and corporate films for brands such as Oracle, Mastercard, Cognizant, Ramco, HCL Tech, RB, Motul and Palo Alto Networks, among others.
One of his award-winning short films, The Sacrifice, is playing on the streaming platform Disney+Hotstar. His most recent directorial productions include Zindagi...Interrupted (a Hindi short on life after Covid in Singapore) and "Singapore Vignettes". The latter is the compilation of three of his short films, shot entirely in Singapore. These shorts include Sirf Main (Hindi), More Chai Please (Hindi/Urdu) and The Corporate Wolf (English).
About the Executive Producer
In keeping with current times, she has also transitioned to digital platforms and has launched 5 children’s e-books (Daddy Jacana, Foodle’s Cafe, 3 Tree Frogs, Ah Chang the Trishaw man & The Magic of Kaly D) on YouTube. She is also looking forward to the television premiere of her children's play, Earthward Ho, in the coming months.
Widely travelled, Sunita is a committed environmentalist and is always ready to take on a new challenge.
Cast & Credits
Producer & Director
Zafar Anjum
Executive Producers
Zafar Anjum
Sunita Lad Bhamray
Line Producer
Anvita Gupta
Writers
Sunita Lad Bhamray, Kiranmayi D., Mahendthiran, Angelina Pereira, Alvin Fong, Zafar Anjum
Cinematographers
Ramakrishnan Naidu, Srikanth Gumma, Joant Ubeda, Hannafi Hafidz, Vinod Rai Sharma
Editors
Shams Tanweer, Srikanth Gumma, Iniyavan Pandiyan
Cast
THE CORPORATE WOLF - Anthony Morse, Kenneth Goh, Wiggie, Ivan Tan Eng Hong, Poonam Jajoo
SIRF MAIN - Shishir Sharma, Renita S Kapoor, Neeraj Sujanani
MORE CHAI PLEASE - Charan Singh, Neha Zest, Shishir Sharma, Subin Subaiah
Contacts
(For press and sales)
Zafar Anjum
Filmwallas Pte Ltd
Singapore
Zafar Anjum is a Singapore-based writer and filmmaker. As a journalist he spent almost two decades in media with prestigious organisations such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Fairfax Business Media and MediaCorp, and went on to found his own media companies, Kitaab and Filmwallas.
Sunita Lad Bhamray has been involved in the world of creative writing and performing arts for almost a decade. Her inspirational journey began with a book based on horse racing titled, Triumphs on the Turf. This was succeeded by her best-selling novel Ganga Jamuna and a much loved children’s book titled, Grandma Lim’s Persimmons. A foray into playwriting thereafter resulted in plays: Nirjhari and The Blue Diamond. Following the appreciation and success of the plays she embarked on her next venture; the screenplay of More Chai Please and production of Singapore Vignettes.
