Indian Director Ajitpal Singh Explains The Spiritual Aspect Of His Crime-Thriller, ‘Tabbar’


Indian filmmaker Ajitpal Singh made his mark on international film circuits much before his debut in Hindi popular cinema with Tabbar that released online this year. His short films Rammat Gammat and Fire In The Mountains have traveled across various film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival. Now with his latest offering – his debut web series, Tabbar – he has entered the market of popular cinema.

Tabbar is streaming on SonyLiv and features Pavan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak, and Ranvir Shorey in lead roles. In this interview, Singh shares how spirituality and philosophy made their way into the family drama-cum-crime-thriller, and how his filmmaking journey shaped up with time.

Set in India’s Punjab, the show traces a middle-class family caught amid scary situations. Beyond the twists and turns of a thriller, Tabbar, also emphasises on some existential questions and captures the spiritual mood of an ageing middle-class man who prioritises family over everything else. ‘Tabbar’ is a Punjabi word for family.

Each episode of the show begins with a philosophical couplet by famous Punjabi writer Baba Farid. The filmmaker says, “We already had Gurbani in our series. Feedback came from the producers, Sony, that they liked it. They also asked us to do something more on similar lines.” He was pleasantly surprised because he enjoyed lacing his narrative with spiritual aspects.

“This song by Baba Farid, Turya Turya Ja Farida, is the one that I listened to a lot when I came to  Mumbai. Essentially, the song says ‘keep walking, you may meet someone’. Now you may derive your own meaning – be it seeking your lover/beloved or God. The song is essentially about how we suffer in this world. We all suffer, there is no one who does not suffer. Suffering is the path on which you walk if you want to find the truth. Buddha suffered a lot, Gurunanak suffered a lot,” Singh says.

He says that all his characters in Tabbar are suffering – right from Omkar (Pavan Malhotra), Sargun (Supriya Pathak), to even Ajit Sodhi (Ranvir Shorey). “We all know that by accepting the truth, we can end the suffering. The problem is, most of us cannot accept the truth that is always there in front of me. We knew the show is not just a crime-thriller and we wanted to provide a way (for the audience) to look at it. So we thought of opening each episode with a couplet. You’d know you are watching something that goes beyond a crime-thriller.”

Taking about his childhood, Singh says he was not always a good student. He goes on to explain why it was so. “When everybody looked at me as a Sikh boy in a classroom in Gujarat, I was not a good student. This was the time when Sikhs were considered the enemies (soon after former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. Her Sikh bodyguards had shot her down and anti-Sikh riots killed thousands across the country). Till that time, I was not a good student. My parents then got my school changed  and they also got my hair chopped (Sikhs were identified with their turbans). Then the demolition of Babri mosque (in 1992) happened and someone else became the enemy of the country. I was not the enemy anymore and I started doing very good in studies.”

“I was set to be an engineer, like any other middle-class guy, but I happened to buy a Prem Chand (popular Hindi writer with famous novels such as Godaan, Nirmala, Gaban and Kaphan) novel on a train journey when I was in Class XI. I was hooked on to it, and by the time I finished graduation, I knew I wanted to tell stories.” Singh worked on his storytelling skills, struggling with perceived limitations of language till he understood the language of cinema. It was only then that he finally started working on films.

Singh worked on over 15 documentaries before he took to the fictional format. Earlier this year, his debut feature, Fire in The Mountains) had its World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival and his short film (Rammat Gammat) premiered on Mubi.

(The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)


Indian filmmaker Ajitpal Singh made his mark on international film circuits much before his debut in Hindi popular cinema with Tabbar that released online this year. His short films Rammat Gammat and Fire In The Mountains have traveled across various film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival. Now with his latest offering – his debut web series, Tabbar – he has entered the market of popular cinema.

Tabbar is streaming on SonyLiv and features Pavan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak, and Ranvir Shorey in lead roles. In this interview, Singh shares how spirituality and philosophy made their way into the family drama-cum-crime-thriller, and how his filmmaking journey shaped up with time.

Set in India’s Punjab, the show traces a middle-class family caught amid scary situations. Beyond the twists and turns of a thriller, Tabbar, also emphasises on some existential questions and captures the spiritual mood of an ageing middle-class man who prioritises family over everything else. ‘Tabbar’ is a Punjabi word for family.

Each episode of the show begins with a philosophical couplet by famous Punjabi writer Baba Farid. The filmmaker says, “We already had Gurbani in our series. Feedback came from the producers, Sony, that they liked it. They also asked us to do something more on similar lines.” He was pleasantly surprised because he enjoyed lacing his narrative with spiritual aspects.

“This song by Baba Farid, Turya Turya Ja Farida, is the one that I listened to a lot when I came to  Mumbai. Essentially, the song says ‘keep walking, you may meet someone’. Now you may derive your own meaning – be it seeking your lover/beloved or God. The song is essentially about how we suffer in this world. We all suffer, there is no one who does not suffer. Suffering is the path on which you walk if you want to find the truth. Buddha suffered a lot, Gurunanak suffered a lot,” Singh says.

He says that all his characters in Tabbar are suffering – right from Omkar (Pavan Malhotra), Sargun (Supriya Pathak), to even Ajit Sodhi (Ranvir Shorey). “We all know that by accepting the truth, we can end the suffering. The problem is, most of us cannot accept the truth that is always there in front of me. We knew the show is not just a crime-thriller and we wanted to provide a way (for the audience) to look at it. So we thought of opening each episode with a couplet. You’d know you are watching something that goes beyond a crime-thriller.”

Taking about his childhood, Singh says he was not always a good student. He goes on to explain why it was so. “When everybody looked at me as a Sikh boy in a classroom in Gujarat, I was not a good student. This was the time when Sikhs were considered the enemies (soon after former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. Her Sikh bodyguards had shot her down and anti-Sikh riots killed thousands across the country). Till that time, I was not a good student. My parents then got my school changed  and they also got my hair chopped (Sikhs were identified with their turbans). Then the demolition of Babri mosque (in 1992) happened and someone else became the enemy of the country. I was not the enemy anymore and I started doing very good in studies.”

“I was set to be an engineer, like any other middle-class guy, but I happened to buy a Prem Chand (popular Hindi writer with famous novels such as Godaan, Nirmala, Gaban and Kaphan) novel on a train journey when I was in Class XI. I was hooked on to it, and by the time I finished graduation, I knew I wanted to tell stories.” Singh worked on his storytelling skills, struggling with perceived limitations of language till he understood the language of cinema. It was only then that he finally started working on films.

Singh worked on over 15 documentaries before he took to the fictional format. Earlier this year, his debut feature, Fire in The Mountains) had its World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival and his short film (Rammat Gammat) premiered on Mubi.

(The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

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