Jail inmates visit real life counterparts in Tihar

Two days after Diwali, a few residents of a tiny oval-shaped enclosure hemmed in by a red wooden grille at Tihar jail got an unexpected gift: freedom, reports HT Correspondent

Two days after Diwali, a few residents of a tiny oval-shaped enclosure hemmed in by a red wooden grille at Tihar jail got an unexpected gift: freedom.

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Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bollywood actor, released the white-necked pigeons from their cage in a sub-prison meant for convicts, on Monday afternoon.

Mukesh, who plays the protagonist in film director Madhur Bhandarkar's latest movie Jail—set for release on November 9—spent over three hours at the prison along with other cast and crew members.

Mukesh had passed by the pigeons's cage while walking to an open space located at sub-prison number two, where the cast interacted with the prisoners, gifted them sweets, and shared a hot, vegetarian lunch with them.

When asked to speak, Mukesh drew a similarity between the caged pigeons and a prisoner: “They both feel trapped inside their cages, feel glum because they cannot do things they would do in the outside world and live on the hope of freedom.”

Jail depicts life in prison.

Mukesh and co-actor Manoj Bajpai said they had researched extensively on life inside a jail by interacting with inmates in prisons across Mumbai (Arthur Road), Thane and Pune (Yerawada) in Maharashtra.

“Those who stay on hope for bail, an early release, or remission of the jail term, and those who get resigned to their fate and take things as they come.” Bhandarkar praised the way Tihar was maintained.

“We could not come to Tihar while preparing or shooting the film but I have always wanted to come to this jail which looks clean and offers good modes of reform to its inmates.”

The director of films, such as Chandni Bar and Page 3 said it was not easy for a prisoner to reform inside jail.

“While filming my movie, I learnt that sometimes even when an inmate tries to reform himself, his efforts get thwarted in a prison setting, something which would be portrayed in Jail.”

Meanwhile, the Director General of Police (prisons) BK Gupta assured Bhandarkar that the movie's prayer song 'Daata Sun, Maula Sun' (Listen, god) would be sung by the inmates during their morning and evening prayer meetings.

The song was sung for the inmates by the film’s music director Shamir Tandon and other members of the cast.