"Chaar Phool Hain Aur Duniya Hai", director Achal Mishra's moving portrait of famous Hindi writer Vinod Kumar Shukla and his surroundings, opens with the author talking about a recent call that he received from one of his readers to check whether he was alive.

Shukla, known for "Naukar Ki Kameez", "Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi", "Kavita Se Lambi Kavita", "Kabhi Ke Baad Abhi", "Atirikt Nahi", "Kewal Jadein Hain" and "Khilega To Dekhenge", is seen walking around his porch as this anecdote plays out.

Mishra, known for his Darbhanga-set films "Gamak Ghar" and "Dhuin", said the intention behind the 54-minute-long film was to capture the daily moments of the author's life, his family and home.

"There is some in-between-ness that I was trying to find in this film, like when he is having his lunch or the moment when there are birds outside in the garden, the light filtering through trees. I was after these moments. Conversations are fine but I felt that the way he lives, I should be able to capture a sense of that in the film," Mishra told PTI in an interview. The film was shot over the course of two afternoons in 2022 that the filmmaker spent with Shukla, 88, in Raipur at his home. In the first and a rather impromptu trip, he was accompanied by writer-actor Manav Kaul, who also appears in the film.

When he realised that it could be a film, Mishra made another trip to Raipur to capture some quieter moments from the writer's daily routine.

The title is taken from one of Shukla's poems. The film features Shukla's views on creativity, marriage and whether it is important to seek permission from those one is writing about. He believes it is not necessary.

The Hindi writer's son Shashwat Gopal is another prominent figure in the documentary, who shared how the family is the first audience of anything that Shukla writes. Shukla's wife Sudha also makes an appearance as he ruminates on marriage, tradition and their bond of many years.

For the longest time, Mishra was not sure that what he had shot at Shukla's home could stand on its own as a film.

"I always wanted to shoot more. His son's interview, which is in the beginning, actually came during my second visit. Speaking to him was like listening to a young Vinod Kumar Shukla in a way.

"For the longest time, I couldn't figure what the form would be and whether it would even be a film. When I sat down and started editing, I found the pitch and in and out of the story. (Probably) It was just the pressure that I am making a film on Vinod Kumar Shukla." The filmmaker said he first encountered Shukla's writings in translations and then he got a chance to hear the author speak at the Jaipur Literature Festival. It was Shukla's poems that Mishra fell in love with first.

"You imagine a writer to be serious and someone writing in silos but that was not the case. He could write wherever he is. His son told me that sometimes he is on a phone call and starts scribbling on the paper or wakes up in the middle of the night and starts writing.

"He is someone who is in sync with his craft. All the things that he likes are there -- the trees, birds... His house was like a tiny universe and what's beautiful is that his whole family is sort of involved in this creative process." Shukla was welcoming of the whole process and the curiosity with which Mishra approached him.

"We would shoot till 5pm and he would keep walking around with us. On the second day, I just made him walk around or just take a nap. He was quite happy," Mishra said, crediting Kaul for giving him this opportunity.

It was a chance meeting with Kaul at his author-friend Nihal Parashar's place that gave birth to the idea of a visit to Shukla's home. A writer himself, Kaul is very close to Shukla.

"It was all him in the beginning. He made the call and asked us to come along. He was the one who asked all the questions (in the film), I was just going around a shooting," he said.

Mishra screened the film for the author and his family in August last year.

"He was very happy to see the film and that was the day we told him about the title and he was very happy. He was like 'Chaar Phool Hain Aur Duniya Hai Aur Main Bhi Toh Hu'." The film is available on MUBI India from February 28. The streamer is also home to Mishra's "Gamak Ghar".

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