Dandekar makes a sandwich

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Dandekar Makes a Sandwich is a short film prequel to a feature script I wrote called, Days with Dandekar, which won a Tribeca All Access grant in 2011. The story is about RK Dandekar, a lonely suburban man who is ousted from his job, and is disconnected from his wife. Then his Volvo gets stolen, and he goes on an epic search to find it. In the process, he makes connections with an cast of unlikely strangers. The story was inspired by my father, and started with a visit to the bank in my hometown, Raleigh, NC. They all knew my dad by name, and could tell stories about how he came in, every single day for coffee and to "check his accounts." It was apparent that my dad was making the rounds because he also knew the local mechanic, a few grocery store clerks, and had even been offered the position of "sampler" at the local Harris Teeter multiple times. We found my dad's daily wanderings to be bizarre, even sad, but ultimately, we had to find the humor in them. My sister and I wished he would "make the most of his retirement" by taking Spanish classes, traveling the globe, and reading good literature. My dad made it very clear: he had immigrated to the US, worked hard, provided for us, and this is now what he wanted to do. So the idea of Days with Dandekar, then Dandekar Makes a Sandwich was born. I wanted to tell the story of a retiree who seems to have everything except one thing: a sense of connection with others. I love the idea of strangers meeting one another for strange reasons and finding this unusual sense of connectivity. My goal is to explore loneliness and each of our desires to find others.