FILMO GRAPHY

Filmography :- 

SHOW REEL

                                  

                                         

Year	Film	Language	Cast
1999	Sampradan	Bengali	Anasua Majumder, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Joy Sengupta, Papia Adhikari, Indrani Haldar
2002	Silpantar	Bengali	Subhasish Mukherjee, Debashree Roy, Nemai Ghosh
2005	Devaki	Hindi	Perizaad Zorabian, Suman Ranganathan, Ram Kapoor
2006	Kantatar	Bengali	Sreelekha Mitra, Rudranil Ghosh, Sudip Mukherjee, Nemai Ghosh
2007	Kaal	Bengali	Chandreyee Ghosh, Sandhya Shetty, Dola Chakraborty, Samapika Debnath, Rudranil Ghosh
2009	Houseful	Bengali	Prosenjit Chatterjee, Rimjhim Gupta, Nitya ganguly, Rwita Datta Chakraborty"
2011	Kagojer Bou	Bengali	Paoli, Rahul, Priyanka, Rimjhim, Joy Sengupta. Bratya Basu, Gargi Roy Chowdhury, Nandini Ghoshal
2012	Elar Char Adhyay	Bengali	Indraneil, Paoli, Dipankar Dey, Barun Chanda, Rudranil Ghosh, Arunima Ghosh, Nitya Ganguly, Vikram Chatterjee

2013  NAYIKA         Bengali       Arunima Ghosh, Indraneil Sengupta, Mumtaz Sorcer, Locket Chatterjee
 SANGBAD

FILMSY PHOTOS - Mixtures of New and Old.

From a Puja coverage for Doordarshan to Nayika Sangbad, I had been working with Rana Dasgupta for almost 20 years. Rana today is an ace cinematographer and has already done more than 60 films, leaving aside his innumerable television serials and documentaries. I barely managed to survive.

During the Shoot of Nayika Sangbad

Ready For the Shoot

Directing Rajesh Sharma

Directing Swagata Mukherjee for my First Television Serial in 1996.

                       

POETIC ALBUM

   

 

ELAR CHAR ADHYAY - 2012 preserved at NFAI , Pune.

Cast : Paoli Dam, Indraneil Sengupta, Rudranil Ghosh, Arunima Ghosh, Dipankar Dey, Barun Chanda and Kamalika Chanda
 Producer : Dreamz Movies and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Director : Bappaditya Bandopadhyay
Writer : Rabindranath Tagore

Director Goutam Ghose - on why he liked Elar char adhyay despite its drawbacks : 
Tagore’s Char Adhyay is a very complex novel and the dialogues sometimes get slightly discursive, so it’s not so easy to interpret in cinema. But he (Bappaditya Bandopadhyay) did it very intelligently. He didn’t want to tell a complex story in a linear form, rather he has put Ela (Paoli Dam) in different situations so that’s why, though the film begins from the end (in the text), you don’t feel uncomfortable. It is not pronounced, it’s quite cinematic. It’s like a rondo in a music piece where you come back to the tonic.
I don’t know if people would be able to understand the dialogues now. Bengali language-er charcha toh komey gachhey. But I am sure there is an audience. When I made Moner Manush, a lot of people had told me that the audience wouldn’t understand the philosophical dialogues, but that didn’t happen. People understood and they connect if they want to.
There’s riddle, irony and metaphor in Tagore’s dialogues that are sometimes difficult to transcreate in spoken words but Bappaditya has tried to keep the original dialogues, the original lines from the text. That’s why I liked it.
A lot of people may question what had happened to Ela’s parents (played by Dipankar De and Srilekha Mukherjee) suddenly because after a point they are not there in the film. I don’t think a director should always follow the typical style of storytelling where you have to show everything. That’s why I thought that the film is like a musical movement.
Another thing which I really liked is that the film had a very limited budget but within that, art director Goutam Basu has done a very, very good job. It’s minimalist. They selected a few spots, like the bank of the Ganges and only one or two other spots that have been recreated. I liked that minimalism. There’s a small party sequence — now party sequences are never very good in Bengali films, I am sorry to say this — that is very well done.
I also liked the scenes where Ela is drenched in the rain. It’s like a leitmotif; it appears many times in the film. What I am trying to say is that the film has a style.
Paoli as Ela is quite convincing, but I’ve told her that her make-up is a little inconsistent. Her skin tone changes in a couple of scenes. Otherwise her Ela is very good, and so are the other actors. The young guy who plays Atin (Vikram) is good. He has suited the role very well. Indraneil’s is a very complex character (Indranath) and he is good in it. Actually, through this character, Tagore wanted to say rebel-der moddhey real thirst-ta kotota chhilo and romanticism kotota chhilo, so that aspect has come out in Indraneil’s character.
The background score (by Gaurab Chatterjee) is also quite good. But I told the director (Bappaditya) that there are too many songs in the film. He could have given just the mukhra, the antara wasn’t required. Because of the songs, the film drags a bit. Today people prefer fast-paced films, a few scenes are a bit repetitive. See, the concept of slow and fast in cinema is very relative. The whole mindset of the audience has changed because of television and the MTV culture, so people want something to happen all the time. So people may find the film slow. But the Tagorean world didn’t have a pace like ours, so how could he make it fast? I didn’t find it slow, frankly speaking.
It’s a good effort, a good attempt. Visually, Elar Char Adhyay is good.

                                                                          

Film Critic Shoma.A.Chatterjee -
Elar Char Adhyay,based on a Tagore novel, captures the ideals of the Bengal Renaissance of the 1930s and ’40s. A group of young revolutionaries, led by Indranath (Indraneel Sengupta) is fighting for Independence. Ela (Paoli Dam), the group’s emancipated muse feels disturbed by her love for Atin (Vikram Chatterjee), who is drawn into the movement because he loves her deeply. His involvement slowly gets critical as he begins to questions Indranath’s methodology that rules out love for a woman colleague. Indranath’s ‘punishments’ differ from person to person. Indranath does not mind Ela loving Atin but commands another young girl to get married while sending off her lover to a distant camp. Ela discovers that Atin’s commitment to the movement has overshadowed his love for her. For Atin, there is no turning point.
Bappaditya Bandopadhyay has adhered strictly to Tagore’s story and lived up to the challenge of bringing across a poetic, lyrical and romantic interpretation of a political novel. He includes Tagore’s multi-layered satire through the British-attired Indranath who rides expensive cars and smokes foreign cigars. Atin tells Ela about how the group killed an old village woman exploiting the trust of a colleague who belonged to the same village, counted the loot while the woman lay dead and enjoyed a lavish feast with the proceeds, all in the name of ‘revolution.’ The film ends with Ela lying dead amidst the flames.
Bappaditya uses the flashback to open with Ela’s death and Indranath’s voice-over and ends with the same scene. Gautam Basu’s art direction with the ‘weathering’ of the mansion, Ela’s parents’ period home, her uncle’s British-influenced quarters, the party scene orchestrated just-so, the straw structure of the Durga idol carrying the resonance of past grandeur, the camera zeroing on it again and again, to the washermen’s colony that becomes Atin’s hideout with the dirty bed and the mosquito net askew are excellent.
Rana Dasgupta’s cinematography captures the rainwashed river ghats where Ela waits for Atin, the figure of Ela against the backdrop of an open window frame and Botu (Rudraneel Ghosh) caught in a top angle shot leading the police to Atin’s hideout. The tea-shop in one corner stacked with packing boxes infuse a lyrical quality to the film. Gaurav Chatterjee’s music reflects Tagore’s secular philosophy with three songs placed in keeping with the mood of a given sequence. There is an English song in the party scene while the fakir number suggests Ela’s mother’s fundamentalist attitude in contrast to Ela’s progressive ideology. Indraneel appears stiff as Indranath. Rudraneel as Botu and Paoli as Ela are wonderful while Bikram as Atin is refreshing.
Elar ... is a beautiful film. But till the interval, the dialogues are too complex and philosophical for a film where the visuals speed ahead before the dialogues can register. The scenes between Ela and Atin lack the sizzling erotic chemistry that is there in the original. The dance number of the school girls is redundant. Elar ...is a low-key, lyrical slow-paced romance that captures the period and the nature both as props for the characters and the incidents and as nature fluidly.

KAGOJER BOU (Paper-Wife) - 2011

Cast: Rahul, Rimjhim Gupta, Paoli Dam, Joy Sengupta, Priyanka Sarkar, Bratyo Basu, Anindo Banerjee, Nimai Ghosh, Nandini Ghoshal,

 

         

Producer- Ram Ratan Lohti,  Vinod Lohti /  
Music Director: Gabu Gourav Chatterjee ,Lalon Fakir /  
Traditional  Lyrics: Lalon Fakir/  Story: Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay / 
Screenplay : Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay /
Dialogue : Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay /
 Playback Singer:Abhijit Bose,  Probhati Mukhopadhyay, Sayak Bandyopadhyay, Shubhojit Mukherjee, / Make Up: Aniruddha Chakladar:

Life is a pay-off. Relationships are bought and sold in an open market if the price is right. “Every relationship can be bought with money.” This is the philosophy of Upal (Rahul), a young, educated but unemployed man who builds up his ideology from his experience of desperate poverty. He fantasises about currency notes showering on him even while he travels in a tram car. “I do not love anyone, I only love money,” he says, resigned to his fate, without guilt. His sophisticated and affluent friend Subimal (Joy Sengupta), hungry for sex beyond marriage, tries to convince Priti (Paoli Dam), a sultry young model, that her current boyfriend (Anindo Banerjee) is two-timing her. Upal asks Ketaki (Priyanka) to sleep with the boyfriend knowing that the young girl, hungry for love, loves him. Upal exposes Priti’s boyfriend. Subimal now wants to divorce his traditional loving wife Shreya (Rimjhim Gupta) that can happen only if she can be accused of adultery.
Money exchanges hands again. Upal pretends to fall in love with Shreya, clicking pictures of the two of them on his cell phone camera. Shreya, hungry for company, falls in love with him. Priti goes on a sizzling weekend to a beach resort with Subimal. Hungry for an upwardly mobile life via the USA, she refuses to carry the adulterous affair to marriage. She proposes marriage to Upal in exchange for a hefty sum and a visa to the US. The two go through a civil marriage. Priti hands him the promised money but ditches him about the USA trip. When Upal reminds her that she is now his lawfully wedded wife, she simply says, “I am a paper wife.”
Upal is so accustomed to his poverty that he gives the money to his neighbourhood don and asks him to free Ketaki from a forced marriage. He also asks him to give up his claim on the family’s ancestral mansion. “You love Ketaki, don’t you?” asks the don. “No, I don’t. I only love money,” he says, journeying aimlessly on an isolated tramcar.
Gaurab Chatterjee’s musical score is mood-centric, varying according to situations. Manik Saha’s story of three marriages ending with a fourth, where the wife turns out to be promiscuous, is a visually touching indictment on the institution of marriage. Bratya Basu gives a mind-blowing performance as Manik Saha. The picturisation of this segment is shot in semi-darkness, lending a surreal feel to the film.

Rahul as Upal finally proves that he can deliver a low-key performance that needs him to carry the entire film on his solitary shoulders with minimum dialogue and little facial expression. Yet, the pain and the suffering come across beautifully. The three contrasting women in his life give him solid support. Paoli invests her character with the silence and sultriness it demands. Priyanka is wonderful as the lost girl who knows Upal will never love her back. Rimjhim Gupta is sedate and dignified even in her immorality. Joy Sengupta is no-nonsense yet diabolic as Subimal. The outstanding quality of the story is the absolute lack of guilt among the characters. Bappaditya rightly refrains from being judgmental about his characters. Nor does he try to rationalise their no-conscience approach to relationships. Of the three metaphors, the one that stands out is the repeated scene of Upal in the tramcar with the band playing the song of his life. Priyanka and the children playing cheerfully with gulaal is a satire on the poor trying to extract little drops of joy. In the beginning, the gulaal stands for the co-existence of life and death when Upal’s father is dead. But the metaphor of Priti playing on a cello as part of an orchestra does not come across. The camera and the production design are ideally suited to the free-flowing wanderings across the city of Kolkata and beyond.  - By Shoma.A. Chatterjee.

DEVAKI- has traveled to 11 International Film Festival & has been stated as a 'must watch for every woman'

"Once in a while, someone decides to do a reality check, and make a film about an event that disturbs him or her. Devaki is one such film, based on a true story from rural India, where a woman was sold off for a price of Rs: 5000/-. It is indeed appal  " - Dr.P.V.Vaidyanathan 

Cast : Ram Kapur,Suman Ranganathan, Arvin Tucker,Perizaad Zorabian,Neelanjan Bose,George Baker,Raman Kapoor
Crew : Director: Bappaditya Bandopadhyay / Producer: K.D. Singh, Toubro Infotech Industries / Screenplay: Ashish Roy / Cinematography: Rana Dasgupta / Editors: Uttam Roy, Rajeev Jhaveri,Shakeel /Music: Bikram Ghosh, Amar Haldipur, P. Sameer

Once in a while, someone decides to do a reality check, and make a film about an event that disturbs him or her. Devaki is one such film, based on a true story from rural India, where a woman was sold off for a price of Rs: 5000/-. It is indeed appalling that even today, though we consider ourselves evolved and civilized, such things do happen. And it is to the director's credit that he has gone ahead and made a film on this subject, knowing fully well that such a film probably will not fetch him much returns commercially.

Devaki is the story of two women, Nandini (Perizaad Zorabian) and Devaki (Suman Ranganathan). Nandini is a city bred modern day girl, whose father has left her and her mother years ago. Tired of leading an unsatisfying life in the city, she joins an NGO and goes into the village, to try and educate the villagers. Here, she instantly bonds to Devaki, a lower caste uneducated girl. Devaki too is overawed by Nandini, and looks up to her for everything.

Devaki's father, because of his poverty is forced to marry her off to an old, impotent seventy year old. Nandini tries in vain to stop the marriage. Nandini goes back to the city, where her mentally ill mother and her two timing boyfriend await her. She finds a job in her estranged father's firm. The two women keep in touch with each other by post. Devaki is subject to rape and humiliation in the village, with the connivance of her husband and his previous three wives. She falls for a lower caste boy of her age, for which she is severely punished and auctioned off.

On the other hand, Nandini undergoes an equal amount of humiliation and despair in the city, as she realises that women's plight everywhere is more or less the same. Her condition is as good or as bad as that of Devaki. The film ends with Devaki getting punished and being auctioned off to the highest bidder, and Nandini being asked to sell herself and her morals, by her own father.

The film, which runs for 100 minutes (mostly in English), has received plenty of nominations and recognitions abroad, though it has had a delayed release here. The film is slow, and drags in parts. The idea of drawing a parallel, between the lives of women in rural and urban India is a very good one, and will definitely make all of us think whether we have really evolved and matured as much as we think we have.

The film lacks technical finesse, and could do with an overall improvement in the sound and voicing department. Of the cast, both Perizaad and Suman deliver excellent performances, while Arvin Tucker is badly cast, as he is too anglicised and Westernised to pass off as a lower caste rebel. The rest of the cast is well chosen, and the village milieu is well created.

The film is very likely to make one sit up and think, and those among us who are socially conscious and active will definitely like to take up cudgels on issues such as this. Unfortunately, the film has no great commercial value, and is likely to disappear from the theatres without much of a whimper.

FESTIVALS : The film was premiered at the Osian Cinefan Asian Film Festival in July 2005. Since then it has traveled to 11 International Film Festival amidst much critical accolades and has been touted as a 'must watch for every woman'. Nominated for the best feature film at Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil, Ashville International Film Festival,NC, Global Knight International Film Festival, Malta, and Golden Gate International Film Festival,SF, it won the award in Asheville. Officially released in 6 January 2006, this small film has been doing the rounds in the video stores for some time.[2] The plot is derived from a real life incident where a tribal woman named Devakibai was sold in an open auction in Pandhana, a sub-division of Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh, in January 2003. The auction was organized by the Maha Panchayat Panchaganga and legitimized by the presence of Hiralal Silawat, Minister of Fisheries, who inaugurated the function. This atrocity was uncovered by journalist Deepak Tiwari and became the cover story of the magazine, The Week

Best Feature Film Award at the Asheville Film Festival-North Carolina-U.S.A

HOUSEFUL (2009)- One of the year’s best Bengali film. It has also been selected for Osian’s Cinefan 11th Film Festival.

 Synopsis

The thin line between Cinema and reality smudges and overlaps at one point in the life of Nikhil, who is a filmmaker. Constantly ignored by the critics and lack of success at the box-office,takes his carrier to a critical point, where he has to deliver a 'Houseful' in order to survive. Samir, the booker of his films, pleads with Nikhil to copy a hit Tamil or Telegu film to ensure success.

But when Nikhil sets to make a love story on the popular lines, somehow the realities of a terror infested world takes over once again, like his earlier films.....

Format – 35m.m. Cinemascope
Sound – Dolby SR
Country of Production – India
Language – Bengali ( subtitled in English )
Duration – 127 minutes.

Cast – Prosenjit Chatterjee, Rimjhim Gupta, Rwita Datta Chakraborty, Rachna Shah, Nitya Ganguly, Nemai Ghosh, Usashi Chakraborty, Sreelekha Mitra and Rupa Bhattacharya.
Writer & Director – Bappaditya Bandopadhyay
Producer – Debasish Saha & Sima Saha
Cinematographer – Rana Dadgupta
Editor – Deepak Mandal
Art Director – Gautam Bose
Music – Kaya & Abhijit Bose
Sound Designer – Tirthankar Majumder (Tito)

                                         

                                                                           

‘Life is a strange joke one cracks at oneself.’ This quote opens Bappaditya Bandopadhyay’s Houseful, spelt with a single ‘l’, a subtle hint that the ‘house’ is yet to be ‘full’, with one more ‘l’ in the end. A television newscast captures a bomb blast ~ blood-splattered streets, stretchers with bodies pulled this way and that, bomb squads nosing around in some undefined place as the newsreader pronounces one more example of human hate encapsulated for the voyeuristic pleasure of the viewers. The camera pulls back to add perspective. It is not a television newscast but a scene from Nikhil Banerjee (Prosenjit)’s latest film. He is watching his own film in a near-empty, darkened theatre. Like his earlier films, this one too, is a disaster. Outside, in the disgruntled exhibitor’s tiny office, Nikhil’s sole friend and sympathizer (Nitya Ganguly), is persuading the old man to hang on to the film for a day or two more, in vain.
The film-within-the-film is about a television weather caster, put behind bars for her supposed involvement in the blast because the call that triggered the blast is traced back to her cell phone. She lies down in her dark, solitary cell, coiled unto herself like a foetus in a mother’s womb, dressed in black, waiting for a future without hope. The sympathetic friend tries to talk Nikhil into copying from South Indian blockbusters frame-to-frame like successful mainstream filmmakers in Bengali cinema, but Nikhil remains silent, indicating his refusal to bend his own rules.
His disgusted wife leaves him with their little girl in tow. A bank’s henchmen take away the car keys, loan sharks throw threats. But Nikhil remains unfazed. He plans his next film, a ‘love story’. Suddenly, the characters of this ‘love story’ come alive in front of his eyes. He can actually see the boy distributing handbills dressed like a clown approach the crooner Nikhil saw in a bar. The boy clambers up the steps of a dilapidated mansion with its paper peeling off the walls, a frame without the picture on one wall, come alive. Are they for real? Or are they Nikhil’s rich imagination concocting scenes for another film?
Houseful is one of the most unabashedly autobiographical films in Indian cinema. Nikhil wears an unkempt beard like Bappaditya does. His cell-phone carries the ring tone Bappaditya uses. He is as low-profile and down-to-earth as Bappaditya is. The posters of Nikhil’s films carry the titles of Bappaditya’s past films. The musical score, traversing freely between folk songs floating in from far away and the mood background score and songs, fits into the Goddardian mood of the film, a journey from the surreal to the real and back.
The skeleton-like narrative winds its way through the narrow bylanes of Nikhil’s mind and the characters he encounters and relates with ~ in real life, in his films, already made or still being conceived, or being shot right now. The two most memorable scenes in the film are one, a huge, antique four-poster bed being carted on a trailer to Nikhil’s lush green location outdoors with a studio hand merrily relaxing on it; and two, the closing scene with shots from Nikhil’s new film ~ also a disaster ~ showing the leading lady playing a sad tune on the piano till the camera moves back to show a huge screen set against the lashing waves of the sea, with Nikhil’s and his distributor friend’s dwarfed figures, partly in silhouette, discussing whether it would be worthwhile after all to embark on a Bengali remake of a South Indian hit!
The four striking qualities of Houseful are ~ Prosenjit’s low-key, silent and outstanding performance complemented beautifully by Nitya Ganguly, the soft, underplayed and sad musical score by Kaya (Band) and Abhijit Basu, the incredibly beautiful production design that is layered with visual metaphors and repetition and Rana Dasgupta’s magnificient cinematography. Dasgupta’s work is a model lesson for students of cinematography. He toys with Black-and-White, monochromistic tones, soft colours, darkness and brightness racing for attention like characters in a film, and the lush velvety green of the location. Bappaditya blends the sinister with the sublime, sophistication with crudity, melancholy with hope and attachment set against alienation.

SHILPANTAR - BFJA Award for Most Promising Director.

Cast -
Debashree Roy
Mrinal Mukherjee
Anik Mitra
Biswanath Dasgupta
Haridas Dutta
Kalu Sapure
Luna Pan
Nimai Ghosh
Suchitra Mitra


Director: Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay

Producer: Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay, Papiya Ghosal, Swapan Kanti Ghosh

Music Director: Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay

Story: Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

Synopsis: The flim depicts the story of a village canvas painter(patua). He is bit queer, instead of pleasing landscapes and images he always ends up drawing ghastly and disturbing images. The loner one day comes across a circus woman in a village fair. The woman is called the ghoul woman as she devoured raw live creatures like snakes and hens. Nibaran, the painters is amazed and awestruck seeing her tricks . He decides to free her and promises to marry her. After marriage he asks her to teach him the art of her trick. She revealed that it was no art but hunger that forced her to do it. Nibaran is not satisfied with the explanation. He leaves her in a huff saying he would learn the trick on his own. He returns after learning to devour litle creatures. However he even surpasses her and starts chewing his own fingers/hands. Terrified and unable and to bear this, his wife runs out of the house. The film ends with transformation of man from one skill/ art to another.

KAAL - Screened at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, 2007- where it was one of the Indian films in the fest

Cast

• Chandrayee Ghosh...
• Rudranil Ghosh....Ratan
• Dola Chakraborty ...
• Sandhya Shetty...
• Sankar Debnath...
• Samapika Debnath...
• Rupsa Guha...
• Nemai Ghosh...
• Iqbal Sultan....
• Mishar Ray...
• Partha Sarathi Deb...

Crew

• Director: Bappaditya Bandopadhyay
• Producer: Bhaidani Films Abdulla Vaidani, Manik Vaidani
• Screenplay:
• Cinematography: Rana Dasgupta
• Editors:
• Music: Abhijit Bose
• Art Director: Gautam Bose
• Public Relations:Debabrata Roychoudhury
• Assosiate Director:Manoj Michigan
• Costume Designer:Geetanjolly Jolly

It was selected for screening at the Cairo International Film Festival, 2007, the Sao Paulo International Film Festival 2007 and the Stockholm International Film Festival 2007. Incidentally, this is the third successive year that Bandopadhyay's film is being screened at Sao Paulo International Film Festival. The film was already successfully screened at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, 2007- where it was one of the Indian films competing in the festival.
The human trafficking industry has a reported annual income of $8 billion and the UN estimates that it may employ as many as 40 million women, despite its abusive practices and notorious disregard for basic human rights. Although human trafficking is illegal in almost every country, thousands of girls each year become sex slaves. Why are women and girls so vulnerable to trafficking and what can be done to make them less susceptible to this criminal trade? Even when rescued by social workers, voluntary agencies and sometimes, the local police, many of them go back to where they came from, mostly prostitution.
In Kaal, Bappaditya Bandopadhyay effectively handles a beauty parlour as a metaphor. There are shots of stone-like female heads in metallic make-up and weird hairdos sitting in front of the mirrors cut into the narrative till in the final shot, we find the heads replaced with the faces of the five girls - the European girl forming the fifth - being made-up while their personae have slipped back to their original roots. It is as if they have surrendered themselves to that unknown beautician who peels away their real faces to mask them with metallic ones. Kaal does not offer solutions. Nor does it shed crocodile tears over the plight of these girls. It takes a matter-of-fact look at the tragedy of girls trapped within the temptation of easy money and ‘better prospects’ abroad.
  
Director's Note: In a way, this film is a sequel to my earlier film Kantatar (Barbed Wire). The partition, at one point of time, caused human displacement in a large scale in our country. The present trend of globalization has once again unleashed a massive displacement of human beings. The backdrop is also even more complex. It was therefore impossible to maintain a linear narration. Kaal is a multilayered film dealing with human displacement."
http://shomingekiblog.blogspot.in/2012/04/notes-on-kaal-by-bappaditya.html



INTERVIEW with the Director Bappaditya Bandopadhyay:

1. Tell us a little bit about your film background. What kind of films do you like to watch?Which films and directors influence you the most?
- The best way to learn film making is by probably making a film all by oneself. I started with a video film and therefore could afford to make a lot of mistakes. But I consciously tried not to repeat any mistake that I had made in any of my early films. I joined the industry as an Assistant Director. That helped me to understand the economics of film making more than anything else. But working in a structured film industry can corrupt a lot of your finer sensibilities. Forces of the market and popular demands can sneak into even the loneliest thought of yours. It helps you to survive though.I am influenced by many filmmakers. But if I am asked about one particular name, then it would certainly be Ritwik Ghatak, the great Bengali director. The whole idea of cinema came to India from the west, but if cinema in India has a language of its own then a major credit for that goes to him. He used the metaphors of the local folk culture to create a film language which is unique.

2. How necessary do you think formal education in filmmaking is important to a filmmaker?
- Going to a film school does help as it introduces one to the latest film technology. In India, students of the government run film schools are given the opportunity to make their diploma films with public money. Its a great privilege. Interestingly, they struggle once they pass out and join the industry as professionals as they have to deal with inferior equipments, difficult working conditions and shoe string budgets. Unfortunately, most of the institute pass outs today are joining the Bollywood just for money.

3. Where do you draw inspiration for your work? Where do you find your stories? 

- I do want my films to look like news footage at times and try sincerely to shoot a fiction in the way one would shoot a documentary. Most of the characters and incidents in my films are from the real life. I deliberately use the music and the backdrop to refer to a certain culture which is becoming marginal day by day.

4. In your latest film Kaal, we see a sort of a clinical detachment in narration. The film is very grueling in certain sections, which has been heightened by the lush beauty of the nature and the lyrical and dreamlike sequences in certain other sections. What was your purpose behind this graphic nature of the film?

-Away from the cities, India is breathtakingly beautiful. Even if you watch news footage of some gruesome political violence in the rural India, you will find the background to be visually arresting. We have tried to explore this paradox in Kaal(Our Time) But never have we attempted to decorate any frame in the name of creating �poetry�. In fact, I hate to watch a film which has poetic pretensions. I strongly feel the realities of the third world are different and there is a need of a different film language to express them. Symbolism and surrealism are no more interesting. Reality in the third world is shocking to say the least. No film however graphic it is in its narration can match the grueling reality around us. 

5. What kind of response has Kaal received from its audience?

-Both Kaal (Our Time) and my earlier film Kantatar (Barbed Wire) have run in number of theatres in rural Bengal, which is a major achievement, as films of this genre hardly make it outside the cities. One strong reason for that is we did not make the films look like typical art house films. Slowly, the phobia related to the state sponsored art cinema is fading away. But even today the Other Cinema in India mostly shy away from political issues and criticism of the state.Kaal faced major criticism and resistance from the Indian censor board. I was forced to make a number of cuts for the release of the film in Bengal. Sadly, my films are not shown in the television channels in our country. 

6. Tell us a little bit about your forthcoming projects..

- Globalisation and its impact particularly in rural Bengal is one theme which I definitely want to work on. But there are not much producers for such films. Might have to do a bollywood film just to survive.

7. In the past few years, Bollywood, with its lavish production and big names has been exploring experimental films more and more, and getting recognized for these experimental films in the domestic as well as overseas market. Do you think regional independent films are facing stiff competition from them? What do you feel about the future of regional independent films?

- Bollywood has made it very difficult for most regional films to survive in India today. There are hardly any films made in the north east and there is a decline in the Bengali film industry as well. Films made in Bangladesh cannot be released in Bengal and bengali films made in West Bengal cannot be shown in Bangladesh despite the same language and culture. Unless the two governments and the producers associations do something about it the future is bleak for the Bangla movies. Bollywood is ruling supreme currently. Only the Tamil and Telegu industry can match up to them in terms of money and audience. Sadly, the bengali mainstream cinema today are poor copies of either the Tamil or Telegu hits or are straight lifts from Bollywood blockbusters.Digital cinema is slowly emerging as a viable option for regional cinema in India today.

8. How important is the overseas market for you?

- With more and more theatres shutting down in rural Bengal and people preferring to watch only Bollywood Films in the city multiplexes, finding the overseas market is probably the only hope for Bengali Cinema today. But the myopic vision of the producers and their lack of ability to promote the films at the international level is a big hindrance to the process

KANTATAAR (2006)- BFJA-3 Awards collected for Best Actor In Supporting Role, Best Actress & Best Cinematographer

CAST: 

• Sreelekha Mitra...Sudha
• Sudip Mukherjee...Binod
• Rudranil Ghosh
• Iqbal Sultan
• Nimai Ghosh
• Papiya Ghosal
• Pradip Bhattacharya
• Rupsa Ghosh
• Shankar Debnath
• Sudin Adhikari

CREW:
Produced by Binay Prakash
Written by Debasis Bandopadhyay
Music by Abhijit Bose
Cinematography Rana Dasgupta
Editing by Uttam Roy Distributed by Shristri Prods
Release date(s) 31 January 2006
Running time 119 Minutes

Kantatar (Barbed Wire) revolves around the journey of Sudha (Sreelekha Mitra),A socio-political-love drama, Kantatar centers on an illegal immigrant’s search for identity and her effort to survive sake and in search of an identity, moves from one man to another and from one religion to another. The sudden threat of cross border terrorism entirely changes the socio-political situation in a remote village close to the frontier, the army rolls into town, and the drastic changes take their toll on inter-personal relationships as they are marred by suspicion, competition and fear. Sudha takes refuge in a temporary weather camp just outside the village. She develops a physical relationship with Binod (Sudip Mukherjee), the weather balloonist, whose job it is to take note of the frequent change of wind direction. But soon Sudha's identity comes into question and she is seen as a suspect. Her dream of a secure shelter is once again threatened. This is a beautiful and engaging film, which luxuriates in the story and its location. The visual poetry and unfettered exploration of the ongoing conflict on the borders of India and Bangladesh come together with great impact and insight. There are brilliant touches of both satire and social comment, which go to show that Bappaditya Bandhopadhay has a lot to say about today's India. Sudha’s hard life consists of weaving herself in and out of different relationships with men and dabbling in various religions. The immediate threat of attack entirely changes the climate of her remote border village, and as the army rolls into town, inter-personal relationships are drastically affected. Suspicion, competition and fear start to grip the villagers. Sudha takes refuge in a temporary weather camp just outside the village. Binod, a meteorologist working in the village, becomes fascinated by Sudha, and they soon begin a physical relationship. But when Sudha's identity is called into question, she is seen as a terrorist suspect. Her dreams of security are once again threatened. Kantatar is visually engaging, luxuriating in the lush locales where it was filmed. Director Bappaditya Bandhopadhay relies on both satire and social comment to tell his story, all the while exploring the ongoing conflict on the borders of India and Bangladesh. Modern India is portrayed with great impact and insight.

                                                                          

AWARDS:

• BFJA Awards(2007)[5]
  • Best Actor In Supporting Role- Rudranil Ghosh
  • Best Actress- Sreelekha Mitra
  • Best Choreography Rana Dasgupta
• Anandalok Awards 2006
  • Best Actress-Sreelekha Mitra
• Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, 2006
• São Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil, 2006
• Singapore International Film Festival, 2006
• Raindance International Film Festival, London, U.K. 2005
• Ashdod International Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2006
• Bangladesh International Film Festival, Dhaka, 2006
• Inaugural film, International Forum of new cinema, Kolkata International Film Festival, India, 2005
• Inaugural film Chittagong International Film Festival, Bangladesh 2005
• Osian Cinefan Festival of Asian Cinema, New Delhi, India 2005
• Mumbai International Film Festival, India, 2006
• Pune International Film Festival, India, 2005
• Habitat International Film Festival, New Delhi, India, 2005
• Festival des Cinémas d'Asie, Vesoul, 2007
• Silk screen Festival of Asian Cinema, Pittsburg, U.S.A. 2007
• Anandaloke Award for Best Actress.
• B.F.J.A. Awards for Best Cinematographer, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.
• Partha Pratim Chowdhury Award for Best Film and Best Director.

 

SAMPRADAN (1999)- BFJA Award for Best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best playback singer (female)

Cast: Anasua Mazumdar, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Indrani Halder, Papia Adhikari, Joy Sengupta, Rajashri Banerjee, Kunal Roy, Rahul Chakraborty and others with Smita Sinha and Kushal Chakraborty as guest appearance.

 Playback: Indrani Sen, Indranil Sen, Sreekanta Acharya, Sreeradha Bandhyopadhyay, Saikat Mitra, Dipali Banerjee and Dolly Ghosh

Music: Pradip Das

Awards:
Bengal Film Journalists Award (BFJA): Best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best playback singer (female)
Dishari Award: Best music director

Festivals: Dhaka International Film Festival, Bangladesh, 2000

Synopsis: Lipika(Indrani Haldar) lived with her mother (Anasua Mazumdar) and sister (Rajashri Banerjee). Her father (Sabyoasachi) lives on other side woth his friend (Papiya). When Lipika wanted to get married toSudip she unfortunately could not do so because of her father's behaviour.Their separation from their her father raises questions regarding his love for his two daughters. At this stage her father want to give some some money to arrange the sampradan of her marriage. This opinion is shocking for Lipika's mother. Sudip knows everything about Lipika’s father & mother's wife seperation. At last their marriage ‘sampradan” went ahead with her mother but they did not allow her father to come to their marrage ceremony. Kalyani (Anusuya) did not allowe Sabyasachi to her daughter's (Indrani) marriage spot. Sabyasachi is regarded to be imperfect and he realises his imperfection at last.

পোকাদের আত্মীয় স্বজন ( POKADER ATWIYO-SWOJON ) Part 2

    

       পোকাদের আত্মীয়স্বজন

কয়লার আড়ালে হারিয়ে যাচ্ছো তুমি চিরদিনের মতো।

এখানে উৎসব সারারাত হ্যাজাকের আলো ঘিরে—

সকালবেলার সৎকার সমিতির গাড়িতে আমরা তুলে দিতে এসেছি

                    মৃত পোকাদের

মর্গের বাইরে দাঁড়িয়ে আছি আমরা পোকাদের আত্মীয়স্বজন

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

           মেরুণ শহরতলি থেকে

এক

মনে আছে দিদি তোর

মায়ের রক্তের ভেতর

ছুঁয়ে বলেছিলাম তোকে

যদি জন্মাতে পারি

যদি জন্মাতে পারি কখনো

আমার জন্মের বিনিময়ে তবে

ফিরিয়ে দেবো যুবতী মায়ের ঋতু

সেই থেকে আমিই তো শহরে শহরে বিলি করে বেড়াই শীত

আমিই তো জলের মতো বয়ে যাই শহরের ভেতর দিয়ে

                            ভেতর দিয়ে

আমিই তো বালিশের পাশে রেখে দিই

পালকের খেলনা, পালকের গয়না

কানে কানে বলে যাই –

আজ কুয়াশা, মেয়েরা হাত ধরে হাঁটো ছেলেদের

আমিই তো বৃষ্টির মধ্যে জল দিয়ে আসি গাছপালাদের

আমিই তো পকেটে লজেন্স নিয়ে দৌড়ে যাই

            ছেলেমেয়েদের হোস্টেলে

চিৎকার করে বলি—

শাস্তি দেওয়া অন্যায়

শাস্তি দিওনা,

ওরা জলের ছেলেমেয়ে

ওরা হাওয়ার ছেলেমেয়ে

তোমরা বুঝবেনা ওদের ভাষা

দুই

অথচ দ্যাখো, কি আশ্চর্য ভাবে আমাদের সমস্ত চিন্তাভাবনা

                   জড়িয়ে পড়ছে শূন্যতার সঙ্গে

সন্ধেবেলায় আমাদের ঘরের দিকে ভেসে আসছে পেচ্ছাপের গন্ধ

সন্ধেবেলায় আমাদের দিকে নীচু হয়ে উড়ে আসছে

                 আলমারির ওপরের সাদা দেওয়াল

ঠান্ডা মাছের মতো আমাদের নিয়ে আসা হচ্ছে বরফের বাইরে

                 আবার ঢুকিয়ে দেওয়া হচ্ছে বরফের মধ্যে

যে জীবন আমরা শুরু করেছিলাম হাস্পাতাল থেকে

                সেই জীবন আবার গড়িয়ে যাচ্ছে হাসপাতালের দিকে

মুখে করে মাংসের টুকরো নিয়ে এসে পুঁতে রাখা হচ্ছে

                        আমাদের জানলার নীচে

আমাদের বিছানায় ইচ্ছে করে পেতে দেওয়া হচ্ছে সাদা চাদর—

আমরা বুঝতে পারছি না কিছুই,

বুঝতে পারছি না কার কাছে গিয়ে ফেরৎ চাইবো আমাদের জীবন

তিন

জরায়ুর ভেতরে শীত সাদা ব্যান্ডেজের মতো—

তবু পাড়ায় পাড়ায় নাচের ইস্কুল,

ডিপ ফ্রিজের দিকে ভেসে যাচ্ছে মেয়েদের হাসিঠাট্টা

মেয়েরা ইতিহাস বইয়ের মতো, বরফের মলাটে ঢাকা

যেটুকু মাংস লেগে থাকে আমাদের নখে,

               সেইটুকুই স্বপ্ন আমাদের—

মাংস মানে শীতকাল

মাংস মানে ভ্রূণ

মাংস মানে ঋতুবন্ধে সাদার্ণ ক্লিনিক

এবার গ্রীষ্মের ছুটিতে আমরা বেড়াতে যাবো মাংসের দোকানে

চার

তবু দ্যাখো, তরমুজ ক্ষেতের পাশে দাঁড়িয়ে আছি আমি

                  মালগাড়ির মতো

দ্যাখো, প্রজাপতির মতো আমার আঙুলগুলো আবার ঝুঁকে পড়েছে

                   সাদা পৃষ্ঠার ওপর

দ্যাখো, হাতে খাবার নিয়ে দাঁড়িয়ে আছি আমি

                    পাখিদের জন্য

দ্যাখো, টিফিনের পয়সা বাঁচিয়ে আবার কিনেছি রঙ পেন্সিল

দ্যাখো, ইস্কুল পালানোর রাস্তাগুলো আমি চিনিয়ে দিচ্ছি ছোটদের

দ্যাখো, রাস্তার পাশে দাঁড়িয়ে আছি বেলুন হাতে নিয়ে

দ্যাখো, তোমার পাশে শুয়ে কেমন মরতে ভয় করছে আমার

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

জলদস্যুর চিঠি

এক

পরিত্যক্ত জাহাজ, যদি ফিরে আসো আবার

দেখবে—

আমাদের সমস্ত দারিদ্র্য আমরা

লুকিয়ে ফেলেছি

তোমার ছেড়ে যাওয়া শূন্য বন্দর

আমরা সাজিয়েছি বাচ্চা মেয়েটির হাসিতে

প্রিয় জাহাজ, অর্জুন আদর্শ নয় আমাদের

আমাদের রক্তে কৃষ্ণের জীবাণু নেই আর

বন্ধুবান্ধবদের বিরুদ্ধে আর অস্ত্র তুলি না আমরা

আমাদের এখন এক নতুন পিয়ানো টিচার

সন্ধেবেলায় এখন পিয়ানো ক্লাশ আমাদের

অভিমানী জাহাজ, তুমি জানলে না

তোমার ঢেউবাড়ির ডাকবাক্স এখন

ভরে যায় নতুন বন্ধুর চিঠিতে

কোনো মৃতদেহ আর তোমার বাড়ির

পাশ দিয়ে যায় না

শান্তি এখন তোমার পাশের বাড়ির বাসিন্দা

জাহাজ, সমাধানের মতো

জটিল প্রশ্নগুলো আমরা তুলি না আর

আমরা এখন নিশ্চুপ হয়ে

ধানক্ষেতের ছড়িয়ে পড়া লক্ষ্য করি

শ্যাওলাদের বিপ্লব এখন আমাদের

পূর্ণ সমর্থন—

জাহাজ, ফিরে এসো আবার

শীতের সার্কাসের মতো

তোমার জন্য দুশ্চিন্তায় ঘুমোতে পারে না তরমুজক্ষেত

তোমার জন্য সারারাত জেগে থাকে লেবুগাছ

জলদস্যুর চিঠি – ২

আবার কবে ছুটে যাবে তুমি এই গরীব জানলার পাশ দিয়ে

আবার কবে বিকেলের হাওয়ায় উড়বে তোমার রঙিন পোশাক

কবে, ওগো, কবে এসে দাঁড়াবে মাথার কাছে

ঘুম থেকে তুলে বলবে—

              ইস্কুলে শেখোনি কিছুই তাতে কি হয়েছে

              কলেজে যাওনি কোনোদিন তাতে কি হয়েছে

চলো, বেড়িয়ে আসি, এই সন্ধেবেলায়, ইস্টার্ণ বাইপাসে

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

মিতু আইসক্রীম

রেডিও বেজে উঠছে, কাছে, কোথাও—

এই ম্যালেরিয়া, টাইফয়েডের দেশে

এই কাচের বয়ামের দেশে

জন্মনিয়ন্ত্রনের দেশে

কাগজের কুমীরের দেশে

             বেজে উঠছে গান

গান বাজলেই আমার মনে পড়ে আচারের গাড়ি,

মনে পড়ে মিতু আইসক্রীম

এবার গ্রীষ্মে,

আমি একটা আইসক্রীমের গাড়ি ঠেলে ঠেলে নিয়ে যাবো

               তোমাদের শহরে

এবার গ্রীষ্মে,

আমি আচার বিক্রি করবো তোমাদের পাড়ায়

মিতু, তুমি শোনো গান ?

মিতু, তুমি দোকানে আসো না কেন ?

        দোকানদার কষ্ট পায়

আমাদের জীবনে কোনো উৎসব নেই

শুধু শোনো গান বেজে ওঠে

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

সবুজ কালিতে লেখা

লোকে জানুক আমাদের ভালোবাসার কথা

দেখে যাক, দড়িতে মেলা আমাদের ছিন্ন শরীর

               কেমন উড়ছে হাওয়ায়—

ফিরবার পথে তুমি উড়িয়ে রেখো উনুনের ধোঁয়া,

               দু’মুঠো চাল ফুটিয়ে রেখো

লোকে জানুক সন্ধে-সন্ধে বাড়ি ফিরছি আমি

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ট্যুরিস্ট

আমি শহরের ছেলে বেড়াতে এসেছিলাম তোমাদের গ্রামে

আমি গ্রামের ছেলে বেড়াতে এসেছিলাম তোমাদের শহরে

বেড়াতে এসেছিলাম শীতের সার্কাসের মতো

ওগো কালো কোট

ওগো কালো টুপি

ওগো কালো চশমা

আমি বেড়াতে এসেছিলাম তোমাদের দেশে

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গল্পের বই

সঙ্গে থেকো , সঙ্গে থেকো মেয়েটির

যে তোমাকে লুকিয়ে পড়ে

যে তোমাকে লুকিয়ে রাখে লম্বা অঙ্ক খাতার ভেতর

           হঠাৎ যখন দিদিমণি চলে আসে

তুমিতো দেখেছো ওর অঙ্ক খাতা

দেখেছো প্রতিটি অঙ্ক কেমন বিষন্ন

তুমিতো দেখেছো ও টিফিনবাক্স খুললেই

          পাখিরা কেমন ঘিরে ধরে চারদিক থেকে

শুকনো পাতারা কেমন উড়ে যায় ওর দিকে

ওর খুব ঘুম পায় শেষ বেঞ্চে বসে

অন্য মেয়েরা তখন ক্লাস করে মন দিয়ে

           বাইরে অপেক্ষা করে তাদের ছেলেবন্ধুরা

তুমি ওকে সেই গল্পটা বোলো

যে গল্পে এক রাজকুমার ব্যাঙ সেজে থাকে

যে গল্পে এক রাজকুমার খুব গরীব

           চাকরি খুঁজতে বেরোয়

তুমি ওকে বোলো, সেই রাজকুমার ওর বন্ধু হতে চায়

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মেলোড্রামা

একটা করুণ জলের রেখা গড়িয়ে যাচ্ছে কমলালেবু বাগানের দিকে

একে কি ভালোবাসা বলবে তুমি ? বলবে বিবাহ?

কি বলবে তুমি ? বলবে না কিছুই ?

রুমালের মতো তবে হারিয়ে যাবো আমরাও?

শুধু আলো জ্বলে ওঠে শোবার ঘরে, আলো নিভে যায়

একে কি ভালোবাসা বলবে তুমি? বলবে বিবাহ ?