Pramana Asian Film Festival 2023

La seconda edizione del Pramana Asian Film Festival si è svolta a Reggio Calabria dal 5 al 7 aprile 2023. In cartellone Manikbabur Megh (bengali, titolo internazionale The Cloud & the Man) di Abhinandan Banerjee. Gaganachari, pellicola malayalam di fantascienza di Arun Chandu, ha conquistato il premio per il miglior film. 

What early Indian sci-fi looked like

Vi segnalo l'articolo Videochats on the Moon, immortality pills: what early Indian sci-fi looked like, di Gayle Sequeira e Ashutosh Mohan, pubblicato da Film Companion il 27 marzo 2021:

'More than meets the eye: early films about invisibility

Most of Bollywood's first few sci-fi outings revolved around the limitless potential that invisibility could unlock for a single person, and the unintended consequences that could follow. Nanabhai Bhatt's Mr. X (1957), considered to be the first Indian science-fiction film, follows a lab assistant who accidentally drinks an invisibility potion. Bad news: there's no antidote that will make him reappear. When there's a spate of crimes in the city, he's the obvious suspect and must prove his innocence. In Mr. X in Bombay (1964), the protagonist gets his hands on an invisibility potion and uses it to solve a problem more pressing than world hunger - his lack of a love life. (...) In 1965 film Aadhi Raat Ke Baad (...) director Nanabhai Bhatt (...) attempts to answer one question: how much harder would it be to solve a murder mystery if the main suspect could turn invisible at will? (...) It's a plot similar to Bhatt's earlier vanishing man film Mr. X. These early films adopted a myopic attitude towards invisibility, with the protagonists often using their newfound powers for selfish reasons rather than the greater good. It took till 1971 for invisibility to serve more altruistic purposes. In K. Ramanlal's Elaan. (...) Mr. India (1987), [is] the first mainstream Bollywood sci-fi film. (...) Another film (...) explored the more nefarious consequences of scientific advancement. In Mr. X [1984], written and directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. (...) In Malayalam film Jaithra Yaathra (1987) (...) invisibility is used to create chaos and for comic ends. (...) Invisibility, unlike immortality, appears to excite no moral questions. A person who lives forever can probably cause a lot of harm, but how bad can a brief disappearance be?

A whole new world: sci-fi set in space

Director A. Kasilingam's Kalai Arasi (1963) has aliens from another galaxy visit Earth and Mohan (M.G. Ramachandran) follow them back to their home. They look like us except for their sartorial preferences. They like tight shorts and safari helmets. Their spaceship has a distinct steampunk sensibility - levers and crankshafts everywhere. You even hear the periodic puff of escaping steam that apparently powers its cross-galaxy travel. (...) There is, however, one fundamental difference between us and them: the aliens are lovers of art to a fault. They've come to abduct talented artists from Earth and make them better ones. Their spaceship has a tiny screen that's a precursor to Google Earth. (...) What's surprising, especially since this is the first science-fiction film in Tamil, is how people react to a UFO. Mohan is with his friends when a spaceship flies overhead. He practically yawns an explanation, saying that experts believe that aliens from other galaxies would visit Earth at some point in time. His blasé friends are instantly convinced, feeling as much awe upon seeing a spaceship as an odd-looking cow. (...) Hindi film Chand Par Chadayee (1967) released two years before the first manned mission to the Moon, which is perhaps what emboldened director T.P. Sundaram to take creative liberties with the subject. (...) For a film that includes ridiculous scenes such as (...) parachute-wearing Moon women dancing above the clouds, the film was astonishingly prescient in terms of technological advancements. A high-ranking Moon citizen and the king of Mars videochat, and even communicate through a Google Glass-like device in which a real-time video of the caller appears on the lens of a pair of sunglasses. (...) The same year as Chand Par Chadayee's release, Martians visited Earth in Nisar Ahmad Ansari's Wahan Ke Log. (...)

Caution, side effects: medical science-fiction

Just as the vastness of space can be liberating, so can the invention of certain drugs that give their users powers. In P. Subramaniam's Malayalam classic Karutha Rathrikal (1967), the soft-spoken Santhan (Madhu) invents a drug that changes his appearance and gives him the ability to kill people. He's unable to make an antidote (perhaps, because of impure ingredients) which leads to his own death. An adaptation of R.L. Stevenson's Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, KR has an ambivalent stance towards the morality of science. We don't actually see much science, except in a comedy track that explains the concept of an antidote. The idea of an antidote becomes extraordinarily important in this subgenre, in which a scientist (typically out of hubris) invents a drug that gives him superpowers. In Naalai Manithan (1989) [tamil] the fate of the world hangs on Dr. Shankar (Jaishankar). After winning the Nobel Prize for inventing an AIDS drug, he creates another one that wakes the dead. Shankar's hubris prevents him from acknowledging the side effects of his immortality pill: violent and anti-social behaviour. Just as in Karutha Rathrikal, a scientist's individual choices shape how science plays out. By taking moral responsibility for his out-of-control inventions, the scientist ends up as the villain in these films. Both Santhan from KR and Shankar from NM die as a result of pushing the limits of human potential. This, however, isn't the case for the Professor (Anant Nag) from Kannada film Hollywood (2002), which claims to be India's first robot film. If the Professor's humanoid robot US-47 goes rogue, it's the robots fault, not his. (...) The Professor simply dismantles the malfunctioning robot. A rogue invention is only a technical problem, not a moral one. The film doesn't ask, like Naalai Manithan does, whether science leads to progress. Why embargo an invention when you could simply dismantle if it's not useful? Not quite human, not quite machine is the vehicle at the center of Ajantrik (1958), considered to be one of the earliest Bengali sci-fi movies. Director Ritwik Ghatak explores the relationship between a small-town driver, Bimal (Kali Banerjee) and his battered taxi by humanizing the vehicle through a combination of visual and sound effects. (...) Is the taxi sentient, or is Bimal projecting his emotions onto it?

Back to the future: films about time travel

In Aditya 369 [1991, telugu], written and directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Professor Ramdas (Tinnu Anand) (...) invents a time machine. (...) What's interesting is when he [Nandamuri Balakrishna's Krisha Kumar] ends up in an apocalyptic-looking 2504 AD. We see a post-World War 3 Earth, where a radiation from nuclear weapons has made the surface unfit for living. It's practically a desert, and humans live underground in hermetic forts. (...) 'Stomach computers' tell people when to eat. But (...) this isn't interpreted cynically. (...) People in 2504 AD are merely amused that their lives are run by machines.

Science fiction is still an underserved genre in our films. Films like Rahul Sadasivan's Red Rain (2013) [malayalam] explore the instinctive terror we feel for something from beyond Earth, but recent films have continued earlier templates, with a bit more realism. Arati Kadav's Cargo (2019), Tik Tik Tik (2018) [tamil] and Antariksham 9000KMPH (2018) [telugu] are space operas but the science is believable. Fifty years after Karutha Rathrikal, Maayavan (2017) [tamil] explores the question of who we really are if we swap brains with someone else. 24 (2016) [tamil] and Indru Netru Naalai (2015) [tamil] are entertaining time travel films that take us to the past and, hesitantly, to the future of science fiction films'.

Q & Ray

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa dal regista Q a Sankhayan Ghosh, pubblicata da Film Companion il 23 gennaio 2021. Q & Ray:

'It's scary to talk to Q - you don't know when you might rub him the wrong way. Besides, is there anything he likes? (...) Or is there anyone who likes his films? Even though 'like' is hardly a word you use when you talk about Q, whose works are designed to make you uncomfortable. (...) This power to offend extends beyond Q's cinema, to his views, one of which is his utter dislike for Satyajit Ray. (...) Now in a twist stranger than meta-fiction, Q is playing Ray. In (...) Abhijaan, a film about the life and work of Soumitra Chatterjee, Ray's favourite leading man, (...) we see Q as Ray, letting his future Apu know that he is too tall to be in Aparajito. He is wearing white pajama-punjabi - something Ray would often wear, and Q never - holding a cigarette and striking that pose as a framed photograph of Tagore hangs in the background. Has there been a more seamless merging of icon and iconoclast? (...) Q (...) lives in Goa, where he's (...) part of the alternative scene. (...) 

Your dislike for Ray is well-known. What's really interesting is that now you are playing Ray, in what must be the first time anybody is playing him on screen.

Well, the first person who told me about the resemblance was Rituparno Ghosh. And it was a very lively chat that we'd had after that, (...) about the resemblance and the general perceptions about image, since we were both image makers. He was also very interested in alternative image making, because, obviously, he is a precursor of all this. So while for instance I never liked Rituparno Ghosh's films, I am sure he didn't like mine. He was very clear at the beginning of the meeting that we are not going to talk about that. And then we proceeded to having a very nice chat.

I would've liked to be a fly on the wall during that chat.

It was a really insane chat because we were (...) hanging out in gay bars in Munich and stuff like that. It was a really cool chat. (...) Like everyone else, I grew up with Satyajit Ray and one of the key things I like about him is his calligraphy. I mean, as a designer I feel he did a lot of work that is far beyond his cinema. That's my perspective. My dislike or my problem is with his films. And he would have the same for mine. Because we are coming from totally different spaces in terms of filmmaking, or making visual narrative. (...) There was an occasion 4-5 years back when someone else had asked me to play Ray in a movie. That movie never got made. But I was in character for a month. And I took that quite seriously. These kind of opportunities are very interesting because you're thinking of image and what it could do. Alternative thoughts, or alternatives. They had some look tests and stuff. Few people who were also on that team got in the production team of the new film as well. And this was something that might have prompted them to think of me. (...)

Were you able to put your dislike aside while playing the character?

Yeah yeah, absolutely. Because then I am an actor (...) not Q the director. When I'm rapping I'm not Q the director. (...) Now I'm Satyajit Ray. An actor has a great advantage that they can hop characters like that. Performers have the best job actually and I'm always trying to, like an imposter, get in and do something - with music, with acting, whenever I can. For instance I've done a fairly major character in a Bejoy Nambiar film, (...) as a villain who was beating up Dulquer Salmaan. Because Bejoy knew I could do some shit like that. But no casting director will cast me, obviously, because they don't know me. Everyone assumes I have a certain kind of character based on a public persona, whatever that might be. (Laughs). And that's constantly being manipulated by me. 

What was your approach to playing Ray? Did you pick up mannerisms and body language and style of smoking and things like that?

Totally. Because it was a period piece, a biopic, I had to. I got myself into that mode. Because otherwise we are extreme polar opposites in terms of how we speak, hold ourselves, and it was a different time. So people used to behave different physically. So that was great fun. I love that process, that I can be someone else.

What are the things you picked up from Ray's persona?

One of the major problems was cigarettes, because I don't smoke cigarettes. So I was continuously smoking and smokers are different people. They hold their hands very differently. When you smoke joints you don't do that. So that and the fact that I would be in those costumes for a long time and trying to be comfortable even in the jangia (underwear). (...)

What's the kind of material you looked into?

I didn't have to, thankfully, watch all his films. I had to watch films made on him. And whatever footage I could get. I surrounded myself with those images. That's the kind of route I took, not the emotional part. The thing was to place the sense of humour, because he had a keen sense of humour. (...)

Is this you trying to be more open? Would you have done it 10 years ago?

Yeah yeah. (...) I don't think the point is that. I am anti his films, and that time, and how that time influences us right now as Bengalis. And is limiting us severely. That's what I dislike. (...) Satyajit Ray (...) is a bourgeoise upper class filmmaker. My politics doesn't allow me to appreciate his films. (...)

Do you not find anything to appreciate in his films?

Films take up a long time. You have to give it 2-3 hours of your life. I would rather watch something made by somebody I like'.

Festa del Cinema di Roma 2020

La 15esima edizione della Festa del Cinema di Roma si è svolta a dal 15 al 25 ottobre 2020. In cartellone una ricca retrospettiva dedicata a Satyajit Ray, con la proiezione di ben quindici pellicole.

The short-lived glory of Satyajit Ray's Sci-Fi Cine Club

[Archivio] Ma com'è che mi era sfuggito questo incredibile articolo di Sankhayan Ghosh? Pubblicato il 9 maggio 2018 da Film Companion, rivela un aspetto segreto e sorprendente (almeno per me) di Satyajit Ray, maestro del neorealismo indiano: il suo amore per la fantascienza. The short-lived glory of Satyajit Ray's Sci-Fi Cine Club:

'The SF Cine Club in Calcutta began its journey with much fanfare. The kind of attention unimaginable for a film club in India, let alone one that called itself 'a club of devotees of Science-fiction and Fantasy films'. Walt Disney, from Disney Land, California, wrote a congratulatory letter; the Prime Minister and President sent encouraging messages; sci-fi literary legends like Arthur C. Clarke (...) and Ray Bradbury (...) sent their best wishes. The Press Trust of India carried a report, it was in the city's leading papers and the news segment in the radio the next morning. In the inauguration ceremony, on 26 January, 1966, people queued up in the portico of the Academy of Fine Arts, to collect their membership cards - at an annual membership of Rs 6. (...)

Brochures and souvenirs were handed out. All design-related work, from the hand-drawn insignia of the club, to conceptualising the cover design of the brochure, to selecting the type of font, was done by Satyajit Ray, whose feted masterpieces (...) had by then established him as one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, and who was a life-long fan of science-fiction and fantasy. Some of the first stories Ray ever wrote were science-fiction. (...) Ray (...) was the President of the SF Cine Club. "A science-fiction addict for close to thirty years," he wrote in the brochure, "the SF Cine Club may very well be one of the first of its kind - here or abroad". It was the same year that Ray went to Hollywood to pitch his sci-fi script, the ill-fated The Alien. But that's another story, a comprehensive account of which is given in Travails with the Alien by Satyajit Ray: The Film that was never made and other Adventures with Science Fiction, the new book by HarperCollins India - which also features previously unpublished memorabilia of the SF Cine Club. (...) Ray, not new to the workings of a film club (he had co-founded the first film society of independent India in 1947), curated the screenings. (...) 

The film club was the product of the efforts of a group of sci-fi crusaders in Bengal in the '60s. It was led by Adrish Bardhan, its secretary, who had approached Ray with the idea. Bengali sci-fi writer Premendra Mitra was the Vice President. Bardhan (...) had been running Aschorjo, the little magazine dedicated to Bengali sci-fi by local authors, from a room in his ancestral house on 97/1 Serpentine Lane (which would also double as the office for the cine club) since 1963. Ray was the magazine's chief patron and contributor, and together they started producing sci-fi radio plays. (...) Bardhan, in the editorial of 1966 February issue of Aschorjo, wrote, "A Monthly magazine, radio and cinema: these 3 paths now will forge the victory of sci-fi." The issue carried an extensive coverage of the inaugural ceremony; a detailed synopsis of the SF Cine Club's next screening would appear in the last section of Aschorjo - which has been archived by the members of Kalpabiswa - a Bengali sci-fi/fantasy webzine. Many of the stories of the cine club are recounted by Ranen Ghosh, an acolyte of Bardhan, in a Norwegian journal about the sci-fi 'movement' in Bengal, that was published last year. He was an integral part of three bengali sci-fi magazines, which came one after the other, Aschorjo, Bishmoy and Fantastic. Ghosh often wrote stories with multiple aliases, taking names of family members. He is one of the few active members of the cine club who is alive. 

How did the seemingly successful SF Cine Club lose its steam so abruptly, and shut down in 1969, 3 years after it had started? Ray got busier. (...) And Bardhan had his own battles to fight - Aschorjo was in financial trouble, and his wife fell sick. "I think Ray also lost interest in it after a point. Otherwise, he would have managed to keep it running," says Ghosh. The audience, he says, also started dwindling. Many members who weren't accustomed to watching English-language films, wouldn't be able to grasp the films. (...) The problems were identified, discussed in the meetings (which Ray didn't have the time to attend), but never addressed'. 

A proposito del volume Travails with the Alien, nel sito di HarperCollins Publishers si legge: 

'Satyajit Ray was a master of science fiction writing. Through his Professor Shonku stories and other fiction and non-fiction pieces, he explored the genre from various angles. In the 1960s, Ray wrote a screenplay for what would have been the first-of-its-kind sci-fi film to be made in India. It was called The Alien and was based on his own short story "Bonkubabur Bandhu". On being prompted by Arthur C. Clarke, who found the screenplay promising, Ray sent the script to Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, who agreed to back it, and Peter Sellers was approached to play a prominent role. Then started the "Ordeals of the Alien" as Ray calls it, as even after a series of trips to the US, UK and France, the film was never made, and more shockingly, some fifteen years later, Ray watched Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and later E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and realized these bore uncanny resemblances to his script The Alien, including the way the ET was designed! A slice of hitherto undocumented cinema history, Travails with the Alien includes Ray's detailed essay on the project with the full script of The Alien, as well as the original short story on which the screenplay was based. These, presented alongside correspondence between Ray and Peter Sellers, Arthur C. Clarke, Marlon Brando, Hollywood producers who showed interest, and a fascinating essay by the young student at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism who broke the Spielberg story, make this book a rare and compelling read on science fiction, cinema and the art of adaptation'.

Birsa Dasgupta in Italia

Il regista bengali Birsa Dasgupta è in questi giorni in Italia. Nella fotografia a sinistra, Birsa è a Roma in compagnia del regista Tommaso Rossellini. La madre di Tommaso è Isotta Rossellini, figlia di Ingmar Bergman e di Roberto Rossellini, e sorella gemella di Isabella. La nonna di Birsa è la sceneggiatrice Sonali Senroy Dasgupta, compagna di Roberto Rossellini. Sonali lasciò il marito, il documentarista Harisadhan Dasgupta, e il figlio Raja (padre di Birsa), per seguire Rossellini.
Aggiornamento del 2 ottobre 2019: nelle fotografie seguenti, Birsa è in compagnia di Isabella Rossellini e del regista Alessandro Rossellini, figlio del produttore Renzo Rossellini, secondogenito di Roberto e della prima moglie, la sceneggiatrice e costumista Marcella De Marchis.

Dev revisits old haunts in city with Rukmini in tow

The Times of India pubblica oggi nel supplemento Calcutta Times un articolo molto originale nel quale Dev, accompagnato da Rukmini Maitra, ripercorre i luoghi di Kolkata che hanno segnato i suoi primi anni difficili nella metropoli, quando, rientrato da Mumbai nel 2006, il giovane aspirante attore tentava di conquistarsi un posto al sole nell'industria cinematografica bengali. Dev revisits old haunts in city with Rukmini in tow.

Bony: le riprese in Italia

Nei giorni scorsi la troupe del film in lingua bengali Bony era in Italia per girare alcune sequenze. I set sono stati allestiti a Milano e a Lucca (Polo Tecnologico, Polo Fiere, Cittadella della Salute Campo di Marte, piazza San Michele, mura, Capannori, cimitero di Sant'Anna). Bony è diretto e interpretato da Parambrata Chattopadhyay, affiancato da Koel Mallick e dai nostri Marco Brinzi e Giada Benedetti. La pellicola è l'adattamento cinematografico del romanzo omonimo di Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay.

Video: In corso le riprese di “Bony”, il film indiano ambientato a Lucca, NoiTV, 5 luglio 2019.

Video: brano Lucky.

Lucca

Venezia

Haripada Bandwala: le riprese in Italia

Da sin.: Pathikrit, Nusrat, Ankush e il coreografo Adil Shaikh

La troupe del film in lingua bengali Haripada Bandwala è in questi giorni in Italia per girare alcune sequenze. Le location selezionate: Cervinia, Castello di Fénis in Valle d'Aosta, Milano e il 16 novembre Como (piazza Duomo, piazza Grimoldi e piazza San Fedele). La pellicola è diretta da Pathikrit Basu. Nel cast Ankush Hazra e Nusrat Jahan. 

Aggiornamento del 12 ottobre 2023: vi segnalo i video dei brani Bojhabo Ki Kore, Eksho Vrindaban, e Bole De Na.

Da sinistra: Ankush Hazra e Pathikrit Basu

Ankush Hazra - Milano

Milano

Como

Como

What Satyajit Ray left us is an inheritance of endless possibilities

Pather Panchali, il primo film di Satyajit Ray, fu distribuito nell'agosto del 1955. In occasione del 60esimo anniversario, l'attrice Sharmila Tagore dedica un lungo tributo al celebre regista bengali. What Satyajit Ray left us is an inheritance of endless possibilities, The Wire, 11 settembre 2015:

'His films are conversations with the shifting sands of time through which he lived, and which in turn shaped his films. The first phase of his career coincided with the hope and idealism of a newly emergent nation, and saw him make what in effect were his finest films - movies that truly reflects the spirit of the times. They also reflected his own upbringing, his education in music and the arts and his belief in the confluence of east and west. This vision was both Tagorean and Nehruvian. Of course, the political and economic ideals of the Nehruvian period began to disintegrate around the mid-60s and this had its impact on Ray. The uncertainties of the era - the economic, political and social upheavals of the 1970s - found their way in to his films. (...) A secular impulse ran through his films and he often made courageous forays into the domain of blind faith, superstition and religious bigotry. (...) His films were not about political stance. They were about how politics influenced people and altered their moral and ethical values.

Unlike the popular cinema of his time, he did not paint his characters in extremes of black and white. Ray’s characters lived in an instantly recognisable middle ground. There are no heroes in his films; instead you have the brave heroism of ordinary individuals, battling with the demons of their day-to-day lives. Ray’s world was also deeply embedded in the ordinary. Take for instance the iconic image of him we have all seen in print. Sitting in his spartan room in Kolkata surrounded by books, paper, music, pens and paintbrushes. Here was man far removed from the material world, inhabiting a world of imagination and ideas. He had use of money for just two things - books and music, and of course for making films. (...) I don’t think there has been another director quite so versatile and as hardworking. The commitment to his art despite the conditions in which he worked, the steadfastness, the refusal to compromise for any consideration whatsoever are ultimately the qualities that make him stand apart. The trouble with looking at Ray’s cinema is that his own formidable and impressive persona begins to mediate our understanding of his films. 

His personal charisma, his baritone voice, his erudition and encyclopaedic knowledge, his familiarity and comfort with both Bengali and English made him a towering personality. It has, therefore, been impossible to extricate him from his films. This has been both good and bad. For those who admired him uncritically, he became the avenue by which to understand his films. For those who did not, he became an art-house figure who was distant, unreachable and obscure. This, combined with differences in regional sensibilities, lack of suitable marketing and distribution, and of course the Bengali language, has continued to impede a more widespread engagement with Ray’s films within the country. (...) Contrary to popular perception, his films weren’t confined to the intelligentsia, but have been enjoyed by a large cross-section of audiences belonging to both the Bengals. Far from being distant, he was deeply and vibrantly engaged with life and with the critical issues of his times. He always answered phone calls himself, and replied to letters in his own handwriting. Visitors to his home would often be surprised to find him opening the door.

Yet sadly, there are those who thought that his international fame was undeserved and that he got his international acclaim by peddling Indian poverty abroad. One would’ve thought that such an absurd viewpoint would by now have been dismissed with the contempt it deserves. However, it keeps cropping up every now and then and this is certainly a lie that needs to be nailed. The implication seems to be that to be a true nationalist one must sweep truths about India under the carpet. This is precisely what Ray’s cinema stood against. (...) As Ray most eloquently put it, “Cinema has its own way of telling the truth and it must be left free to function in its own right”. (...) In any case except for the [Apu] Trilogy and Ashani Sanket, no other films of Ray dealt with poverty.

While being rooted in the culture of Bengal, he was simultaneously international. His films are culture specific and yet managed to transcend language and other cultural barriers. Perhaps that’s why even today, they run to packed houses all over the world. It is not just the Indian diaspora that make up the appreciative crowd, but a diverse international audience, three or four generations removed from Ray at that. (...) In that regard, Ray’s films constitute a truly successful crossover cinema that everybody is aspiring to make. (...) It may seem at first that Ray’s films have nothing to do with the popular cinema of Bombay, but culture travels in mysterious ways. Legacies like Ray’s seep through to become part of the social and cultural landscape. (...) If today, the cinema of Ray is part of our consciousness, then it is because it has the ability across a different time and space to illuminate the “dark rooms of our souls” and offers us an outlook - to live and let live'. 

Churni Ganguly: Nirbashito not only about Taslima Nasreen

Nirbashito è l'acclamato film scritto, diretto e interpretato dall'attrice Churni Ganguly (moglie del regista Kaushik Ganguly) al suo debutto dietro la macchina da presa. Nirbashito si ispira liberamente alla vicenda personale della scrittrice bengalese Taslima Nasreen che vive in esilio dal 1994. Non è chiaro se la pellicola sia già stata distribuita nelle sale indiane (almeno nel Bengala occidentale) oppure no, ma quest'anno si è comunque aggiudicata il National Award per il miglior film in lingua bengali. Trailer. 

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa dalla regista a Anindita Acharya, pubblicata il 14 agosto 2015 da Hindustan Times. Nirbashito not only about Taslima Nasreen: Churni Ganguly:

'Nirbashito, which is about freedom of expression, was adjudged the best feature film in Bengali at the National Awards on March 24. The same day, the Supreme Court also struck down Section 66A of IT Act (which allowed arrest for offensive content on the internet).

Yes, it was a special day and I will never forget the date. After it was confirmed that Nirbashito has been conferred the National Award, I immediately called up Taslima. (...) She told me that the Supreme Court has scrapped 66A of IT Act. Freedom of expression won that day.

The film bears a strong resemblance to the life of Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen. Yet, you haven't named the protagonist in the film.

This is not a biopic on Taslima Nasreen. I have already mentioned that earlier. Since it's not a biopic, I haven't given the protagonist a name. A lot of fiction has been weaved into the story. The film talks about the power of woman. Her struggles start the very day she is born. If a woman has an opinion, she will be ostracised, which is also a kind of exile. A country comprises men and women. If we take away the freedom of expression from a woman, it's also a kind of exile... it's the death of democracy. If I can't express my opinion freely, I gradually cease to form opinions. Even in today's society, women hesitate to form a free opinion. So, the film speaks for those women who have gone ahead and expressed their opinion. It speaks of gender equality and patriarchy. Many women who can't protest have found a voice in Taslima. So, the film is dedicated to every woman.

Why did you choose the subject for your debut film?

The banishment of Taslima inspired me. She leads a claustrophobic life yet never stops voicing her opinion. Kaushik (Ganguly) had earlier thought of making a film on the subject. We have been toying with the idea for a long time. Somehow it didn't happen. I told him that I want to work on the idea. The concept of the film might make people think but there's nothing controversial in the film.

Everything about exiled author, Taslima Nasreen, is controversial.

All I can say is that has a human story. It speaks of motherly love that the author has for her pet cat. I have given an insight into the exiled author's life through her poetry. Whenever we speak of Taslima, we tend to bring in controversial elements into it. But at the end of the day she is a human being and I have tried to explore those facets of her personality. The controversial elements of her life have garnered a lot of attention, so I didn't feel the need to explore them again. There are scenes where we present Taslima's opinion too. It's a balanced film. One must know what goes against her and also what she stands for. However, I don't endorse banishment. I believe you can have an opinion not similar to her opinion, but there are other ways to answer that. There's a dialogue in the film which says burning vehicles on the road is not a way to protest. There's another dialogue which says invariably that sword wins. But I believe the pen should win. There can be debates, write ups but not banishment.

Banishment reminds us of author Salman Rushdie and artiste Maqbool Fida Husain.

One has the freedom of expression and at times, it might hurt another person. But he or she shouldn't be ostracised. It's not possible to pacify everyone. Banishment is not the way. There has to a softer way to deal with it. When you ban a film, the curiosity to watch the film increases manifold. So, whenever the film is available on the internet, everyone jumps in to watch it. My film is a tribute to Maqbool Fida Husain. Salman Rushdie also gets mentioned in a pivotal scene.

What was Taslima Nasreen's reaction after watching the film?

It was an emotional moment for her. She didn't react to the fact that we haven't used her name because she knew the film has a lot of fiction. We have taken cinematic licence to make the film.

What made you cast yourself in the lead role?

Initially, I didn't want to cast myself in my debut film. I wanted to take somebody who bears resemblance to Taslima. During the narration, a few of my friends from the film fraternity told me that I am apt to play the character. Since I was also the director, I had to write a lot of directorial inputs in the script so that my team had no difficulty in understanding my suggestions while shooting the film.

The concept of the film belongs to Kaushik Ganguly. How did he help you while making the film?

After I narrated the first draft of the film, he was so pleased that he wanted to make a film on it. But I refused to part with it (smiles). When we went into pre-production, he was busy with Apur Panchali. Both of us shared the same directorial team and it was chaos. He went away with the directorial team to shoot for Khaad. I was really upset at one point. But later, he was proud of the fact that I had managed everything on my own'.

Besh Korechi Prem Korechi: le riprese in Italia

Lo scorso giugno la troupe del film in lingua bengali Besh Korechi Prem Korechi, diretto da Raja Chanda e interpretato da Jeet e da Koel Mallick, era in Italia per girare alcune sequenze. I set sono stati allestiti all'Expo di Milano (padiglioni Cina e Brasile, Decumano), il 17 e il 18 giugno, e nei giorni successivi a Gressoney. Video dei brani Besh Korechi Prem Korechi e Oi Tor Mayabi Chokh.

Valle d'Aosta

Valle d'Aosta

Herogiri: le riprese in Italia

[Archivio] Nell'ottobre 2014 la troupe del film bengali Herogiri era in Italia per girare alcune sequenze. Capri e Milano fra le località prescelte. Herogiri è diretto da Ravi Kinagi e interpretato da Dev e Koel Mallick, due attori ormai di casa nel nostro Paese. Video dei brani Maria e Janemon. Le fotografie ritraggono i set allestiti a Capri.

Chander Pahar: locandine, trailer e recensione

Chander Pahar, costosissimo film distribuito il 20 dicembre 2013, è, ad oggi, il campione d'incassi nella storia del cinema bengali. Al botteghino si è comportato dignitosamente anche al di fuori dei confini del Bengala occidentale: a Mumbai, ad esempio, pur subendo la concorrenza del blockbuster Dhoom:3, CP si è difeso bene. La pellicola è diretta da Kamaleswar Mukherjee e interpretata dal giovane divo Dev. La sceneggiatura si basa sul famoso romanzo omonimo d'avventure del 1937 di Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadyay. Le riprese sono state  effettuate quasi interamente in Sudafrica. Trailer. Vi segnalo la recensione firmata da Anjan Dutt, pubblicata da The Telegraph il 24 dicembre 2013:

'Sometimes films are produced for breaking new grounds. Temporary gains are unimportant. (...) Chander Pahar (...) I am certain will change the course of Bengali cinema in the next three years. The most expensive Bengali film till date (...) will inspire if not force the Bengali industry to be more dynamic in scale, thought, courage. And the actual returns of this film will be evaluated by the quality and success of films that will follow Chander Pahar in the next three years. (...) Kamaleswar Mukherjee will go down in history for braving the very difficult journey filled with risk but full of confidence. After a long time a Bengali film made me feel proud. (...) Almost 85 per cent of the film was spellbinding, gorgeous and filled with sheer good taste. (...) With Chander Pahar he [Kamaleswar Mukherjee] enters a different league where confidence and sheer hard work are evident in almost every frame. (...) I only wish editor Rabiranjan Maitra had done away with the frequent slow-mo and ramping, and resorted to just cutting, because they distract you from the pace of the narration. (...) Dev’s almost childlike fearlessness to conquer the unknown heightens the philosophy of the basic text. I was weary of the commercial star till the film started, but through the viewing was convinced that no one else could have played Shankar. (...) Dev combines sheer strength with utter vulnerability that works magic. (...) Dev’s entry into serious cinema succeeds superbly because he simply whacks the ball out of the field. Credit goes to Kamaleswar for using Dev’s vulnerability as his strength. (...) There have been many alterations of the original text, but most of them work immensely because the writer and director make it dramatic and believable. (...) There is so much inherent power in the visuals that a lesser elaborate and more haunting, minimalistic score perhaps would have been apt. (...) But the player who is literally responsible for the victory is (...) Soumik Halder. Here is a film from Bengal where almost 90 per cent of the cinematography is sheer brilliance. (...) Together with the production designer Nomonde Ngema, Soumik works out series of sequences where one does not need to hear anything but just keep watching. (...) To me it looks and feels far bigger than a 15crore project. Far glorious than many bigger budget Hindi adventures I have ever seen'. .

 

Majnu: le riprese in Italia

[Archivio] Tra la fine di settembre e gli inizi di ottobre dello scorso anno, la troupe del film in lingua bengali Majnu era a Como e a Milano per effettuare alcune riprese. Majnu è diretto da Rajiv Kumar e interpretato da Hiraan Chatterjee e Srabanti Chatterjee. Video dei brani E Mon Ajkal, girato a Milano, e O Piya Re Piya, girato a Como.

Como

È morto Rituparno Ghosh

Grave lutto per il cinema indiano. Rituparno Ghosh, talentuoso e pluripremiato regista bengali, si è spento questa mattina a Kolkata a causa di un attacco di cuore. Il 31 agosto avrebbe compiuto 50 anni. Ghosh è molto noto nel circuito dei festival: numerose sue pellicole sono state proiettate in diverse rassegne internazionali. Il suo è un cinema decisamente d'autore, ma Ghosh non ha mai disdegnato di scritturare star di grosso calibro - anche in prestito da Bollywood - per i suoi film (Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Preity Zinta, eccetera). Prosenjit Chatterjee, superstar del cinema popolare in lingua bengali, ha offerto performance magnifiche nelle pellicole dirette da Ghosh (vedi Dosar). La post-produzione di Satyanweshi, ultimo lavoro del regista, è tuttora in corso.

Aggiornamento del 5 giugno 2013 - The Alternative World of Rituparno Ghosh, Myna Mukherjee, Open:

'Of all his characters, the one he felt closest to was Binodini, played by Aishwarya Rai in his adaptation of Chokher Bali (...). Binodini stood on a threshold of social transformation as she struggled for social acceptance as a widow after the British had legislated widow remarriage in the face of countrywide resistance. Rituparno felt a strong sense of identification with the tragic isolation of someone caught in the half-light of legitimacy. It was this isolation perhaps that made him one of the most sensitive Indian directors of recent years. In a society with inequalities so deeply entrenched, he put across the struggle of being a human being - swallowed by desire, choked by experience, trapped by social expectations - with lyrical melancholy. And like all accomplished tragedians, he was the master of the dark poem, the kind of poetry that only comes through when bleakness is almost unbearable.

In the 21 years since he made his first film, Rituparno was part of over 24 films. He directed and wrote over 21 of them, and acted in his last three releases as the lead. His films have won over 18 National Awards, and have travelled widely across the international festival circuit. He is acknowledged as the central figure in the late 1990s’ renaissance of Bengali Cinema that broke what was otherwise a bleak period. Best known for emotional dramas, his career spanned genres as diverse as children’s films (Hirer Angti, 1992) and murder mysteries (Shubho Mahurat). At a time when cinema was centered around the ‘Hero’, Ritu chose to make film after film about women. Unishe April and Titli, with Aparna Sen and Konkona Sen [Sharma], both explored the tensions and intimacies of a mother-daughter relationship. Bariwali won Kirron Kher a Best Actress National Award for her portrayal of an ageing spinster in a decrepit house in a state of slow decay. Dahan explored the apathy and misogyny of society around victims of sexual assault. Ritu was always willing to take risks. From incest to infidelity, he invested the hitherto sacrosanct middle-class Bengali family on screen with narratives that had been wiped off cinematically in the sanitised blaze of mainstream depictions. In Utsab, Dosar and Shob Charitro Kalponik, he explored complicated, damaged and often flawed human relations in a sensitive but unsentimental way. Rituparno was willing to break cinematic norms as well. For example, Dosar,(...) a tale of an unfaithful marriage in the afterlight of an accident, was shot completely in black-and-white. Shob Charitro Kalponik departs from linear narrative and descends into surrealism as a stunningly beautiful Bipasha Basu is interrupted in her infidelity by her poet husband’s death, an event that leads her to re-interrogate her entire relationship with him.

Inspired by Bengal cultural icons Satyajit Ray and Tagore, Rituparno’s films helped define the next generation of Bengal New Wave cinema. He paid tribute to Rabindranath Tagore by reinterpreting three classics: Chokher Bali (which won him the Locarno Best Film Award in 2003), Noukadubi (a period film) and his most recent release Chitrangada. By the time I came to know him, Rituparno Ghosh was a star director and had earned the reputation of being something of a diva. His Hindi film Raincoat, featuring Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan, had established him as one of the few to cross over from regional cinema to Bollywood. Other mainstream Hindi actors like Manisha Koirala and Bipasha Basu had also worked with him. He had hosted two celebrity chat shows, Ebong Rituparno and Rituparno and Co., in which he addressed his guests fondly as tui (an intimate ‘you’). His most telling moment on TV was when he publicly scolded Mir, a well-known mimicry and stand-up artist. Mir had in the past used Ritu as material for his comic routine. Ritu shamed him on national television in that one show, asking him if he realised how prejudiced he was in poking fun at effeminate men. Ritu himself had always been effeminate, but he slowly claimed his queer self in public spaces. His flamboyant turbans, kohled eyes and flowing robes earned him notoriety and a grudging respect in Kolkata’s art appreciation circles. It was his city, one that ‘could neither ignore nor embrace him’, in his own words. (...)

It was the first time Ritu was to act in a movie [Aar Ekti Premer Golpo], and that too, in the role of an openly gay filmmaker. The film’s director was Kaushik Ganguly, but it was Ritu’s story. His involvement in every frame of the film was well known. (...) How momentous that film was in its representation of queer life. It felt as if his entire career had led up to the courage it took to make that one film. Rituparno made Memories in March and Chitrangada after that. These dealt defiantly and unapologetically with the exile of homosexuality, with retribution and, finally, redemption. Each was an intense exhalation for queer audiences. In the deafening din of mainstream heteronormativity and the trite stereotypes that are often the only representation of a largely silent and invisibilised community, here was cinema that made them belong. There was desire, pain, complexity, beauty, isolation and finally poetry. In his specificity of representation, he created cinema that was universal'.

Rocky: le riprese in Italia

In questi giorni la troupe del film in lingua bengali Rocky è in Sicilia per girare alcune sequenze. Domani 14 marzo 2013, dalle ore 10.00 alle ore 13.00, il set verrà allestito a Trapani, presso la Torre di Ligny e in Piazza Mercato del Pesce. In seguito la troupe si sposterà alla Riserva Naturale Orientata delle Saline di Trapani e Paceco. Le altre location saranno Palermo, Taormina, Cefalù e Catania. Rocky è diretto da Sujit Mondal e interpretato da Mahaakshay Chakraborty, figlio del celebre Mithun, e da Puja Banerjee. Aggiornamento del 15 marzo 2013: domenica 17 marzo il set verrà allestito a Catania. Piazza del Duomo, Pescheria, Piazza Teatro Massimo, Monastero dei Benedettini di San Nicolò l'Arena e Castello Ursino le location selezionate.

Aggiornamento del 21 aprile 2013: 

- video delle riprese in Piazza del Duomo a Catania

- video dei brani Aaj Chai Toke e Tui Borsha Bikeler Dheu

Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma 2012

L'edizione 2012 del Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma si svolge dal 9 al 17 novembre. Unico lungometraggio indiano in cartellone: Tasher Desh di Q (alias Qaushik Mukherjee), in concorso nella sezione CINEMAXXI.

Aggiornamento del 21 novembre 2012: vi segnalo di seguito alcune recensioni.

- CineClandestino: 'Tasher Desh irrompe (...) con la deflagrante potenza distruttrice di un ordigno nucleare: (...) il film di Q è una delle materializzazioni possibili dell'idea stessa di kermesse propugnata da Marco Müller, quella che vede il festival come un luogo che accorpi nella stessa anima ricerca e intrattenimento, sperimentazione visiva e racconto popolare, innovazione e classicità. (...) La classe registica di Q, in grado di lavorare sulle geometrie della messa in scena e su un utilizzo quanto mai fertile e creativo della scenografia (la natura dello Sri Lanka, dove il film è stato girato, si mescola alla perfezione con la particolare ricreazione dello spazio voluta dal regista), si abbandona fin dall'incipit in bianco e nero (...) a una furibonda apocalisse visiva. Il montaggio sincopato, la narrazione ellittica e sconnessa, la recitazione urlata, le inquadrature sghembe fanno di The Land of Cards un elogio della frenesia e del caos che evidenzia, prima ancora che lo faccia il testo in sé e per sé, l'anima profondamente libertaria e antifascista del film. Una scheggia impazzita che attraversa la prassi cinematografica missando al proprio interno la cultura occidentale e quella indiana. (...) Q pone la firma in calce a un'opera orgogliosamente post-punk, in cui anche il colore è utilizzato in modo eversivo (...) e un incontro di ping pong dalla brevissima durata può essere risolto registicamente con otto inquadrature diverse. Spiazzante ed esaltante allo stesso tempo, The Land of Cards rammenta a coloro che ne avessero smarrito la memoria quanto il cinema possa essere rivoluzionario nell'utilizzo stesso delle tecniche e degli stili'.

- CineFatti: 'Tasher Desh è un capolavoro di rara bellezza e raffinatezza (...): Q può diventare il regista simbolo del cinema del XXI secolo, con le sue idee, con la sua fusione di stili e con i brividi di grande cinematografia classica inseriti in un vortice d’innovazione. (...) Sono uomini e donne, attori eccezionali che recitano come fossero in un'opera di teatro contemporaneo. È la regia di Q a rendere tutto diverso, movimentato, emozione pura, Cinema. (...) Gioia per uno dei film migliori visti fino ad oggi qui al Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, il migliore della sezione CinemaXXI in cui concorre. Duro da sopportare, difficile da digerire in molti momenti, ma le vere sfide vengono dai lavori difficili se si ha voglia di capirli e viverli per quello che vogliono essere. Momenti di puro cinema, cinema del futuro, quello che vorremmo vedere prevalere, simbolo del nuovo che tanto farebbe bisogno al mondo intero, perché si deve capire che le barriere vanno abbattute e spazio va lasciato alle nuove possibilità e ricerche'.

Area del profilo Facebook di Q dedicata alle fotografie scattate a Roma.

Aggiornamenti del 23 agosto 2013 - A partire da oggi, Tasher Desh viene finalmente distribuito in alcune aree in India in sale selezionate. Nell'intervista concessa da Q a Box Office India, pubblicata il 17 agosto 2013, si legge:

'The film travelled to the Rome Film Festival. How was it received there?

I was very happy with the response there. It was screened in a section called Cinema 21 and that was brilliant since I was in competition with people who I have looked up to all my life. My life was made that day. More importantly, I was happy knowing that critics were watching those films, which were not really cinema but playing with form. They were not looking for narrative, so I was overwhelmed. 90 per cent of them liked my film and equated it with an art installation project with lines and music. The narrative was always a problem so I was criticised there. But everybody who loved it also hated the fact the narrative was not joined'.

Vi segnalo anche la recensione di Raja Sen (giudizio 3,5), pubblicata oggi da Rediff, recensione che, nella versione integrale, include inaspettatamente più di un riferimento a David Bowie:

'The thing about building a house of cards - indeed, a country of cards - is that its very existence is rooted in caprice. With Tasher Desh, radical filmmaker Q takes on Rabindranath Tagore’s play and interprets a familiar text with much vim and great style, and yet the fact that the end results are uneven - and uneven they certainly are - seems as much an inevitability as a matter of choice. Discordance was always, well, on the cards. (...) This is a bizarre film, one that unapologetically meanders through most of its first hour, giving us a hint of its characters while soaking us in a psychedelic cauldron of ennui. It’s the same one Q’s protagonists sip from. On one hand is a bespectacled writer who wants to mount a production of Tasher Desh, but is overwhelmed by the relentlessness of the world around him. He escapes into the pages, where we meet the play’s hero, a restless Prince weary of his luxurious cage. And as the story flip-flops between these two, the teller and the doer, the film’s visuals take over our heads. (...) The surreal, madcap imagery is captivating, and many an image remains lodged in my head. Even a few that I found tiresome at the time. A primary reason for the tenacity of these strong, strange images - an Oracle with David Bowie cheekbones, a toddler prince with a sword larger than himself, clockwork squirrels going around in circles - is how violently they’re juxtaposed, not just against each other in immediate contrast, but along with the music. The soundtrack takes the songs from Tagore’s original musical and keeps the lyrics the same, and while the music is edgy and eclectic and defiantly modern, it is the classic lyrical heft that propels the film’s narrative. The filmmakers have done an artful job of subtitling these words, often sacrificing literality for inferred meaning, which helps greatly in grasping the film. This happens with dialogue too, when characters repeat the same lines and words over and over but the subtitles ascribe different meanings, or emphasise different parts of the translated line. (...) Clearly influenced by Lewis Carroll, Tagore conjured up a fascistic nation of people dressing up as playing cards, giving his musical its name. Q revels in this opportunity for structured mayhem, and his uniformed card soldiers (who come this close to actual goose-stepping) are a work of art, with their faces painted white and a tiny logo, of the suit they belong to, on their lips. The effect is striking - more Terry Gilliam than Tim Burton, thankfully - and with this highly theatrical approach, the film takes on a comic-book appearance. The colours pop, the subtitles are more stylised, and the cards yell out Bengali chopped into staccato syllables. “Progress?” is translated as “égobo?” but screamed “É!”, “Go!” and “Bo!”. (...) The Prince and his friend, cornered by gun-toting cards for having the temerity to laugh, come up with a delicious origin story and begin to sow seeds of revolution by appealing to the card-women. Good move, that. Suggestions of liberty from the outsiders intrigue the women in the ranks, and soon there is a full-blown sexual revolution. And here it is that the film becomes a highly erotic one, throbbing with abstract yet earthy sensuality. (...) Meanwhile, over on the other side of reality, the Writer too is grappling with matters of sexual urgency. “If it’s a riot you want...”, promises a queen ominously, her Bangla obfuscated and rendered exotic by a strange accent. There is a mighty mish-mash of tongues and nationalities amid the cards, hidden by white paint. It is a clever trick, in a film where the cast is mostly impressive. Rii Sen is a striking heroine, Tillotama Shome is evocative as the Prince’s mother, and all the cards get it very right indeed. Anubrata Basu (the hero of Q’s last film, Gandu) is well-suited to the part of the friend, even pulling off a Che Guevara look quite deftly in one scene, and Soumyak Kanti De Biswas is highly compelling as the Prince, especially when he looks fourth-wall-searingly through the camera. Tagore’s 1932 play is a remarkably progressive one, and Q’s adaptation starts off slow and visceral and then - after they land on the island halfway through the film - changes gears to become a racy, lucid, sexy adventure. This gamble doesn’t entirely pay off - the first half has several boring stretches; the film exasperatingly ends just when it hits its most enjoyable stride - but the film is staggeringly original, and far too much of it stays back in the head. To haunt and to enchant. The music plays a huge part, and the critical decision to use Tagore’s original songs - with Q singing on many of the tracks - is one that makes this effort magical, even when it misfires. But who’s to say any of the misfires were unintentional? Tasher Desh is more experience than film, more blank verse than story, and more poetry than anything else'.

Vedi anche:

- Anurag Kashyap produrrà il nuovo film di Q

- Kolkata extreme | Down and dirty in Kolkata, 30 luglio 2022

Q - Roma, 2012

Q - Roma, 2012