Parthajit Baruah

                                    A Visual Journey to London


 

                                    

 

REEMA PANGING: a documentary by Parthajit Baruah

Face to Face : The book on Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Face to Face : The Cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Book Cover caption

I am grateful to HarperCollins and Shantanu Ray Choudhary sir
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People used to ask me how many children do you have ? I used to answer them back NO, I don't have. I was fed up giving that answer last 11 yrs.
 Now today, the pain is released. I got the author's copies. I want to tell them , this is my baby , my most loving child, my 5-6yrs hard work -Face to Face - The Cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan. There are many who helped me immensely during the course of my writing. Here I want to thank French Film critic Jean Michel Frodon for writing the preface of my book, Rani Day Burra for her guidance in writing the book, Indian actress Nandita Das for sharing her experience with Adoor G, and Derek Malcolm for telling me his perspective on Adoor , Anil Zankar sir for his comment on Adoor' s thematic dynamic. Pk Nair Saab for giving me valuable advice. , Jahnu Barua sir for his suggestion,  Shaji A Karon for his interview. London based film critic Lalit Mohan Joshi for arranging some books and journals for me. Arti ma'am of NFAI for giving me valuable research documents on Adoor. KA Beena for arranging some films for me and my friend Jayadeva Rentala for his encouragement.....I am thankful to Film critic Manoj Barpujari and to all who directly or indirectly help me.. I have long list to acknowledge. Its not possible to mention them all. In my book , I have clearly mentioned to all who even helped me in bringing pages and pen from the shop !!!


... I was highly emotional receiving the author's copy on 16th May, 2016

Srijon Bardhan's Postmaster : a poem in celluloid

        Srijon Bardhan's  Postmaster :  a poem in celluloid

                            The richness of Indian cinema  lies on the films made in different Indian languages. A lament is heard among the film critics and historian that the  real filmmakers who understand cinema as a form of art have vanished and most of them have trapped into the soft porn . My voice was also with them till the moment I saw and read the Bengali film Postmaster by Srijon Bardhan, a young filmmaker from Kolkata who has shown tremendously the hope to carry forward the legacy of Ray, Ghatat, and Sen.

  I saw the film Postmaster at Delhi International Film Festival, which got the Official selection .The film was very engrossing that one can not but wait till the last frame. And I had to. 

  The original story The Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore , depicts  an unnamed postmaster who is posted to a remote post office of an Indian village. This is the baseline of the film Postmaster. The filmmaker is aware of the sensitive part of Tagore's story and candidly admits, " I have emerged my own idea of Tagore without tempering the temperament of the film."

Poster of the Bengali film Postmaster

    




      

 Srijon's film Postmaster depicts the psychological dilemma of  Nanda Sen who is assigned to a rural postoffice in a village called Plassey as a postmaster . In the course of the time, he comes across an orphaned girl Ratna who later becomes his domestic help. The simplicity and honesty of Ratna attract him and with due course, Nanda falls in love with her. Nanda breaks the stereotyped notion to marry an upper caste girl and accepts her, although she belongs to a lower strata of the society.  Nanda's father Raghab Sen who is against the relationship, says to his son in his death bed , to leave Ratna and the baby (eventually they are about to have a baby) and to marry a girl of a  sophisticated family. The psychology of Nanda, as played by a very talented actor Ishaan Mazumder, is brilliantly drawn in through his acting. The expression of psychological imbalance and conflict is one of the best scenes in the film. The credit goes to the actor, Ishaan and the filmmaker, Srijon.  Nanda finally succumbs to the circumstance and abandons his wife Ratna and the new born baby just leaving behind a letter. Ratna, played by Pujarini Ghosh , is successful in transforming her character. Its not easy to play two separate identities - as a simple young girl and later an emotionally imbalanced mother. I feel, Pujarini Ghosh is  the new face who will definately take a place as an actress in Indian Cinema. Ratna is shocked at this betrayal and is succumbed to death. Knowing Ratna's death, he imagines and embraces her in divinity.

Ishaan Mazumder as Nanda and  Pujarini Ghosh as Ratna in Postmaster

Still from the Bengali film Postmaster

 The music is used as a leit motif. The music  is  metaphorically  presented  to portray  Nanda and Ratna's love and their sadness . The slow panning of the camera syncronised with the music will take you back to the world of Ray and Ravi Shankar.  The emotions, mood-swing, romance, sadness and hope of the characters are well reflected through  music.  Music is a character for Srijon and  a language  to express what can not be expressed through the visuals.

Filmmaker Srijon is instructing his actor

 Srijon Bardhan's 'Postmaster',   enriched with rich images and metaphors, is a well crafted film visually. The filmmaker is successful in translating his imagination into the visual frame. Srijon's 'Postmaster'  will be remembered as a poem in celluloid.



  

Parthajit baruah on ASSAMESE CINEMA

                      ASSAMESE CINEMA :  Hope or Frustration

Cinema, termed as ' Seventh Art' as postulated by Italian film theoritician Canudo, can create and destroy the society as told me by Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Jahnu Barua. The journey of the Assamese cinema dated back in 1935 with a historical film 'Joymoti'. But the aesthetics of cinema, metaphoric representation of images in the frame , socio-cultural discourse and the praxis of unfolding non-linearity in the narrative, heralded with
" Gonga Chilinir Pankhi" by Padum Barua. Good cinema in Assam, loosely termed as alternative cinema, was born with it. After Padum Barua, came Bhabendra nath saikia with his masterpiece, " Agnisnan". But the filmmaker who brought the Assamese cinema to the world map, is Jahnu Barua who is committed to good cinema,never compromises with the cheap popular formula. Jahnu Barua is still fighting hard to establish the aesthetics of Assamese cinema .But what confuses me most is the phrase Assamese Cinema. Assam is a state with many tribes having multiple linguistic varieties. In the language of Karbi, Boro,Mising, films are being made in Assam, but the phrase Assamese Cinema suggests films made in the Assamese language which does not include the films made in other language. Therefore, I think, I should use the phrase Cinema of Assam rather than Assamese Cinema. Some of the filmmakers who make films in Assamese and who have made a substantial contribution to the development, are Santana Bordoloi ( Adhajjya) Sanjeev Hazarika(Holodhar), Bidyut Chakraborty ( Raag-birag) and Manju Borah . Through the documentary who is relentlessly working to showcase the cultural ethos of Assam to the people of the world is Mauleenath Senapati, a film school graduate. Senapati's documentaries are culturally deep rooted..Gautam Borah, a strong voice in the field of cinema,made a film " Wosobipo" in Karbi language that received acclodes and laurels in national and international film festivals.
The present scenario of Assam in the field of cinema is pathetically promising as new talents come out with some promise. But I feel that the new filmmakers have become trapped in the cheap populist formulae as if fell into the whirlpool. The legacy of the cinema of Assam is at the hand of the new generation and I am optimistic to a limited sense..

Parthajit Baruah reviews Beleaguered by Shankar borua.

                                                      Beleaguered

  

 The documentary ‘Beleaguered’ that unfolds the socio-political history of Assam taking a journey from the birth of ULFA 1979 to the present position, deconstructs the notion of narrating a stereotyped and conventional story-telling. Reel and real, are the two terms go together. Not only an activist in approach, much researched documentary ‘Beleaguered’ provides the viewers different perspectives. The filmmaker interviews on social scientist Udayan Misra, Miliki Boruah, mother of Paresh Baruah,Commander in Chief, ULFA, Hiranya Saikia, member,people’s consultative Group, Dinesh Gogoi (director of Surya Tejor Onyo Naam) to give details of the subject. What is appealing of the ‘Beleaguered’ is the metaphoric representation of our culture through music and setting. The setting of Hiranya Saikia’s interview is on the bank of the Brahmaputra and at the same time, Udayan Mishra’s interview does have the cultural connotation. The images of the bomb-blast shown in the frame are softened with the music that renders the viewers an aesthetic pleasure rather than shocking them. This documentary , seen only the preview, would work as a forest fire to send the voice of the filmmaker. This small write is written from the preview of the documentary

Parthajit Baruah interviews the Master filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan