Goutam Shankar Das
Jamshedpur, Dec 1: Though comfortably cool, the evenings of Saturday, November 23 and Sunday, November 24 were as warm as ever as the packed audience inside and outside the CFE Auditorium enjoyed the assorted foods of thought with delicious side dishes and desserts of creativity that raised the Celsius points even within the air conditioned hall.
Twenty one short films were presented over the two days during the XII th edition of the much looked forward to annual encounter � SHORTS which has been providing a platform to budding filmmakers in the company of their professional counterparts to learn and then, moving forward, to earn. The 12 year journey since 2008 has yielded gems that now dominate all the �Woods� in the various brackets involved in the intricate and challenging craft of filmmaking. People like Md Nizam (Bhojpuri hit creator of Ae Sipahi Sanyan), the young and dynamic Saurabh Suman Jha with one of the biggest Bhojpuri blockbuster, Gangster Dulhania, Nichita Roy Upadhyay who is wielding the director�s megaphone in Bollywood serials� kingdom and a lot of others who are etching their names as actors, cinematographers, directors and on other avenues related to the crafts that SHORTS continues to foster.
Take5 Communications, Kolkata chief Tathagata Bhattacherjee, himself a prominent superhit feature filmmaker who also reigns supreme in the varied zones of short, documentary and corporate films, has been the spinal cord of project SHORTS in the company of Tata Steel�s SPPE as an equal partner in the constant process of unfolding the language of Jamshedpur and Jharkhand�s creative minds. Another name that should definitely find mention in this SHORTS sojourn is veteran producer, actor and director of Tathagata�s ilk, the tall and reassuring Abhishek Ganguly whose regular presentations in this prime, annual and much anticipated destination, SHORTS leave their indelible mark.
This year�s recipes included films in English, Bengali, Hindi, Rajasthani-English and the special language of silence. Three among the presentations were documentaries. The films ranged between two and 30 minutes in duration. This year had an entry form the United States of America.
To pick amongst the presentations would be foolhardy. However, thrice National Award winning director and Dean of the prestigious SRFTI, Ashoke Viswanathan had the minds of film buffs and connoisseurs ticking with his Bengali entry, �Aaj, Kaal, Porshu.� The film has touches of JB Priestley�s �Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow� but this does not dominate in Master Viswanathan�s lucid storytelling. Like Scotch whisky, double malt if one prefers, the intrinsic tale of changing circumstances on the moods and minds of the characters grips the viewers who try to relate the situation with them at some juncture of life. The short film received a rare, standing ovation from the very knowledgeable viewers.
Abhishek Ganguly, �trademarked� for his dabbling into least visited turfs, had another wonderful presentation, �My Name is Imran� which delves into the mysterious world of psychological imbalance, which in medical terms is marked as Bipolar status of the mind. The film narrates dexterously the story of Imran who comes out strong from treatment and faces the world with his life support, his mother who continues to stand by her son and creates a lesson for all mothers in general. Today, Imran is leading a life of joy by spreading joy. Abhishek engages the minds of the audience in a manner which would be difficult even for him to repeat.
This journo would not call Tathagata�s offering, �Breaking Barriers� a documentary film although the vehicle does document some rare and unknown facets of the pride of Jamshedpur, the educationist par excellence, the inimitable and energy laden doyen in her genre, Bhanumathi Neelakantan. Born in Madras (now Chennai) she set foot in Jamshedpur in 1956 and till today, continues to blaze through an otherwise insurmountable trail of socio-educational glory. The ingenuity of Tathagata Bhattacherjee lies in the way of treatment of this venture where he makes people associated with her give their impressions through their vivid experiences that bring out the intrinsic aspects of the one and only �Barrier Breaking Lady� Bhanumathi Neelakantan in a telling manner; and some of these people include the likes of Dr JJ Irani, popular social worker Daisy Irani and another educationist who has given a distinct edge to the concept of education, Lalita Sareen.
The 2019 bouquet of SHORTS had all that it takes to make good and effective celluloid expressions. The cinematic approach speaks loud and clear about the growing assurance of filmmakers to provide class that make classics.
The anchoring on both days was done brilliantly by Siddharta Sen whose erudite ways and smooth flow of expressions left the mark of adroitness which he is known for. If audience interest was evoked further, it was the expertise of Siddharta who is a favourite in this capacity any day, anywhere. The return of Siddharta Sen to the SHORTS podium added to the glitter of SHORTS.
Well, the adrenalin flow has not stopped. Looking forward to SHORTS � 2020 with enhanced expectations would be a redundant statement but then, that is the authentic language of people�s mind and heart.
