VISION 2020: Showcasing the best of short films ‘virtually’ enhances adrenalin flow

Mail News Service

Ghatshila, Dec 30: The usual crowds, the ecstatic clapping and cheer amidst cups of hot tea and snacks may not have been there physically at the auditorium but the zest for viewing good, quality cinema in the short film genre is an insatiable hunger nurtured through eight years of VISION in the small but culturally active industrial township of Ghatshila. And kudos for this charming indulgence definitely goes to the organizers, Debraj Mukherjee and his Creative Art Division of Ghatshila and Kolkata’s Tathagata Bhattacherjee and his Take5 Communications that has pioneered the popularity of short films in the eastern hemisphere of India.

There were initial doubts if the virtual concept would attract the same enthusiasm as the physical ventures of seven earlier episodes of VISION. But the response that VISION — 2020 evoked proved beyond imagination that qualitative representation never went abegging as the current year’s outing proved. The response was overwhelming and both, Tathagata and Debraj were overjoyed. Debraj said, “We had our fingers crossed. When our YouTube channel was clicked on on the first day, December 26, the number of viewers started our adrenalin flow. The repeat show on 27th enhanced our excitement. I personally have no words to express the success of our virtual efforts.”

Popular Tollywood filmmaker Tathagata Bhattacherjee too had a glowing countenance as he observed, “After the success of SHORTS — 2020 at Jamshedpur which was also organized virtually, I was not pessimistic about our Ghatshila venture. But I did not expect the pulsating response in the Ghatshila VISION – 2020’s virtual version as all my minor doubts were swept away by the number of viewers not only from Ghatshila but also from other places in the country showed the towering success graph in full glory.”

The opening film was a tribute to the late doyen of Bengali cinema, Soumitra Chattopadhyay. Director Abhishek Ganguli had put together some unforgettable moments from the celluloid Bard’s masterpieces in his own style to take viewers on a rendezvous through time.

The next on the exquisite platter of VISION — 2020 was ‘Expired,’ a two minute thriller that seeks to find language in the mind of a terrified woman who had hit a man in a road accident. It is not the length that counted but the indepth tale of mental trepidation expertly narrated by Mumbai based filmmaker Rajat Ghosh who shot the film in the USA.

‘Call Time’ by Kiron Mukherjee in Bengali, ‘Hope’ in Hindi by Partho Sarathi Manna that underlined the need for nurturing environment and Debajyoti Batabyal’s Bengali statement, ‘Aar Na,’ on women abuse, held the audiences’ compulsive and intimate viewing attention.

The grand finale to VISION — 2020 was one of filmmaker Tathagata Bhattacherjee’s critically hailed masterpieces, ‘Jihad’ in Arabic. This harsh, technically opulent, well researched reality of the misconceptions attributed to the meaning of Jihad got across the message that the term was actually a war against the inner evil forces that man falls prey to and that the war is against these evil thoughts in the mind that need banishing. It is not physical atrocity but inner realization of love that Jihad actually relates to. It is, as expected, a very sensitive plot well and positively woven by master celluloid craftsman Tathagata Bhattacherjee. Well, all good things have to come to an end; but significantly, every ending is followed by a new beginning and the virtual VISION — 2020 was an indication in that direction.