Young filmmaker Bhargav Saikia’s second short film as a director and screenwriter, 'The Black Cat'—an adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s short story starring late actor Tom Alter as Bond, and Shernaz Patel as witch Miss Bellows—will be special for him and the audience for many reasons. “Ruskin Bond’s stories are magic.
I chose The Black Cat, which I had read many years ago as a student, because it is a simple story. The characters are extremely eccentric and still likeable. The bizarre setting of the story had an old-world charm. It gave me the opportunity to explore new aspects of filmmaking,” says Saikia on his love for literature and cinema of horror and fantasy genres.
The audience will remember the film as the last cinematic outing of veteran actor Alter. “I couldn’t think of anyone else but Tom Alter for the author’s character. Both Alter and Bond hail from Landour. Alter knew Bond so well. When I emailed him the script, he immediately replied and was quite excited,” says the 29-year-old on film’s casting.
Patel plays a traditional English witch.
“Her character has Harry Potter vibe to it because I belong to the Harry Potter generation and I am a fan of the series.” Saikia’s biggest challenge was shooting with a cat “as cats are known to be stubborn creatures and cannot be trained easily.”
The movie was released on Children’s Day. “I idolise Tim Burton, and the film has traces of his style of narrative in the story,” he says.
Assam-born Saikia always wanted to do something with cinema, and the first film that he watched with his movie-buff mother was Mani Ratnam’s Anjali. “It is sad that we don’t have enough children’s movies. A children’s film doesn’t have to feature kids but should be more of a kind to be enjoyed by adults too,” he says.
His dad is a gynaecologist, so medicine was his first career choice. He earned his undergrad degree in biology from the University of Manchester, but gave up his medical aspirations and joined the Whistling Woods International Institute of Film, Communication & Media Arts in Mumbai. “I didn’t complete the course though,” says Saikia, who has produced the critically acclaimed Kaafiron Ki Namaaz, and directed Awakenings, a horror film that was screened at some of the world’s top festivals which showcase genre cinema.
The filmmaker is working on his next that is a full-length feature exploring horror and fantasy genre, and is in talks with Bond for another literary adaptation of his work.
The 22-minute film won the Best Cinematography award in the Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi category at the Asians on Film-Festival of Shorts.