The irony is hard to miss. While mainstream cinema continues to be ruled by the big budget, star-studded, box-office blockbusters, a low-budget regional film on the death of creativity in the modern world finds an audience not at home but at film festivals abroad.
Made on a meagre budget of Rs 2,000, Odisha-based independent filmmaker Amartya Bhattacharyya’s Hoyto Kobitar Jonyo (In Poetic Hues), a satire on the present-day society, premiered in the Court Métrage0 (short films) section of the Cannes Film Festival last week.
The film looks at a society where creativity is killed every day, either by economic pressures or political corruption. “In Hoyto Kobitar Jonyo, a poem is personified as a beautiful lady, who keeps searching for her poet, although she knows that he is dead,” says Amartya.
Rhyme, another character in the film, depicted as an alter-ego of Poem, is her only companion. In her search, Poem meets Economy, Politics and Opportunists and comes to know that all of them harboured a motive for killing the poet because creativity hurts them all.
“In the fast-moving world of economic obsession, driven by dirty politics, it becomes extremely difficult for creativity to find its place. This film is actually a mockery on the face of a society, which portrays itself as a developing one, but is actually rootless and sterile,” says Amartya, a software engineer who started making short films in 2010.
Prior to Hoyto Kobitar Jonyo, Amartya made Boba Mukhosh (Translucence)’, Niloye Jokhon (At Home), Shiuli—In Search of My Goddess!, Swargadwar—In Search of Heaven, Benaras —The Unexplored Attachments and Capital I, which happens to be the first independent Odia feature film.
His films have received recognition in the international film festival circuit, mainly in the European countries. Capital I was selected for 13th Chalachitra Utsav, Bangladesh, and West Florida Film Festival, US. Niloye Jokhon, about a prostitute searching for dignity, was screened at the Human Rights Film Festivals in Barcelona, New York and Paris last year.
Hoyto Kobitar Jonyo has been shot exclusively in Khandagiri and Udaygiri caves of Bhubaneswar, Barang and Kolkata. Apart from directing it, Amartya has also written and edited the film. The actors, also Bhubaneswar-based software engineers, are all fresh faces. While the character of Poem is played by Amrita Chowdhury, the dead Poet has no appearance in the film except as a disembodied voice (Amartya’s). Mouli Malakar plays the character of Rhyme and that of Economy and Opportunists are played by Tamal Ghosh and Ahamed Karim, Swastik Choudhury, respectively.
The filmmaker admits though his films have found recognition at important film festivals, commercial success has eluded him. This, however, is no deterrent for Amartya, who is currently putting final touches to the script of his second Odia feature film.
“My second Odia feature film will also be unique in its own way,” says Amartya. “There will be subtle elements of humour and sarcasm, though the underlying theme will be surreal and intense,” he adds.