Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Prantik BasuPrantik Basu

Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Gully Boy’ will not be the only Indian film to be premiered at the 2019 Berlinale International Film Festival. A short film ‘Rang Mahal’, directed by FTII Pune alumni Prantik Basu will be screened under Berlinale Shorts section. Basu might not have achieved name and fame in India but he is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and his movies have been screened at Oberhausen, Rome Film Festival, IFF India – Goa, Experimenta-India, Kochi-Muziris Biennale and at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

The film is set in Purulia in West Bengal and follows the Santhali tribe of India. The film is perhaps the first in Santhali language to travel to an international festival. The maker apprehends the tribal way of life, forestry, people’s relationship with nature and modern issues like deforestation and climate change through this film.

“Selection for Berlinale is like a pat on the back,” says Basu on phone from Rotterdam.

He further adds, “My films are more experimental, like narrating a film essay. It’s not easy for filmmakers like me who don’t make conventional films to be noticed. So, this is inspiring.”

The idea for ‘Rang Mahal’ came to him while he was filming for another documentary in Purulia. “I was amazed by the chalk stone hills of Purulia that change color every monsoon,” he says. He came across Khodi Dungri, a colourful chalk-stone hill, used by the locals to make murals and paintings on the walls of their houses.

“Since Santali did not have a script until recent years, folktales are orally passed on. However, based on the interpretation of each storyteller, the same stories acquire different forms, just like these rocks taking a different color. I wanted to interpret how these existential phenomena complement each other in the lives of the tribes,” he says.

Folktales have been the source of influence for the director for his previous works also. Talking about it he says, “Folk tales excite me a lot. These are capsules that contain a microcosm of worldviews. All mainstream stories have genesis in these stories, yet folktales are seldom represented. They take us the bit closer to the older times on how life used to be lived, though we have moved away from this way of living.”

After gaining recognition and accolades for his shorts film at various film festivals, Prantik is all set with his full-length movie titled ‘Dengue’. “It’s difficult for me to make a conventional film. Since it’s a feature film, there are certain limitations in terms of structure and pace but I want to retain my style of idiosyncratic storytelling,” he says.

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