Last year, your ‘Jaatishwar’ won four National Awards. Did you regret missing out the Best Direction award?

I genuinely feel it’s a team effort. Like last year, this time too I feel all the awards belong as much to me as my team. After a very long time, a director has got two awards — Best Direction and Best Screenplay (Original) — at the same time. In fact, I don’t remember when such a thing happened last. It’s a top-of-the-world feeling and a validation of all the hard work that has gone into making this film, especially in this part of the world where budgets and logistics are a fraction of what the biggies enjoy. I think it’s a huge pat on the back for the Bengali film industry. That Bengali cinema can hold its own on a national stage is a huge feat for us. Bengali directors are on a roll.

It’s not been many years since you started out. This is indeed a big win…

There is something which Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh) used to tell me — don’t think about awards, just keep doing your stuff the way you want to. If the content is good, you will get noticed, he said…

In 2009, Rituparno Ghosh got the Best Direction award for ‘Abohoman’. ‘Chotushkone’ too was supposed to feature him.

Life seems to have come full circle. Rituda was an integral part of ‘Chotushkone’. I started writing the script right after ‘Autograph’. Rituda loved this concept and was keen to act in it. My intimacy with him started because of ‘Chotushkone’. When I was writing the script, he would call me very early in morning when I was about to crash. ‘Chotushkone’ brought us together. Rituda was supposed to play the role, which was ultimately essayed by Parambrata Chatterjee. The last conversation I had with Rituda was about the wig, which I was trying to get from Mumbai. I wanted him to sport curly hair and round glasses. He said, ‘Then I’ll have to put on weight.’ I miss him today. I dedicate this award to him, along with all the members of ‘Chotushkone’.

You crossed many hurdles to make this film…

Yes, I’ve gone through troubled times. After ‘Jaatishwar’, I wasn’t keeping well and ‘Chotushkone’ got pushed back. Because of this, Soumik Halder (DoP) pulled out. Ironically, Sudip Chatterjee has now got the award for Best Cinematography. I would call it a twist of fate. Anjan Dutt was supposed to be a part of the cast; he too pulled out because of differences with the producer. But two people stood by me — Aparna Sen and Goutam Ghose. I’ll be eternally indebted to both of them. Of course, I have to give it to the producers — Reliance and Rana Sarkar.

Weren’t you expecting the award this year?

‘Autograph’ onwards, all my films have been sent for the National Awards. Since ‘Jaatishwar’ was the toast of the 61st National Film Awards, I knew ‘Chotushkone’ will be in the reckoning too. But I didn’t know I would win the Swarna Kamal.

Detractors said ‘Chotushkone’ wasn’t even a hit…

Green-eyed monsters will always be there. People had doubted ‘Chotushkone’s run. The film completed 100 days and it shut them up. It was certified as the first hit of 2014 and it was a milestone as it brought back Bengali audience to the theatre after the post-‘Chander Pahar’ drought.

There are also allegations of lobbying at the Awards…

There’s lobbying in Oscars too, isn’t it? Where’s the harm in that? The biggest lobby is a good film. First, you need to make one. My detractors have nothing to show for their efforts. I have nothing for them but pity.

Do awards make a difference to your life?

Yes, of course. I’m now in the august company of huge names. That’s intimidating as well. The burden of expectation will be huge. Once you touch a pinnacle, you have to sustain being there. That’s a huge responsibility. But awards do make you feel good.

So today, there’s something called Brand Srijit…

Talk of brands and I feel like a toothpaste or a soap. I make films, I tell my stories the way I want to, that’s it. Consumer behaviour is not for me.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Zinia Sen, TNN / March 25th, 2015

The members of Jatiya Sangha, Shibpur celebrated the club’s 70th anniversary with cultural programmes on February 28 and March 1 at the Shibpur Public Library. The prize distribution ceremony of various competitions held through the past year took place on the first day, which was followed by a sarod recital by Rupak Dey.

On the second day, members felicitated two founder members of the club, who are still alive. Amarnath Chatterjee, 93, and Nirmal Kanti Chatterjee, 89, were members of the first committee that was formed after Jatiya Sangha took shape. Kinjal Chatterjee of Zee Bangla Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fame regaled the audience with both old and
new popular Bengali and Hindi numbers.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Howrah> Story / by Amrita Ghosh / Friday – March 20th, 2015

Saibal Das’s exhibition of black-and-white photographs (silver gelatin prints), Before the birth of Time, at The Harrington Street Arts Centre in collaboration with Tasveer lifts the veil over a world that once India was identified with, but is hardly visible anymore, now that the entire country has turned into a marketplace which has no connect with the more contemplative side of life.

Das, a veteran photojournalist, began his quest for a way of life where money and the principles it represents have little value, about four years ago when he visited Nabadwip, where the Vaishnavs have little use for material possessions. Over the next three years he travelled to Vrindaban, Puri and Manipur, which are regarded as the seats of Vaishnavism in India.

This world is sombre, pensive and at times sad, but it can also be charming and even quaint. A woman stands alone by the tulsimancha in Vishnupriya’s home in Nabadwip. The effigy of her beautiful, lotus-eyed husband, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, is worshipped in a shrine in Puri. Whether by accident or design, behind him is a mural of Hanuman, the symbol of strength and prowess. A young woman, who has come to worship the sun during Chhat puja, is lost in thought. Behind her is a vast expanse of water from which sugarcane sprout like rushes. A smile plays on the lips of a buxom woman who has also come to the riverside along with other worshippers.

An old woman with an unlined face in a white sari and folded hands sits alone in a huge hall. A pinpoint of light illumines her dark eyes. She is calm and no sorrow can touch her any longer. Another old woman lies beneath the staircase of a shrine as people pass by hurriedly, their feet blurred by speed. But not all women are so resigned. The old women who are being initiated into Nagahood look tough and strong, both physically and mentally. A royal lady is the very picture of dignity as she sits on her bed.

In this world one walks alone. This is perhaps symbolised by the stray pair of rubber slippers resting upright on a wall clawed and mutilated by the hands of time. There are also the ash-covered mendicants who are absorbed in their own world while playing the flute or telling their rosary. As solitary as these wandering figures is a horse standing in a dry riverbed. On the horizon are two human beings reduced to specks.

But it is not all sadness and gloom. An unwilling child dressed as Krishna holds on desperately to the waistband of a man as he is perhaps being led to a dais. The ceremonial guards of a temple in Manipur sit with their spears amidst a vast hall. The turbaned cooks with statuesque physique of the same temple have their mouths covered with cloth so as not to pollute the food for god.

Das’s most powerful photographs are those of the Manikarnika burning ghat where countless human beings are cremated. He never shows the grotesque half-burnt bodies floating in the river. Instead, his focus is on the mountains of logs used for the funeral pyres. They are piled up on the staircases and on the boats by the bank. The wood is being sold by the kilogram. An old woman is busy tying something in the pallu of her sari. She looks elsewhere. Her attention has been distracted. Behind her rises a wall of logs. In another photograph, smoke rises from a pyre in the distance, blurring the buildings behind it. In the foreground is the massive back of a man with a shaven head.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Soumitra Das / Sunday – March 08th, 2015

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and former mayor Subrata Mukherjee at an exhibition in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation headquarters on the occasion of the inauguration of a digital archive.

The rare pictures on display are among the hundreds that will be stored, along with significant documents, in the Amol Home Digital Archive. The collections include a photograph of a pensive Gandhiji at Keoratala during Chittaranjan Das’s cremation.

The archive has been named after scholar Amal Home, who used to edit the Calcutta Municipal Gazette when its publication started in 1924.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / Wednesday – March 04th, 2015