Miraculous, multi-cultural energies are nudging Indian cinema in new directions. An Indian-produced film, Chatrak (Mushrooms), directed by Paris-based, Sri Lankan director, Vimukthi Jayasundara, shot in Bengali in Kolkata, has been selected by the Cannes Film Festival. The film is in the prestigious Directors Fortnight, an important parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival that runs from May 11-22, 2011.
Vimukthi Jayasundara's debut feature The Forsaken Land won the Camera d'Or at Cannes for best first film, and his second feature Between Two Worlds was at the Venice film festival. Now with his third feature, he's back at Cannes. "I am super happy at being selected at Cannes in the Directors Fortnight, which has earlier shown the films of Robert Bresson, Francis Ford Coppola and others. My film is a tribute to Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit Ray," he said in a telephonic interview from Paris where he is currently completing post-production of the film. The film features Bengali stars Paoli Dam, Sudip Mukherjee and Anubrata Basu, and is produced by Vinod Lahoti, a Kolkata businessman who trades in defence equipment and tea-related machinery.
"The film grew from adda sessions with Vimukthi and myself-over drinks, discussing Ritwik Ghatak-and then we connected again over Facebook," says director Bappaditya Bandopadhyay, who was executive producer on this film. "Calcutta was like a dream city for Vimukthi, whereas it's a nightmare for me," he says, half-joking. "He knew Calcutta from the films of Ghatak and Ray, and we traveled around the city on recces. It's like looking at Paris from Francois Truffaut's films."
Jayasundara, who studied at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), usually favours a minimalist approach, with very few dialogues, preferring to let visuals and silences do the talking. So shooting in Bengali, a language he doesn't know, was not such a big deal. "The Bengali language was not a problem for me. I'm used to working all the time with people using different languages, especially with French technicians, you manage to find ways to communicate," says Jayasundara. "The tougher challenge was shooting with stars in the streets, and getting performances from actors used to shooting in studios. The actors performances were often different from what I wanted, but what I got was convincing enough."
The film has an architect return to Kolkata in search of his roots; he finds high rises mushrooming everywhere, and, with his girlfriend, goes in search of his mad brother. "There's the old colonial buildings in Kolkata that are vanishing, and entire new cities within, with modern hi-tech buildings. But what happens in between these? Is this development? Must Asia destroy itself in order to become modern? The film reflects on such issues," says Jayasundara.
Meenakshi Shedde is India Consultant to the Berlin, Locarno and Amsterdam Film Festivals and Curator to international festivals worldwide. Her email is meenakshishedde@gmail.com
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