Dubai film festival: Sandeep Ray’s 'Sound of Old Rooms' resonates in the heart

Sandeep Ray’s Kokkho Poth (The Sound of Old Rooms), an exquisite Bengali documentary on a Kolkata poet, that was shot over 20 years, got a warm reception at the Dubai International Film Festival. Ray was mobbed by fans after the screening.

“There was also a woman in the audience here who discovered that she lived in the same pada [neighbourhood] in Kolkata as my protagonist, and kept looking for her car in my film,” said a delighted Ray. The film was already shown at the Busan Film Festival in Korea.

Ray, who studied filmmaking, anthropology and South-East Asian studies in the US, and has a significant body of films, including documentaries shot in Asia and Africa, is currently doing his doctorate in history in Singapore.

Kokkho Poth is about how Sarthak Roychowdhury, a poet in Kolkata, struggles to keep the poetry in him alive even as he is consumed by the daily business of living — teaching, marrying, raising a son — and dealing with a constantly nagging but affectionate mother.

This deeply moving film evokes an amazing intimacy and empathy with the poet, his family, publisher, students and teacher, as well as the lively addas and dark alleys of Kolkata — and is remarkable for the way in which it celebrates the ordinary.

There are wonderful and funny moments, as when Roychowdhury goes for a walk in the night rain and reads his poetry to a dog; when his mother despairs that “this couple lives on just Maggi noodles”; and when his eccentric publisher says he enjoys nothing more than a good conversation, then coolly asks the poet to lend him some money!

“I decided to make a film on Sarthak mainly because he was very interesting and, as a good friend, I had free access to him,” says Ray.

The film begins when Sarthak was barely out of his teens, and concludes when he is in his 40s. After shooting the film for 20 years, how did Ray know when to end it? “We get a sense that his son Bhoon realises his father is a poet [he appears on TV during a public recitation of his poems]. He will remember his house, he studies in the same school as his father’s. Also, Sarthak seems to have become a more well known poet — we weren’t sure where that was going even as recently as three years ago,” says Ray.

Ray produced, directed and shot this 72 minute film on HD Cam. The film is co-written with Sarthak Roychowdhury, and co-edited with Subhadro Chowdhury, with evocative music by Sion Dey.

Meenakshi Shedde is India Consultant to the Berlin and Dubai Film Festivals and Curator to festivals worldwide.