Documentary Film Fest In Odisha Capital Ends On A Befitting Note With ‘Rangbhoomi’

Bhubaneswar: Amid the hullaballoo of the city, movie buffs, lovers and makers found their safe space at the 10th Indian Documentary Film Festival which concluded here on Sunday with National Award-winning director Kamal Swaroop’s ‘Rangbhoomi’.

Rangbhoomi is a docudrama on the life of Dadasaheb Phalke. It explores Phalke’s self-imposed exile at Varanasi in 1920 when he withdrew from cinema and wrote a semi-autobiographical play, ‘Rangbhoomi’, a searing satire on theatre and stage conditions.

Winner of the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film in 2013, Swaroop’s docudrama is a soaring tribute to the unsung hero of Indian cinema. Interacting with the students there, he shared his experiences and journey as a filmmaker.

He said the crowd in Odisha capital was quite good. “Youngsters are educated and they know pretty much everything.” He was also hopeful and optimistic about the future of cinema.

Hemant Gaba’s ‘An Engineered Dream’, a film that explores the culture behind Kota and its numerous coaching centres, was also screened. Tapping the pressure, aspirations and the entire ecosystem behind this rat race, the film attempted to bring to the fore the anguish of thousands of Indian teenagers. This was followed by two short documentaries- Ekta Mittal’s ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ and Yashaswini Raghunandan’s ‘A Very Old Man with Winged Sandals’.

Adit, a boy from Bangladesh also attended the event and said the movies shown were pretty good. “There were, of course, some movies I did not like but there were scenes in it that touched my heart. Movies are a powerful medium,” he added.

The other attractions were of Pooja Kaul’s ‘Rasikan Re’, a film about the attraction between a young girl and an older man, presented in the Ragmala tradition (a genre of paintings that portray interpretation of ragas); two short documentaries- ‘I, Dance’ and ‘Breathed Upon Paper’. I, Dance gives voice to the struggle of classical dance in Pakistan where women defied the social, political and legal code for the performing arts. While the animated documentary ‘Breathed Upon Paper’ tells the tale of Nala-Dayamanti from the Mahabharata, using miniature paintings constructed in the Pahari tradition.

Organizer Bijaya Biswal, a student activist in Bhubaneswar, said the event aimed at bringing together movie lovers and presenting the gem Indian cinema. “There were movies on topic no one had heard of before, from demonetization to one on Gauri Lankesh. This was also to tell youngsters about fiction documentaries,” she added.

Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB) in association with Vikalp, India Foundation of the Arts (IFA) and Kerala Chalachitra Academy had curated the films acclaimed for its artistic merit for the event.

Odia actor and producer, Swastik Choudhury who was also present there appreciated the efforts of students and organizers. “On the first day, there was a master class by director Qaushik Mukherjee, who gave a whole different perspective of cinema. It was a pleasure getting to know his thoughts so very clearly. Besides, in the name of a documentary film, we have people copying other movies trying to amalgamate things in a manner that ends up ruining it. I hope this was enlightening for everyone,” he said.

These films were followed by a series of politically charged documentaries. ‘Namma Gauri’ follows the personal journey of writer/journalist/activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead earlier last year. Shashwati Talukdar’s ‘Wall Stories’ is a pictorial journey across West Himalayas, detailing the captivating story of the history and culture of its people through mural paintings found in the region.