Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Mahan Jyoti Dutta | mahanjdutta@gmail.com

Aandharer Dostabez: A short fiction film

Film and Video Communication | PGDPD
Guide: Dhiman Sengupta
Sponsor: Self Sponsered

Keywords
Biography
Indian modern art
Painting
Landscape

My diploma project was a short fiction film, Aandharer Dostabez, which took inspiration from the autobiographical fiction, Kattamashai, written by one of the pioneers of Indian modern art, Benodebehari Mukherjee. The story is an account of the artist’s perception of reality and gives voice to his inner conflicts. In the text, the Kattamashai (the owner of the house) is pitted against his alter-ego, Rudranarayan (the domestic help).

Set in the 1950s, against the backdrop of rural Santiniketan, Aandharer Dostabez depicts the dilemma of two realities – light and darkness. Kattamashai is used to represent the world of darkness while Rudranarayan symbolizes light. The story deals with the protagonist’s struggle between the two and his eventual triumph. The landscapes around Santiniketan became an important element in my film. Since most of the conversations were shot indoors, I had to pay special attention to art direction in order to accurately recreate the period the film is set in.

Kattamashai, with its style of storytelling, arrangement of sequences and flashbacks, lends itself to evocative cinematic interpretation. Being the verbal chronicle of an aged visual artist, I believed that it would appeal to audiences interested in painting and art.

One of the most important things I learnt during this process of filmmaking was the importance of pre-production. I tried to be as systematic as I could be to economize both time and cost.