Shilajit and Swarnakamal Dutta and (below) Sudipta Das with director Subir Mukherjee. PHOTOGRAPHS: ANIL GROVER

With the new-kindled enthu of an assistant director promoted to director, Subir Mukherjee was all hyper- energy while getting his act together with Haar Jeet, in the latest Oti Uttam series. Well, you lose some, you win some. With the able supervision of production designer Sugata Choudhuri and his manager Biswanath Thakur, everything was in clicking order. Subir, and his strong and silent cinematographer Sudipta Das, were picturising Madhumalati dake aaye on Swarnakamal Dutta and Shilajit, behind the goalpost on a football ground while Debshankar Halder was waiting on the sidelines for his turn at song picturisation. But all three artistes seemed pretty confused at the angles and briefs from the director, with Shilajit specially exercised about why he was being made to stand below the tree with one hand resting on it when it was not in frame!

Meanwhile, Swarna would snatch every such free ‘argument moment’ to memorise the lyric or squat herself, eyes closed, bang in front of the sound box to kind of inhale the song more deeply. The results seemed healthy, at least as far as Swarna’s ‘lipping’ was concerned. Lovely song, lovely voice, lovely shot, lovely lady. It was a Swarna moment.

Scheduled telecast: January 14 , ETV Bangla, 9:30 pm