On a rain-washed Saturday, Arindam Sil — director of Eagoler Chokh, which releases on August 12 — walks into Mythh at The HHI for a brunch with his cast and crew members. His leading man Shabor Dasgupta (Saswata Chatterjee) is missing in action, but the rest of them are too happy to dig into the spread of BBQ Chicken Salad, Murgh Malai Tikka, Honey Glazed Chilli Fish and Aloo Dum Kashmiri. t2 caught up with Arindam Sil between bites... 

 

Is Eagoler Chokh a sequel to your Ebar Shabor?

It’s a sequel in the sense that I am building up the Shabor Dasgupta franchise, though when I made Ebar Shabor I had no intention of making another. But the film was very successful and people kept asking me about making another one. So I zeroed in on Eagoler Chokh. But unlike Ebar Shabor, Eagoler Chokh is not just a whodunit. 

It revolves around Bishan (Anirban Bhattacharya), a victim of child abuse. So he has grown up with a mindset where he looks at women as a piece of flesh. He is a multi-layered character. Jaya Ahsan plays his wife, Shivangi. Payel Sarkar plays her friend, who is shot dead in Bishan’s house. Shivangi suffers a bullet wound and goes into a coma. And Shabor comes in to investigate the case. Every character is a suspect here. Shivangi is the prime witness. 

Eagoler Chokh is tremendously fast-paced. It’s very psychological and most of the sequences have been treated very theatrically. Anirban really helped me because he is a theatre artiste. It’s not like any of my last three films (Aborto, Ebar Shabor, Har Har Byomkesh).

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay has not written too many Shabor stories. Will that come in the way of creating a Shabor franchise, unlike Byomkesh and Feluda?

I had two Shabor stories in mind. I went ahead with Eagoler Chokh because it is very psychological. Shabor is not a Feluda or a Byomkesh. We factored in the popularity of Shabor after the film released. Now Shirshenduda is writing more Shabor stories. A book on Shabor has come out, which is a bestseller. So cinema is contributing to literature. We had to start from where we had left off. The challenge was bigger because people have already seen Shabor as a sharp, agile, witty cop in Ebar Shabor. What more can I show? So I have made the stunts more difficult this time and all of them have been designed by me! I had to make it more edgy, slick and stylish. The sequel has happened because of public demand. Now there are only five-six Shabor stories and not all can be turned into a film.

You’ve also done a Byomkesh Bakshi film. Don’t you feel emotionally divided between the two?

No, no, I am very emotionally attached to all my films. Right now when I am making Shabor, I am totally focused on it and when Shabor is over, I am emotionally cut off from it and I go into Byomkesh.

That’s the director talking. As an audience member, who are you a fan of — Byomkesh or Shabor?

I like them both. Shabor is a modern character. Byomkesh is sort of a period film, a character from a different era. Both films are challenging to make. Technically I love watching Shabor, but if I have to watch an intellectual film then I would choose Byomkesh. As a director I will also be making other films, like my next is Madam O Mahashoy, based on a Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay story and it is a relationship tale.

Will the Ebar Shabor cast remain the same in all the sequels? You have repeated everyone except Abir Chatterjee.

Ritwick Chakraborty, too, isn’t there. Both Abir and Ritwick were there in all my last films. I believe in working with the same unit. Among the newcomers, there’s Anirban, Riya and Ushoshi Sengupta.

Eagoler Chokh has got an ‘A’ certificate. Is the theme far more adult than Ebar Shabor?

It’s a very adult theme. Actually that’s how the society is now! [‘The music is also very adult,’ music director Bickram Ghosh chips in,  with a plate of Mutton Biryani.] I hope people like Eagoler Chokh as much as they had enjoyed watching Ebar Shabor.

 

 

 

 

Pictures: Rashbehari Das