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| Kaushik Ganguly (left) in a scene from Shobdo with Srijit Mukherji, Raima Sen and Churni Ganguly. The film has fetched him the Best Bengali Film at this year’s National Film Awards |
A couple of years back, after seeing the magnificent Arekti Premer Galpo by Kaushik Ganguly, I was deeply dejected when it was overlooked in the National Awards. I did not know Kaushikda then, but I remember getting his phone number from someone and calling him to congratulate him on the wonderful cinematic experience.
After that initial interaction I got to know him personally — of course his charming personality and stupendous sense of humour were added lure. In personal conversations I got to know a man bubbling with new ideas and concepts. Concepts that I have never heard from anyone in Tollywood, which are truly international in nature.
I stress on the word ‘concept’ since oftentimes filmmakers stress too much on the story and script which is distinct from a ‘concept’ or the germ of the idea.
In fact I have oftentimes warned him lovingly not to share his remarkable concepts in public in the fear that they might be picked up by someone else. I doubt that it matters to him since each time I chat with him he is there with another mindboggling ‘concept’.
In the current Tollywood scenario, he is probably the only one who is silently following a path which no one else is treading. He has dared to make a film with a laptop as the main protagonist, while at the same time make a film on the obsession of a Foley artist in his latest film Shobdo.
Maybe his films are not the toast of the box office but he dares to create a market, often risking a lot. That I consider to be the tenets of a true artiste. A few years down the line we will come to realise the importance of the path he is treading. Bengali cinema will be the gainer in the process. In recent years he has silently made the inroads to the top film festivals in the world, from Berlin to Dubai.
On top of that he has the rare distinction of representing Tollywood in three consecutive Indian Panorama selections on the trot. What is extremely commendable is that he is still one of the front-ranking mainstream filmmakers in the Bengali film industry — shattering the divide between a festival filmmaker and a mainstream filmmaker, which was pretty much the trend for the filmmakers of his previous generation.
Given this perspective, his first National Award for Shobdo is an important event for the Bengali film fraternity. For his lesser colleagues like me and for newcomers who want to do something ‘different’, he is charting out a territory of concept-driven sensitive films.
Today I feel overjoyed for two reasons. For a dear friend who deserved this award so much, and for the Tollywood industry which will probably gain from the achievements of an exceptional torchbearer who has been nationally recognised on such a platform.