A week after the release of his striking debut film Teenkahon, t2 caught up with director Bauddhayan Mukherji, who picked up his first Best Director award at the 3rd Indian Cine Film Festival, Mumbai, last weekend in what was the 41st film festival that the film has been selected for.

The kid in the first film Nabalok (based on a Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay story) has left everyone gobsmacked with a flawless and endearing performance. How did you discover Barshan Seal?
We were hunting for a timeless quality in a Bengali boy’s face. Unfortunately most urban boys do not have that quality any more. So we decided to cast our nets wider and look in the mofussil areas like Madhyamgram and Habra, especially those involved with theatre groups. One of the boys who was coming for the screen test asked if he could bring a friend along who wanted to see what a camera looked like. Next day, in walked Barshan Seal and Abhinandan Banerjee, my co-screenplay writer, called me to say we had found our Sailen junior. I flew down from Mumbai the very next day in excitement. But on meeting him I realised he speaks only in east Bengal dialect. So over the next two days, I shed his dialogues in the script to a minimum leaving myself the task of making the seven-and-a-half-year-old emote it all through his eyes. That was a huge challenge. I never told him the story. 

What were the technical challenges of shooting in black and white?
As an independent producer, we did not have the luxury of shooting on film. We shot it in black-and-white mode on a Canon 1DC. The trick was in choosing things — light, costume, props.... A sari that was perfect for a colour film looked unsuitable when shot in grayscale. So whatever caught our eye, even green fields and blue skies, we first tried it out by shooting and checking on screen if it had adequate contrast. 

Every viewer and reviewer is drawing comparisons with Satyajit Ray for Nabalok.... 
The biggest tragedy of my life is not getting to show my work to the man because of whom I have chased this dream of becoming a filmmaker. His style of imagery has percolated into my veins. That is why perhaps people are thinking of Ray on seeing Nabalok. Nothing would have satisfied me more than a feedback from him.

And how did you manage the top shot of a Tempo carrying a Durga idol wrapped in plastic through waist-deep water amid incessant rain in the second film?
That was computer-generated. We needed a flooded north Calcutta street. But we realised that in India we do not have the expertise. So we spoke to an animation team in Amsterdam. They asked for reference shots and luckily I had some footage on my phone of our inundated Gouri Bari Lane that I had recorded to show my daughter in Mumbai who had never seen water-logging. We took the shot of the idol being transported on a dry street. The rain and the flooding, the floating shal leaf and hawai chappal, all happened in Amsterdam! 

The concluding shot of the role reversal of the departed woman’s lover and cuckolded husband, though suggested in Syed Mujtaba Siraj’s Post-Mortem, has left audiences arguing over the interpretation. What is your take?
I do not want to spell that out. Unlike in Europe, open-ended films where audiences can draw their own conclusion are rare in India. When reading a book, do you need the author to interpret everything for you? I don’t want to colour anyone’s imagination. Whatever each viewer has thought is correct.

Some viewers have found the twist in the last story Telephone, which you have penned, too startling to be realistic. 
But it is based on an actual incident involving a police officer in Calcutta in our growing-up years! How more real can it get?

After taking the film to 41 festivals across five continents, what has been the feedback in the first week of release at home?
Very positive. The film has thrown up surprising numbers which we were not expecting. I did not hope for houseful shows in the first week itself, which happened in a couple of cinemas. Word-of-mouth is spreading. People are going for repeat views.

How long would the wait be for your next?
My Hindi feature film The Violin Player is ready. It will be Ritwick Chakraborty’s first Hindi film too. It is just starting to make the rounds of the festivals. So may be it will be another year before it releases here.

Tolly tweets for Teenkahon 

♦ Parambrata@paramspeak Watched @Teenkahon yesterday! A film made with great craft and care! The first of the 3 stories is simply adorable. Cheers @bauddhayan
♦ Srijit Mukherji@srijitspeaketh @bauddhayan Stunning debut, fantastic anthology! Kudos!:) 
♦ Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury  @aniruddhatony  — Obsession.. Love... #teenkahon. The first story shaishob ke mone kariye deye.. Twist and turn.. @bauddhayan great job done... Honestly.. loved the simplicity of the first film.. Three films of three different ‘swad’  

Sudeshna Banerjee