Sourav Sarangi's award winning documentary CHAR and Symphony of Life from FD archives

on WEDNESDAY 23 July 2014, 7.00 pm at Lamakaan (inside lane adjacent To C-Bay, opposite GVK One, Road No.1, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad)

FD ZONE - DocuCircle screening – July 2014

SYMPHONY OF LIFE by T.A. Abraham 10 min, B/W, 1955 (Films Division)

Sound design and music – Vishnudas Shirali Production – V. Shantaram, Films Division

This short film is an ode to the Indian peasant. It follows ‘a day in the life of’ structure without any identifiable characters or narration. It features music by the eminent musician Vishnudas Shirali. “Symphony of Life” was screened in the competition section at Cannes.

V. Shantaram Starting as an actor in silent films in the 1920s, V. Shantaram went from one cinematic landmark to another - first as a partner in Prabhat Film Company in Pune and then as the founder of Rajkamal Kalamandir in Bombay. He also served as the chief-producer of Films Division in the early 1950s.

CHAR… THE NO-MAN’S ISLAND by Sourav Sarangi, India / Italy, 2012, color, HDcam, 88′

Synopsis Meet Rubel, fourteen-years-old boy smuggling rice from India to Bangladesh. Everyday he crosses the international border, river Ganga, which eroded his home in mainland India when he was just four. Years later a fragile island called Char formed within the large river. Rubel’s family and many homeless people settled in this barren field controlled by border army. He dreams of going his old school in India but reality forces him to smuggle stuff to Bangladesh. He fights on while monsoon clouds arrive inviting flood, the river swells up again. ‘Char may disappear but we won’t’, smiles the boy.

Sourav Sarangi observed this soggy microcosm over a number of years, using various different cameras to capture heterogeneous, at times almost apocalyptic images on film. His story of a boy growing up is left with an open ending, mixed with an oddly wonderful feeling of amazement… Berlin Film Festival

Sourav Sarangi After graduating from the Presidency College, Kolkata, Sourav Sarangi joined the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune specializing in editing. His debut film ‘TUSUKATHA’ received accolades from many leading international film festivals. Since then he has been editing, writing, directing and producing in both fiction and nonfiction genres. He is also popular among student communities in various film schools as an articulate teacher. Currently he is involved in international co-productions as an independent producer and director. His recent award winning work is an international co-production documentary titled ‘BILAL’. The film is based on observations about a three-year-old kid growing up with blind parents in Kolkata. BILAL travelled over fifty international festivals winning eighteen top awards. He worked as the chief editor in an Indo-Italian co-production in Rome and Naples. Sourav has also extensively worked in private television channels in India as chief programming director. He supported and executed a number of productions on popular entertainment as well as social issue films which are still considered important works in regional television industry. Sourav has also served as jury in international film festivals

Director’s note An unusual sight struck me about ten years back. Pasrashpur, a small Indian village was vanishing before my eyes. Trees, buildings, roads… everything except humans slowly disappeared to a watery grave. River Ganga was eroding. A small crack on ground widens slowly, and after a while the piece of earth where you stood minutes before jumps into the river with a splash. And sometimes it simply goes down in silence, as if in slow motion. The land is consumed, much like a prey hypnotized by a recoiling anaconda. And the villagers told me something similar. “The river Ganga has turned into a snake here!” “Yes…” they said, “after the construction of the Farakka Dam (barrage) the mythical river mother has turned into a snake caught at her neck by modern technology. And for survival, the snake strikes back and forth with her tail to take away everything she gave us over ages.” In a flash I could see a myth rationalized by the wise illiterates living in remote corners of my country. For me a journey began. And I met Rubel, a village boy living on the verges of existence by smuggling rice from India to Bangladesh. He comes from the same village Parashpur that was eroded ten years back which I shot. The river gave back what it took; the lost land resurfaced as an island called Char. But the society ruled by our divisionist polities made it inaccessible by drawing lines called border! Thus, Char, the new land of hope becomes a prohibited zone to enter. People are not just physically cut off from the mainland but dehumanized in all regards. They become human ghosts having no voices. This disturbed me. By making films you look into lives of others. But I believe, camera is also a mirror to you. I tried to express my experience and emotions by being in Char. And the tryst between man and nature fascinated me to tell the story a magical river and millions who were …and will be there. You can fix a border but not the river.

Credits Director and Producer — Sourav Sarangi / Cinematography — Sourav Sarangi, Robin Das, Minarul Mondal Ajoy Noronha / Editing — Sourav Sarangi, Kaushik Chakrabarty / Sound — Minarul Mondal, Sumanta Samanta,

Awards Golden Kapok Award, (Best Direction) GZ DOC, China, 2012 Best Documentary Award ChopShots, Indonesia, 2012 Special Mention, Dubai International Film Festival, UAE, 2012 Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) National Film Award, India, 2012 CINEMA Fairbindet Award, (nomination) Berlinale Special Festival Mention Jury, Bhopal International Film Festival, Nominee, Best Documentary Feature, Social Impact Media Award, USA, 2013 TRT Documentary Awards, (nomination) Istanbul, 2013

Entry : Free in association with LAMAKAAN