Kolkata: Two contemporary Bengali films — one adapted from a Tagore play and another on the jatra culture of Bangladesh with a Kolkata-based sound designer — are being screened at the Moscow International Film Festival. This is in addition to the screening of the restored ‘Saat Pake Badha’.While Joyraj Bhattacharjee’s ‘Bisarjan’ is in the Apocalypse Now segment, Asif Islam’s ‘King in the Land of the Princess’ has found a place in the Artcore section. “The film is anti-war and anti-violence. The Russian screening is very important, especially keeping in mind the role of Russia in World War II, and even now. We are personally facing the brunt of the war now. We can’t fly directly to Moscow via Dubai but have to fly via Baku in Azerbaijan,” Bhattacharjee told TOI from Baku.Bhattacharjee’s film, which will be screened on April 18 and 19, follows the exact Tagore text and retains its original verse format. It has Ritwick Chakraborty, Sounak Kundu, Srabanti Bhattacherjee and Angela Mondal in the cast. Set in ancient Tripura, the film is about a childless queen and a priest who believe that only a grand animal sacrifice to Goddess Kali can protect the kingdom and bless the queen with a child. But the king, horrified by the cruelty of the ritual, bans animal sacrifice across the land. This sparks a conflict between faith and compassion, as the queen and priest defend the practice as sacred while the king challenges it as brutal and unjust. “The anti-religious dogmatism message of my film is equally important in the context of the contemporary political scenario,” Bhattacharjee said.The Bangladeshi film, starring Arabinda Majumdar, Ashna Habib Bhabna, Satej Chowdhury, Mahmud Alom, AK Azad Shetu, Jannatul Baker Khan and Salauddin Sheikh, will be screened on April 18 and 21. The film explores the decline of jatrapala, Bengal’s traditional folk theatre, as the ‘princess’, a sensual dancer, takes over the stage to satisfy audience demand. “The film mirrors society, revealing who we have become and what we now desire in the name of entertainment,” Islam told TOI from Moscow.Not only is the theme of this Bangladeshi film relevant on this side of the border, its sound designer is from Kolkata. “After his incredible work on my silent film debut ‘Nirvana’, bringing sound to life in the absence of dialogue, there was no doubt I wanted Sukanta Majumdar back for ‘King in the Land of the Princess’. This time, the challenge was tougher — shooting in a live environment with a real audience made location sound unpredictable and difficult to control. Yet, with remarkable ease, he turned that chaos into craft. Once again, Sukanta created pure magic through sound,” Islam said.
