Short & sweet

Manpriya Singh

A tea vendor could be the perfect protagonist and his life the exciting canvas! Amidst the celebration of all things meaningful and free-spirited; star dates, item mania, multiplex race, Friday rush are as dispensable as discouraged.

“If I go outside and find any conversation with a tea vendor interesting, I am free to go ahead and trap it into audio-visual medium. That’s the kind of freedom it brings about,” Sudarshan Juyal, FTII alumni, emphasises on the power of independent cinema and rightly so. “Such is the influence that, in fact, several mainstream makers are quietly keeping an eye on independent films and getting ideas from them,” he shares, while in Chandigarh for a five-day workshop in film-making, as a part of the Chandigarh Cinema Festival.

Chandigarh Creative Cinema Circle, in association with Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, rolls out the fourth edition of the festival and brings to the city 30 plus films, including those by amateur film-makers. Shares AP Mishra, the co-founder, “We focused on films that were interesting, had a clear message and which promote the craft of film-making,” of the line up this year. “It has been a continuous, year-long process where we kept an eye on all the films, the festivals they went for and their reception.”

Each year, the core group of four people start from a scratch. “We want to see this festival happening in Tagore Theatre and with a much bigger audience. There are a lot of films we couldn’t get because some of them wanted a theatrical release first, some of the makers had date issues and so on and so forth.” From those being screened at the festival is Court by Chaitnaya Tamhane, premiered at 71st Venice International Film Festival, a film depicting the realistic courtroom drama. He adds, “Then there’s A Life Changing Journey of Doing Right by Pankaj Trivedi. He toured the country for seven months and made the film all by himself from the scratch. He will be able to show you India, which nobody ever will be able to even with a budget of Rs 700 crores.”

Open field

While the challenges remain the same, the opportunities are for the asking. Elaborates Sudarshan, “Only some time ago, one couldn’t even think of making films in Chandigarh. Suddenly with IT boom and several softwares, everybody is equipped with film-making tools.” Everyone is also equipped with digital space for sharing the final creations. He adds, “As many as 5 million people watching your video in a span of a day and liking or disliking it was unheard of earlier. Today it is so possible.”

Which is perhaps why, “Five years back I realised I need not be in Mumbai anymore to be able to make films. That is why I shifted base from Mumbai,” shares the Dehradun based film-maker. He had made a beginning in commercial space with Sahara group and Shekhar Kapur’s production house. “Today, I make two-minute and five-minute films with my students and it is so satisfying. We have even made two feature films. What’s more? These films even find their audience.” What’s more? This is just a beginning!

(The festival is on till August 30 at Government Museum Auditorium—10, Chandigarh)

manpriya@tribunemail.com