Kolkata: A colour bubble has been created about Bengali film industry which will bust very soon, director Suman Mukhopadhyay has said.
There has to be a parameter for success "when we tout all the releases as successful hits and create a colour bubble," Suman, whose 'Sesher Kobita' on Tagore's lyrical piece of work, was commercially released here last night, a good three years after its making, said.
Talking about present day Bengali movies, the filmmaker said, "None of the recent Bengali films excepting 'Asha Jaowar Majhe' and 'Arekti Premer Galpo' were screened in premiere world film festivals this year.
Suman pointed out that Cine Society movement in Bengal during 60s and 70s led to the emergence of directors like Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha as well as Tarun Majumder.
He said the situation has greatly Rs 5-6 crore films getting precedence from the producers than the films with a budget of Rs 40 lakh.
"Shesher Kobita" (The Last Poem), an iconic love story set in Shillong, premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2013 and was shown in festivals in New York and Singapore in 2014.
The film, a government project on the bard's birth anniversary couple of years back, stars Rahul Bose, Konkona Sensharma and Swastika Mukherjee among others.
It recounts the love story of protagonist Amit Ray, whose intellectualism reveals itself in its opposition to all forms of tradition.
Ray meets Labanya, played by three-time national award winner Konkona Sen Sharma, in a car accident and the romance builds up in the misty hills of Shillong.
Calling Amit Ray as an intellectual buffoon, Suman said, "he is demonstrative of his intellect before women and thus makes a fool of himself. But is well read. So he can be called a buffoon."
About the look and feel of "Sesher Kobita", Suman said the film has been mostly shot in the green mountains of Shillong to retain the lyrical ambience.
"I had captured the scenes on long shot mostly, including the conversations, instead of close door shots as I have dwelt on the effect of nature on human mind, away from the frenzy of urban life.
Suman said the film as well as the original novel discusses about the perception of love. "I think the casting was perfect. No one but Konkona could portray the vulnerability and the intellectualism of Labonyo, her apparent aloofness, and none but Rahul Bose could be my Amit, the dapper Bengali. And Swastika personified Ketty (aka Ketaki), her care-free nature and simplicity, to her Amit goes back at the end of the film."
