A rare documentation on Dadathakur with the title the "individual" produced and directed by Amit Mukherjee, which I could avail myself of watching it on 28th of March 2015. Thanks to Press Club, Kolkata, for screening a noble effort.
The film starts in a very interesting way with a feature film technique, rather than sheer documentation - and here lies the interest . The film starts with focusing on walking on of two bare feet of a young individual and it ends with camera tracking down focusing on walking of two old bare feet cut to .. walking of two young bare feet, that is, the tradition moves on : "Jangipur Sambad" conceived by DADATHAKUR still gets printed, rather unheard, unsung and unrecognized.
In many a cases we watch and enjoy how ideas get illustrated, here we could enjoy how illustrations got transformed into idea and that`s why, with the aid of visuals, we could savour the taste of a feather film effect and here lies its greatness.
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| Nolini Kanto Sarkar with Dadathakur |
It`s neo - documentary film, I think. The film is full of cartoons, think-pieces of Dadathakur, reading of an interesting poem, song of Dadathakur sung uniquely by "Sankar Da" and many interesting anecdotes. Nature in whatever form they appeared in the film, Mr. Mukherjee`s cameraman used his thinking eyes to blend those superbly with the text and all that. Barring some few cases, the making is unique. It evolved from within the maker.
By and large, the maker focused what Sarat Pandit, alias, Dadathakur , thought and did . Living in "chill penury" how he kept his pot boiling by hawking his creative evolution of bengali literature with fun and frolic and sometimes with satire and Mr. Mukherjee highlighted that too in his neo - documentary. Again , Dadathakur`s life is larger than life with poverty his background score , and thus in his born days he fully enjoyed his life , rather he drank life to the less in expressing his personality in varieties, and Mr. Mukherjee Could rightly capture that spirit with master stroke .
One thing I would like to mention, Mr. Mukherjee is a doctor by profession. Over the years he had saved money out of his salary,what a dedication !, and invested 4.5 lacs plus to make a documentary on his grandfather. Here I request earnestly to come forward State Govt., Film Club, NGO`s, Local club for screening the said documentary of 33 minutes to introduce Dadathakur to the new generation. They hardly know our rich cultural heritage, our glorious cultural past. They should know that there was a God-gifted person where Goddess Saraswati used to live on the tip of his tongue.
Written by: Debabrata Mukherjee.