Prataya Saha’s ‘The Good Wife’ is an emotional roller coaster

The 18-minute film, which premièred at the Chennai International Short Film Festival, has won multiple awards at film festivals

A still from ‘The Good Wife’

“From watching three-hour-long feature films, we have now switched to watching movies that are under 75 minutes. The attention span of the audiences is gradually reducing and with the access to smart phones, the future is short films,” says Prataya Saha, an independent filmmaker based out of Bengaluru. His 18-minute film, The Good Wife , which premièred at the Chennai International Short Film Festival, has won multiple awards at film festivals — both nationally and internationally, in the past few months.

“The journey so far has been encouraging, and I am surprised that the film touched the hearts of the audiences in the international circuit, despite its clichéd theme. Looking back, I think the theme struck a chord irrespective of geographical barriers and cultures,” he says.

The Good Wife , explores the emotions of a married woman, and by casting established theatre artist Anshulika Kapoor, the director has ensured that the varied state of mind of the protagonist is conveyed beautifully. The narrative tricks us to believe that the length of the film is much more than it really is. “Each shot was not more than 10 seconds, but the overall effect is such that you get the feeling of having witnessed a day in the life of the protagonist, who goes through myraid emotions,” the director says.

Prataya Saha

Prataya says that the marital issues faced by his family during his growing up years in Kolkata in the ’90s became the base for The Good Wife . “Marriage structure has changed in the past 25 years, at least in the metros. My idea was to visually transport the audiences to a particular timeline 25 years ago. Which is why the film is set in the ’90s,” he explains. Considering its runtime, the film’s strong points are sound design and cinematography.

The director says that it took over a year to complete the movie and it has been travelling to various film festivals for the past seven months.

The Good Wife won the special jury award at the recently-concluded Chennai International Short Film Festival, where the filmmaker and his crew were present.