Aditi Roy, whose directorial debut Abosheshey is the only Bengali film in the competition section of the 16th IFFK, is thrilled to be part of “one of the best film festivals in India.”
“I am so proud that my film got accepted here. Just look at the sheer number of viewers!” she says. Abosheshey (At the end of it all) will be screened at the festival on Wednesday.
The film tells the story of an estranged son, who discovers his mother and her life after her death, through the legacy and memorabilia she leaves behind.
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“This is a simple yet multi-dimensional story. For most of us there is only one dimension to our relationships. My mother is just my mother and that is taken for granted. The fact that she plays many other roles is most often overlooked. But in this story, the son is discovering his mother from a distance. After her death, he gets to understand the woman that she was” she says.
Veteran actor Roopa Ganguly — Droupadi in the television serial ‘Mahabharata' — plays the mother. The son's part is played by youngster Ankur Khanna. Raima Sen and Suman Mukhopadhyay too have plum roles in the film produced by Anil B. Dev. The story and screenplay is by Neel B. Mitra. Award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Ranjan Palit is the director of photography.
“In this film, the story is the real hero. Neel first told me the story when I was still a student of cinema. As soon as I heard it, I wanted to make the film. We could rope in veterans like Roopa Ganguly and Ranjan Palit because the story was good,” says Ms. Roy.
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“The film has been shot largely using handheld camera. We have made it in a very candid fashion so that people can easily relate to it. I hope it does strike a chord with the audience here,” she said. Daughter of documentary filmmaker Ajoy Roy, Aditi was familiar with the medium from a very young age. Initially she wanted to be a journalist, but her interest in cinema steered her into film studies. Ms. Roy, who says she faces stiff competition back home, adds that the Bengali film scene today is thriving with the entry of many young talents. “Bengali films today are very youthful, very urban. And it is exciting to be part of this fraternity,” she says.