Odia film on cyclone to premiere at UK film festival
The feature film titled ‘Whispers of a storm’ is based on the trail of devastation cyclone ‘Fani’ had left on the Odisha coast in 2019.
With the onset of a covid pandemic lockdown that left the global population trapped in their homes, many turned to creativity to seek the freedom that would rekindle hopes in such dark and solitary times.
A Kolkata based filmmaker, Suranjan Dey reposed his faith in ‘Unlucky Shirt’ that may finally turn his luck around if his short film wins him an award in the UK film festival ‘Lift-Off Global Network Session 2021’.
The film is scheduled for screening in the festival that is being presently held through ‘Vimeo on Demand’ online. The final round of the festival will have live screenings at Pinewood Studios in the UK and then at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.
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The director feels his short film reflects the global plight caused by the pandemic that limited interactions among people to virtual rooms through interactive software where a screen always divides two individuals even when they feel the need to embrace one another. ‘Unlucky Shirt’ is about two such individuals who are united by love, separated by the lockdown.
Dey says the film centres on a telephonic conversation where both characters discuss and argue on almost all topics under the sky – love, poetry, poverty, disease or war. However, the director is pinning his hopes on an unlucky shirt that is said to be a turnaround point in the climax of the film and hopes it would surprise the viewers.
The story of the film is written by Pradeep Acharya. Suparna Kumar and Riddhiban Bandyopadhyay have played the lead roles alongside several supporting actors including the director himself. Due to the covid protocols, the shoot locations were kept simple i.e Victoria Memorial in Kolkata and IIT Kharagpur.
However, this wasn’t a debut effort by Dey as his previous project, ‘Bhalobasar Chupkatha’, was screened at several other film festivals, besides Kolkata International Film Festival. The director confirms he will begin the shooting of his next short film, ‘Phand’ (trap), next month.
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