Akin to the feelings of a cricketer getting his ton on his maiden Test, Ritam Chakraborty saw the parallel in his maiden effort winning the best short documentary award at the conclusion of the 16th International Documentary Short Film Festival that concluded in Thiruvananthapuram recently. Salvation Dream, a 25-minute effort without any dialogues brought out the realities that death is constant and absolute. That the movie won the best cinematography Jury award too, made it a double joy from the one based in the City of Joy, Kolkatta.
The well-crafted documentary represented the grandfather’s death of the filmmaker, which many saw as a spiritual transformation beyond all mundane and exhausted living as if it is a transcendence of nature toward the journey of eternal salvation.
Dwelling on the happening, Ritam recounted his school days when he was magnetically drawn to view international movies. “There was a family friend, who supplied in abundant measure the world of pirated movies. That was the stepping stone to do Journalism-Mass Communication and Film course at Kolkata University. Once the confidence shot up and with the maturity that I had it in me to plunge into a familiar arc, things fell in place as if it was programmed that way,'' opened up Ritam, with the enthusiasm of a college student on his first date.
Getting to know the world of film festivals was just an arm’s length away for Ritam when the college arranged a film festival, which was a roaring success from the huge number of attendees. “Getting to do a documentary and short film as part of the college project opened up new windows for my career lines, on the fringe of taking off big time. Poetry had a great influence thanks to my literature background. The words of wisdom and knowledge gained from interacting with the learned poetry names led to testing the wares of photography. A hidden talent surfaced in full bloom, in main from the encouragement at the college and like-minded friends."
Post-graduation, Ritam said he allowed the temptation door deliberately kept open to make his own film – never mind the footage an inner voice thundered in. “There was an option to go to a film school, get the ideas stored in the mind and do the execution. A template which did not go well with my mindset. Viewing quality offerings from all over the world — particularly the Iranian movies – I felt those were close to my heart and closer to reality. Mention must be made of the humongous impact of the movies from the likes of Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf'. It had a shattering effect on me, losing no time to take the plunge. Only when you dive, one will know the depth of waters.”
Also, Indian contemporary films and documentaries like Kabir Mehta’s Sadhuin Bombay, Arun Kartick’s Nasir, Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Labour of Love, PrashantBhargava’s Patang, Chandan Biswas’ Words with the Wind and Amit Dutta’s Jangarh changed the way Ritam looked at the facet of filmmaking.
Reflecting on Salvation Dream, which he started working in 2017, Ritam saw that as a lonely and depressing phase “when I saw how desolate my grandfather was after his beloved wife’s departure and his world of agony rubbed on me. My observation started from there and I could not stage the essence of existence and its slow decay. Time becomes a sloth to an old person and I tried to portray that perception. I have waited for a long time to capture his movements, light, shadow, incident, accident, and everything. I started working on the documentary with whatever resources I could find and continued with that. It is a natural document shot for four years through different cameras. And now the effort gives me back something beautiful, the taste of the achievement gives me more power to make another one.”
As the saying goes of a well beginning being half done to one’s career, Ritam is no hurry to broaden his horizon and get deep into a world — the only one he knows, happy to explore both the murkier and the greener pastures.