#ANT Venom# : Time for a change

cinema| |

- Sudipto Nag

If you are tired of watching the same stuff then this one is for you. 

When Amitabh Bachchan plays coolie it might encourage the common mass but they can never identify themselves with the star Big B. Let’s take bicycle thieves as well. It is a milestone in Italian neorealism. One of the best scripts of Zavattini. But is it capable of capturing real life? ‘Gulla and Gulla’s horse’ is fresh, bold and directly countering the realism in fiction films. To what extent we can show a real life? Not only that. It attacks the Indian censorship. ‘Smoking is injurious to health, Milk is good for health’ just mocking the stupid censorship and maintaining the same spirit the film is mildly giving the viewers a new point of view. Despite many propositions the film relies on its audience and seeks an answer from the viewers rather than suggesting an answer. 

Low budget short films are struggling to survive in this age of 3D and entertainment oriented film culture. But this film is taking the financial problem as a challenge and thinking more about cooking something different rather than using the same expensive ingredients. 

It was a pretty hard job for us to shoot this film. We had only one camera and rain was our main problem. But our spirit was high which made the project possible. I was thinking of making films which will be different in style and also in content.

Being an independent film maker I had a lot of dreams but soon I realized it is very difficult to make the films the way you want. Promotion is another big obstacle. One might say that there are so many national and international film festivals for the new comers. But unless you make it big nothing counts. So at some point of time I felt hopeless too. Then one day I realized that what we lack is not quality films. We lack a film culture. Ant Production, the one that we run, believes if we notice properly we might find how localities around us are admiring a good film. But the fact is such stuffs are not available to them. If you don’t know about something how can decide, what’s your choice?  More than the commercial films the so called new Indian ‘art’ films scare them. People even don’t know that half of them are copied from here and there. If you want to quote from a film or about a film then that needs relevance. You just can’t say that it is a tribute. Hence ‘Gulla’s ghora’ doesn’t claim to be a work which is strikingly original but there is a valid relevance behind quoting something from a film.  This is also a protest. 

Rather than story telling ‘Gulla’s Ghora’s one and only objective is spreading and building a new film culture rather than making great stuff. Cinephillia is driving the ‘Ant’ team to this mission. In order to discuss about my film I need to first speak about some striking problems in Indian cinema. We expect a Hollywood editing. Why? The answer is simple it binds a story and you watch for a story. So Gulla’s Ghora is not giving you a story.

I’m giving you some unanswered questions. Audiences are not stupid. After 100 years of cinema audience are clever enough to play active roles rather than a passive consumer. Secondly when it comes to nudity and pornography it is more confusing. In india you can’t show a naked body. That’s vulgar. You are not allowed to show explicit sex. You don’t speak about porn in front of the people but you masturbate every day. You watch them in internet frequently and some of us even full-fill their lust using video chat.   Now our great art lovers will say that Kate Winslet’s beautiful body belongs to them because they look at it with appreciation. Is it? I think everybody appreciates the beauty of nudity in their own way.

I won’t mind if a pervert enjoys a Godard heroine’s nude body. Let’s confess we all do sex and we love it. But unfortunately we make films like Vicky donor but we can’t think of releasing Gandu. The censorship’s objective is simple they will make you hungry then they will snatch your food. Better than a two piece we might prefer a nude body.  Nudity might not be a necessary thing. If the film doesn’t need it then that’s also cool. But semi-nudity is dangerous.  

The Ant team hopes this film will help us to reach a lot of people and the team is very eager to hear from them. This films feedback is open to all and as well a free interpretation. 

For a long time we perceive the directors or actors as god or creators but now this is the time to change it. After the film is made the director is also a viewer. He is not an almighty. This is the right time to fill this gap to bring a new culture. Let’s hope for a more free film culture.  

 

The author is a short film maker with a fresh vision and idea to make films. He is currently pursuing Film Studies in Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. His previous two films ‘Uttamda’ and ‘Factory of Caged Animals’ were screened at Short and Documentary Film Festival, Jaipur International Film Festival, Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival, Cut in Film Festival, CMS International Children’s Film Festival and discussed in a report published in Times of India Hyderabad. Currently he owns ANT Productions along with his team through which they want to keep on making radical films.

Watch the film "Gulla Ebong Gullar Ghora" here - | |