Filmmaker Bhabendranath Saikia
A story of nature and humanity, rich in beauty and creativity , written on the screen by camera – that is my definition of a FILM. . . Bhabendra Nath Saikia
Part 1
It has been always the conventional idea that the film “Sandhyaraag” was the advent of Dr. Bhabendranath Saikia into the world of cinema, but on the contrary, that was only the beginning of his journey as a Film Director. He actually set foot into filmdom as an actor ! Having essayed a role in the film “Sati Beula”, he marked his arrival into the world of Assamese cinema. But the underlying motive was not merely playing a role, but the lure of the mystical domain of cinema , the enigma , the ‘maya’ , were like magnets that drew this man into its stronghold . During this time he was a young student undergoing Post Graduation studies in the Presidency College, Calcutta ( now Kolkata ). He was intensely desirous of attending a film school, wherein he would be able to equip himself with adequate technical knowledge of cinema, and in particular his keen interest being Cinematography. Even while he went abroad for higher studies, he carried along with him his immense desire to study about cinema , but was not fortunate enough to make it happen. Later when he was working in the Sibsagar ( now Sivasagar) College, he penned down the script and assisted Parag Chaliha in the film “ Xon Roop Neusi” , but all his dreams and aspirations were nipped at the bud as the film got shelved.
Finally the day arrived when he took up the challenge of making “Sandhyaraag” in 1976. During the entire tenure of his days in the Presidency College and till the day he embarked into the making of “Sandhyaraag” – he had already carved a niche for himself as an eminent dramatist and novelist , having authored several landmark literary pieces, that won him great honour and accolades . In those days, he had little or aptly no connection with Assamese cinema , none of his writings conceded his allegiance and love for cinema, or the idea of ‘parallel’ cinema was yet unknown. Thus, mixed feelings of curiosity and apprehensiveness prevailed amidst the people when he announced the making of his first film.
Everyone had one simple question in their minds- why does he want to make a film? He did not fit into the bracket who at that time were making films or were associated with films, so what was in his mind and why was he foraying into films , were the major issues of curiosity among the people.
Was it because he intended to put across some inner feelings that resided deep in the recesses of his heart? But for that he was well equipped as a writer to express any such emotion, at minimum expense and effort , and thus why was he taking a huge risk knowing the mammoth expenditure that was associated with filmmaking ? This was a cause of widespread concern.
It was , and to some extent is still , the general notion that a person without adequate resources of filmmaking or from a non- film background does not take up a risky gamble as that of making a film , until he is badly bitten by the film ‘bug’; and in all probability, Dr. Saikia was a prey to that very ‘bug’ !
His film obsession originated right since his youthful days , when on one occasion he went to the Nagaon cinema hall and watched the film “Shakuntala” ; he was deeply fascinated by this Hindi film which showed a magical and fantasy world of the fish that swallows the ring of the princess. During his days in Cotton College, he was a regular Hindi film enthusiast and an avid reader of the “ Film India”, a magazine that maintained a good dose of glam, glitz and gossip of Hindi filmdom. During his days as a student in Kolkata, despite that he was not actually in real contact or association with cinema, he expressed strong desire to study cinema, and even went to the extent of writing a story, inspired by the then box office hits, and present it before a Producer, Mr. Kashi Prasad Bihani .
But when Dr. Saikia announced his own film later on , he was far away from the clutches of his youthful indulgence into flamboyant, commercial Hindi cinema. Thus, the most obvious question was- why the change?
This change was the consequence of two major reasons –he was always clear on his subject and contents as a writer. It is easily derivable that his creative mind was gradually and imperceptibly maturing and further during his stay abroad, his creativity was undergoing transformation with great many innovative ways, where he was exposed to world cinema. Despite watching renowned films like “Wild Strawberries” by Ingmar Bergman and Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panshali” , he was not out of the way impressed by them nor it moved him enough to be inspired by them. He opined , ‘I had watched a lot of films during my stay abroad, but they did not have much impact on me. These films only strengthened my experiences just as much as the Hindi films I had watched in my youth had done’. But one of those many films that had impact on him, impressed and inspired him was “The Roof” , which he dreamt of remaking someday. The making of the film was not technically very appealing to him, but the subject and contents that in its truest form depicted humane emotions , moved him immensely.
Tags: Bhabendranath Saikia
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
A nice writeup! I would like to know more about this filmmaker. Shall wait for your second part.
Thanks for sharing!!