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Justuju (2002) - My first film
This seems to be a season of first films. All my PFC friends - from Kartik to Somen to Mainak - are posting their first videos. That inspired me to scan my hard drive and do a lot of converting to present to all of you the first film I made. This was in 2002 my second year in college. We had a workshop by cinematographer Abheek Mukhopadhyay (all Rituparno Ghosh films plus Bunty Aur Babli, Shoonya) and he picked me to direct this short. It’s called Justuju (Quest), a short about man’s perennial pursuit to cling on to love or to his loved one(s). In the film, a guy returns to his college to relive his lost love. The short was selected to be screened at the Poitiers International Video Festival in France. Hope you like it. Please leave your comments. That always helps. Thanks.
P.S. The dialogues at the end of the short sound a bit muffled for some technical snag. Well, the verse she is reciting is from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet…
[youtube]vF-TZL4KCZg[/youtube]
30 Responses to “Justuju (2002) - My first film”
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nice one PDG.. was hoping for more of a background behind your film.. was it your story, how’d you cast the actors, where’d you shoot etc?
Pratim …
First Filmey Mithunda diye lighting koraley? Baap re baap!
What about your other films?
Which college was this? SRFTII?
Sorry Pratim da, it was crap. The background music was awful. And the whole concept of lost love didnt struck much chord with me. I am not saying that I could do better than you (I cant) but since I couldnt do it cant I have any say on the short. Forgive me for being forthright, as I do not intend to unsettle the cart. KK’s one was brilliant. If you think that my comment was in bad taste, I’ll remove the post asking the admins. Please do not consider it as a discouraging post. :)>-
Pratim Da, your film conjured up a few words….
nostalgia, melancholy, reimagined past, dreaming about a reality that was too perfect to exist, flipping and sifting through an incomplete present and a timeless past…love, the first touch, the images framed in time…
Very good one for a first film. The establishment gets a little prolonged though, the guy thinking about that ’sarakta aanchal’ is nicely presented as a metaphor for a guy unsuccessfully chasing his past. I was not certain if the past actually existed for him, as he looked a tad disheleved in the present. The shot where the young couple is descending down the steps disturbed me first, then I saw it again and realized the blocking of the frame was intentional. Very nicely framed, the first shot which takes us from the lonely guy to the couple, the one where he sees the aanchal sarakofy(sorry, at a loss of words) for the first time and starts chasing it frantically, the slow move into the dark room and the appearance of candle lights followed by Shakespearean chants. Neat stuff. Liked the end credits too. The music gets a little telling sometimes though.
@striker - It was in St Xavier’s College Calcutta… There’s a very famous film course there. Essentially video but also introduction to cinema. As in all workshops the stress here was on the craft. Abheek-da wanted an idea where he could make us utilise maximum kinds of natural lighting. He loved my idea and so did my cast and crew, my classmates. If you notice carefully, the settings are in different kinds of light - direct sunlight, stairs, inside classroom, even a studio set-up. Maitreyee the girl did a lot of professional theatre in Calcutta. She did the popular play Winkle Tinkle if anybody has heard of it. Manish the guy was acting for the first time. I liked his face cut and those lost eyes and hardened cheek bones would be just fine for this melancholy trip.
@mainak-babu - abheek-da didn’t do the lighting. As in workshops he was around, supervising my camera team, suggesting this and that. He didn’t say a single word about the content. Though he told me a film of this sort needed to be graphic and he was very happy the way it eventually turned out. There is only one shot where Abheekda actually stood behind the cam and that is when Manish comes from the classroom and stands on the balcony. Look at the way he makes the light look so good. I made my graduation film after this Mainak called MOOLAH ROGUE. It’s a 18 minutes thriller and don’t think this a good place to show such a long short. Since then I have been writing about films for the Times of India and Telegraph and writing scripts alongside. I have been creatively involved with Anjan Dutt’s The Bong Connection and his forthcoming film BBD. I have just finished another draft of my first feature film script and will start looking for producers now. :)
@omprakash - Why would you remove the post? Even as an author I can have that done. You said what you felt and that’s fine. Just the use of words could be more judicious. When you use phrases like “unsettling the cart”, you can surely come up with something better than “crap”. I have a feeling you may not have understood what I wanted to convey and that’s my fault. But most understand that it’s not about lost love… it’s metaphorical about holding on to love and not letting it go. Thanks for your heartfelt comments. It’s not discouraging at all. :)
@tushar - bhai apne to mera din bana diya… (brother you to made my day)… that five years after an idea came out of a brainstorming session in class, you use the same words that I had used to pitch this idea - melancholy, nostalgia, dream… Yes, the girl’s face was deliberately blocked throughout because for me she was incidental. It’s the figure, it’s the presence, it’s the smell, it’s the being that I wanted to bring out as you felt :) The chunariya/aanchal is the umbilical cord which connects his past with the present… The original background music is by my uncle Jyotishka Dasgupta (Unishe April, 15 Park Avenue). It got so shrill after the DIVX conversion and even worse when I uploaded it on youtube. Don’t know that technicality. Anyway, thank you Tushar for revisiting and rereading my vision. :) :)
Pratimda, first things first,jolly good work on your part .Keep it up .Your short taught me how to handle the thematic thread delicately and let it neither tear nor lag.The film was deceptively simple and not for once boring(films dealing with such issues do tend to drift away sometimes from the narrative).
About the sound…well…what the girl was reciting is kinda immaterial really(I may be wrong)…its the moment that snatches full emphasis .
Hope to see your thriller soon.I think I have seen videos of longer duration on pfc. Anyway , just try.lol.:)
Hey, I just forgot to mention ….the technique.. you pulled it off with a stroke of artistic brilliance ^:)^^:)^
The background score connotes the sobriety of the narrative.The music….it really compliments the story well.Full marks to your uncle:)
Anyway in a nutshell kudos:):)^:)^
Pratim..everybody keeps calling you dada over here..firstly, I know you are not THAT old..but, as a mark of respect its fine..the short seemed nice enough..the sound is distracting..a movie on ‘longing’ is actually a little heavy material..so, there shall be reactions..but, technically you are fine..the use of shadows are promising…there is a director lurking somewhere in there..ABP film production e naabche shunlaam..tahole okhandiye shuru koro..taarpor SPS..doing it in Bengali/ Hindi/ english?????
@sulakshana - Thanks so much… :) it wasn’t entirely immaterial what she was saying because she enacts the passage: “What’s in a name?” highlighting that names are immaterial in romance… it is about latching on to her being… Technically I would have liked to shoot the film myself but since it was a workshop I had to have other people handle the camera. I did shoot Moolah Rogue myself. Anyway, thanks Sulakshana even if I don’t post Moolah Rogue here, I will try and upload it on youtube and may give the link here as a comment. I don’t think any innocuous net surfer would want to see it once he/she sees that it runs for 18 minutes. If he/she starts watching they may get hooked.
@indraneel - Glad that you liked Justuju so much. Yes, dada ta ektu slight problem ache. I am all of 25! :d I am looking beyond ABP because they haven’t quite figured out what they want to do with their film production plans, especially after Lajjo not happening with Bobby Bedi. I have written my dialogues both in Hindi and Bengali… So whichever way my producer wants to go, I am ok with that. It can suit both languages. I hope not to disappoint you… Thanks
Hey… Good one. was that you in the acting in the film? simple and poetic… nice camera work… the background somehow got to me… Ithink there is too much of it. I was looking for pauses in the music.. a little bit of silence. The carpeted music makes everything a lil monotonous… but cool for a first film. cheers!
Thanks Onir… You of all people should know that’s not me… He is half my size! There is a pause in the music when we enter the classroom but I guess it needed to be more… Thanks for your comment! :)
No Pratim, am not disappointed at all..Bengali needs different treatments and some stories do not fit in there these days..(subtlety is lost on people there these days..what with all the dumbing down…I don’t believe that I am having to say this about Bongs back home)…so Hindi is a better option…you can then explore a bit more..can you expect a movie like Manorama in Bengali these days..My god! and have June Maliah act in it!!!!!?????
Manorama - Cho Foot Neeche!
Shit man..June will be angry at the connotation!!!
Anytime Pratim Da. bas aap paise time pe bhejte rehna…;) lol just kidding.
got your point about the music. now i know why it sounded shrill.
regarding the technicality, aapne jo kiya hai that is commendable enough. i mean it takes guts to go back 5 years and dig out your first film and throw it at a forum where we are seeing a happy meteor shower of films.
glad to know that I came close to your conception, I saw the film again and came across little things that have been done to add to the girl’s mystique and illusive aura, like how one never gets to see her face even if you try.
would like to see Moolah Rouge…
Mast…. maza aa gaya Pratim bhai.
actualy it didnt have the feel of a short at. lag raha tha kisi bad parde par dekh raha hun…specially the climax…
And the concept was good too. and one more nice thing waas that there were no absurd twists or punchlines or so called solid endings which most of the shorts have done to death
good effort….. keep going
@Tushar - You have worded your feelings beautifully… I had a lot of people raving about the film when it was made but this feels as sweet five years later. Thanks bro!
@Naren - Glad you liked it so much… This one is very experimental since it was a workshop and there was no question of getting good grad marks and all. So I have tried the one shot concept where the past and present happen in a single shot… The last segment in the studio was really tough to execute with such a long shot. We got it right in around 5 takes just in time before the candles melted. Moolah Rogue was more of a mainstream work targetted for good exam marks. :d
I was thinking about the film today and it struck to me that you have kept away from the cliche of using a bearded, brooding hero in his post-college-serious-life avatar. It hits you first when you don’t see much differences in his appearance in his past and present but then it’s a challenge well taken.
any bytes on the title? Justujoo jiski thi…?
@Pratim…. lol I thought it must have been u a couple of years back. forgive me. But is he an actor… and yes it was nice that you did not have a stereotype bearded drinking devdas dressed in kurta. :)
@Tushar - Aur Ek Devdas? Na re bhai na… As for the title well I have a thing for Urdu words… find them seductive if used in the right places… Ibadat, Inayat, Kayanat… they have a ring to them… Justuju fitted the film to the tee… That’s it. Moolah Rogue was more of a title tattle with its similar sounding Moulin Rouge… Got into a lot of jhamela over that… Everyone kept calling it Moulin Rouge while it was Moolah Rogue…:d
@Onir - I did act in two other graduation films in college, though but this was my friend Manish who also acted in my other short Moolah Rogue… Dada I am sorry I forgot to email you… I apologise… Will do it asap. :)
Pratimda, it’ll be great if you upload mr on youtube.Can you please send me the links of the films in which you have worked, apart from Justuju and Moolah Rogue??
I agree with Onir Sir, that your choice of portraying the pivot as someone who can be one of us really and not the conventional tragic hero is plausible.
Way to go…Pratimda!!!!
well…nice effort but could not keep me engrossed.
I’ll keep that in mind Pratim. But first let me apologize for saying “da”. It should be other way round. I got the impression from the fact that you are a journalist. Sorry.
By the way, when are you going to post your next short “Moolah Rogue”. In my next criticism, I promise you to be more judicious but not lenient :D
hi,
all i had known of you was that you do alot of film stories for telegraph. to add to that, i personally feel that you are among the very few journos in cal who write readable cinema pieces.
i’m also quite fond of the cinema quiz column in t2.
now about justuju- i have only now seen it, that too without sound (from office on a bandh day).
so i’m not in a position to comment on it, but i get the essence of it. given that i also have passed out of MCVV SXC, i completely get the mindset and circumstances under which you have made the film (that too in your second year, during camera pracs!).
now some gyaan..
(you can skip the next two paras)
exactly after we have made the ‘first’ film- however miserable it has turned out- we are kicked about that fact that we at all have put up something. but only once you get over that phase, does it sink into you how immature and lacking your work is. but this besides, it still remains special since it is YOUR first work.
i might be completely wrong about it, but this is what i feel on seeing the video and reading what you’ve written about it.
for me, justuju is a decent effort but a regular bad MCVV film. i don’t intend to sound the least discouraging, for the number of pathetic shorts i’ve been a part of is- huge, and i still dream of making many films. ofcourse, i definitely will see it again properly with sound, and if it changes my views, i’ll also write about it.
now i’m also wanting to see your degree film(MR).
i’d also like you to see films i’ve been involved in. its not uploaded yet, but we can exchange our dvds, i believe.
btw, i’m a kid. i’ve passed out of MCVV only this year. but let me assure you- the dept hasn’t moved much ahead.
do give me your mail-id. im at: syedfaisalrahman@gmail.com