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The Masters section was introduced in Toronto in 1996 and
it has since celebrated the work of filmmakers of such stunning
calibre as Ken Loach, Nagisa Oshima, Takeshi Kitano, Jean-Luc
Godard, Shohei Imamura, David Lynch, Carlos Saura and Bernardo
Bertolucci. Only two other Indian directors - Adoor Gopalakrishnan
(Nizhalkkuthu) and Mani Ratnam (Kannathil
Muthamittal) - have ever made it to this coveted section.
This year, Dasgupta's film was alongside Abbas
Kiarostami's 10 on Ten and Five, Pedro Almodovar's
Bad Education, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Café
Lumiere, Paul Cox's Human Touch, Theo
Angelopoulos's Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow,
Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty and Volker Schlondorff's
The Ninth Day.
Dasgupta, whose Uttara won a
Special Jury Prize for direction at the Venice Film Festival
of 2000, has a committed band of admirers in the West. The
reviews he garners say it all. The Toronto festival's international
programmer Steve Gravestock compares Swapner Din
with a Godard masterpiece: "On some levels, Buddhadeb
Dasgupta's Chased by Dreams plays like a Bengali version of
Weekend, Jean-Luc Godard's apocalyptic nightmare. The essential
differences are the unique atmosphere and sense of poetry
which drive Dasgupta's film."
Gravestock goes on to say that "Dasgupta
possesses one of the most tactile, elliptical sensibilities
among filmmakers working today". He describes the director's
surreal and painterly style as "rare and beautiful".
Film Critic Allan Tong corroborates that view:
"Chased by Dreams is rich in Dasgupta's
trademark allegory and poetry. These come easily to Dasgupta,
a celebrated poet and novelist who is considered by many to
be India's greatest living director."
Back in India, though, Dasgupta isn't quite
a household name. That is not surprising at all given the
kind of films he chooses to make. He does not kowtow to popular
tastes. His vision is his very own. It does not rest on borrowed
ideas. So those who understand the value of an inimitable
cinematic worldview know for sure that he is a filmmaker of
uncommon quality, a fact that has been repeatedly acknowledged
on the world stage.
Dasgupta's uniqueness lies in the manner in
which he draws inspiration from his own roots and immediate
environs - self-composed poetry, the literature he reads,
the social and political realities around him - to craft celluloid
essays that speak a universal language.
Dasgupta made his first feature, Dooratwa
(Distance), 25 years ago. His body of work includes such wonderful
gems as Neem Annapurna (Bitter Morsel), Grihajuddha
(Crossroads), Phera (The Return), Andhi Gali (Blind Alley),
Bagh Bahadur (The Tiger Man), Tahader Katha (Their Story),
Charachar (Shelter of the Wings) and Lal Darja
(Red Doors).
His cinema bears the signature of a poet blessed
with the touch of a visual magician. The dream-like quality
of his films, despite their realistic underpinnings, places
his work well apart from both the mundane and the laboured.
Swapner Din, a typically episodic
exploration of the dreams that drive ordinary rural lives,
has an accentuated otherworldly feel because 90 per cent of
the film has been shot at 26 to 28 frames a second instead
of the customary 24 frames, lending it a bewitching slow-mo
rhythm. It also happens to be Dasgupta's first film that has
been shot entirely outdoors using available source light.
Indeed, every film that Dasgupta make marks
a clear progression in terms of conception and execution.
That is the way for Indian cinema as a whole to go.
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