Quest for silence
BHAWANI CHEERATH
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Jahar Kanungo's maiden film `Nisshabd' captures the sounds of silence.
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Villages too have the sounds but it's so much in sync with the ambience, whereas in the city, each one has his little world and what emerges is the confusion ...
Jahar Kanungo
Photo: S. Gopakumar
SOUND DECISION: Jahar Kanungo skilfully manages to draw our attention to the difference between sound and noise.
In one of those mental excursions, we often think of the rhythm of life. When it comes to the cityscape, is there a rhythm? Or, does it get subsumed in the cacophony of sounds? Was that the premise of `Nisshabd'? What initially appears as the inability to cope with noise unfolds as the quest for silence and the search for self.
Subtle tones
Was the search instructive in tone? Did it force silence on you? Or, did it describe silence? Jahar Kanungo's maiden film `Nisshabd' contains all this, but in a very subtle manner. How he draws you towards the character of Sarit Kumar Haldar (Kaushik Chakraborty) and his near-neurotic condition without being proselytising makes the 93-minute film an enjoyable experience.
"What are the sounds that Sarit is running away from? In a way they are part of the lives of people who came from the villages to settle down in the city. The villages too have the sounds but it's so much in sync with the ambience, whereas in the city, each one has his little world and what emerges is the confusion we see in Sarit," says the filmmaker.
Early into the film, the director skilfully manages to draw our attention to the difference between sound and noise. Sarit's irritability with the slightest noise is also a reflection of disturbance within him. His inability to strike a rapport with Tarala and the growing intolerance with the aural takes him away to the village. Interestingly, Kanungo has not tried to foist the comparison between the lives in the city and the village on the viewer, and establish one as better. Like the other characters in the film, viewers also start reacting to the unusual sounds heard in the film.
How he does this is very interesting. In the village school, the headmaster has to haul up the arithmetic teacher because parents are unhappy, their wards have stopped taking interest in the subject since the teacher does not raise his voice. Agitation, anger, demanding obedience all this can come only with `noise', that is how many people are conditioned.
For Sarit, the rejection by Tarala and his new found attraction for Shonali in his village are two points that strike the viewers.
While one sees Tarala admonishing him for losing his calm, it is Shonali (Trina Neelima Banerji) who is puzzled and left wondering whether she would fit into his world which shuts out sounds.
`The ear has no lid' is how the doctor explains to the harassed young man. That gives him the idea of physically plugging the ear to shut out the unpleasant and find his peace.
The director is delighted that the film is going to many festivals and receiving awards.
"But," he says that, "it's the second film that will be the challenge and I have to work hard to prove myself as a filmmaker."
How did a corporate executive turn to films, is a natural question one asks him.
"Photography, trekking and documentaries have always been my interests, but one can't make a living on these. The Rs. 1.5-crore film was possible with the help given by 40 friends and the Fonds Sud grant," explains Jahar Kanungo.
French co-production
The French co-production helped him get Dominiques Vieillard as sound designer and Dileep Verma as cinematographer. Jahar Kanungo is all praise for the editor Sameera Jain, who, according him, understood the spirit of the work. As a first-time director, he relied on talent from Bengali theatre and they have done their jobs well.
Coming at the fag end of a seven-day FILCA Film Festival in Thiruvananthapuram, `Nisshabd,' an uncomplicated film that gives one a nudge every now and then, reminded one of one's own search for silence.
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