12 August,2021 11:38 AM IST | Mumbai | BrandMedia
Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar
He is an enigma. You look at him and he looks back at you with pure intelligence and before you can formulate a question he knows what to tell you.
When the world is being ripped apart over the unending pandemic and crippling every conceivable industry, and the global mainstream film industry is in a tailspin due to COVID restrictions and travel limitations, many premium movie projects have completely hit a full stop thanks to budget restrictions and uber expensive sets and astronomic costs of stars who cannot guarantee any assured returns, the theatres are closed and top billed movies are not generating revenues even from OTT release, out of the box thinking and different skill sets are the need of the hour.
Even the OTT's are fast loosing audience interest as the public at large want to see out of box concepts. SRS showed the world what it is to shoot three full length movies on a i-Phone. While he is not advocating usage of only smart phones to make movies, but his thoughts and his works are harbingers to something larger. One can continue making movies without merely burning cash. One can easily define him as the Robert Rodriguez and Lars Von Trier of India.
This man is on to something monumental in world cinema if you are intelligent enough to read the message in the wind. His usage of amazing story telling and unique direction coupled with working with non star cast makes it a revolutionary melting pot of cinema. He casts Indian and European actors in the same movie and does it with élan. He has truly globalised cinema breaking through the stereotypes.
Most interestingly you cannot chain this man into a particular genre. Each of his movies is different from each other. Six movies in span of eight years without any studio backing is no mean a feat. On top of that his production company NEZ Moving Pixels have produced movies for others and he runs a 7 year old art house film festival in Kolkata that itself has discovered many cinema gems. It runs for three days.
SRS a flamboyant personality
SRS is a unique man and a flamboyant individual. You cannot miss him in a crowd. He wears two watches in both hands, his right hand has rock sized rings on all fingers and his left hand has tigers, Alligator, Eagle and snake. His both wrists have antique bracelets.
It makes things more interesting that he is a poet, painter, philosopher and all his movies are based on his stories.
Europe has started acknowledging his cinema and calls him Maestro. As recognition of his craft and vision he has been invited as a Guest of honour in 25th Edition of Apoximeno International Film Festival in Florence, Italy, 2021.
American production companies are also talking to this man.
Are we looking at a revolutionary phenomenon that is taking shape in Indian cinema through this man? Only time will tell.
As part of his extraordinary filmography his latest movie a silent, black and white project with absolute stunning imagery deals with Cannibalism. It is the story of an ordinary Christian family set in 1970s that practices Cannibalism as a form of self and family love. The movie has reference of symbolic cannibalism in family, society and relationship. The movie is dark, deep and shocking. The movie sees Rita Jhawar, SRS's long time business partner at NEZ playing the pivotal role of the protagonist. It also repeats stunning beauty Mrunalini Thakur, SRS's actress from previous cinema, "Death of Spring", along with Rashmi Sharma, Mandeep Ghai and Sushil Bhosale.
