NABALOK  (The Innocent)

Director :  Bauddhayan Mukherji
India. 2014. 51 min.
Cast :  Ananya Sen , Barshan Seal, Suman Mukhopadhyay

Venues :

Spanish Film Institute
17 may Sunday. 20.00

ECAM
07 may Thursday. 16.00

Spread over 34 years of the Bengali life, Nabalok (The Innocent) the first piece of Teenkahon explores a transgressive facet of a relationship that exceeds the norms of social acceptability.

Written by Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay, the film is the story of an 8-year-old boy’s emotional attachment and obsession with a newly married girl in the village. A relationship that stirs up a hornet’s nest, opens a can of worms and peers into the frailties of human relationships through a tragicomical glass.

BAUDDHAYAN  MUKHERJI

One of the leading ad filmmakers of India, Bauddhayan Mukherji better known as Buddy, was born and brought up in Calcutta. He is the son of a schoolteacher mom and a poet father and was introduced to the world of music, arts and literature at a very young age.

A student of South Point School, Bauddhayan like all other Bengalis, was good at academics but his mind always lay elsewhere. When he was only 11, he was gifted a copy of the book “Ekei Boley Shooting” (All About Shooting) written by Satyajit Ray, and that changed his life forever. At that age he decided to become a filmmaker!

Ever since, Bauddhayan has followed his heart and walked on the footsteps of his idol. After school, Bauddhayan started majoring in Economics at St Xavier’s College – and that too because Satyajit Ray had studied economics! And just like him, he quit economics after graduation. Bauddhayan then joined the Clarion College of Advertising, the same organization (the then D J Keymer) where Ray had joined in due course.

Thus advertising became Bauddhayan’s means to an end but not the end itself.

Today Bauddhayan runs his own production house called Little Lamb Films and is considered a path breaker in Indian advertising filmmaking. He has directed more than 300 television commercials and won numerous international awards.

In 2010, Bauddhayan went on to win the prestigious Silver Lion at Cannes – the Oscars of ad films. He also won two back to back One Show merits at New York, back to back Spikes Asia Golds at Singapore, silver at the London International Awards and many more at the Goafests, Effies, Midas, Srijon Samman, RAPA, IDPA et al.

Offers to direct Hindi features started coming Bauddhayan’s way in Bombay, but his heart was set on a Bengali feature – his first film had to be Bengali! It was Bauddhayan’s way of paying his respect to the language, which opened his doors of perception and gave him the platform to explore and express himself. Teenkahon was born out of that desire.

Though Teenkahon is Bauddhayan’s debut feature film as a director, this is not the first time he has dabbled in movies. He has been the executive producer of the cult Bengali film Patalghar which started the new wave of Bengali films in early 2000.

Bauddhayan like his idol dabbles in several art forms. He loves writing – he is the only living Bengali poet to have been featured in Penguin’s Anthology of Indian Nonsense. He is also passionate about music – Bauddhayan and friends run Chhutir Pathshala, a Bengali organisation in Bombay which educates the non resident Bengali kids with the Bengali ways of living. Bauddhayan is a professional voiceover artist, an occasional actor and handy singer.