The Violin Player
Bauddhayan Mukherji
India.  2016.  72 min.
Cast:   Adil Hussain, Ritwick Chakraborty, Nayani Dixit.

An encounter between two unnamed strangers is the focus of this quirky tale that looks at how expression and artistic beauty lead to self-discovery. The film opens following a failing violin player’s ordinary life. His wife is annoyed at him because he won’t help around the house and he’s not getting it right during music training. It’s clear that he’s seen as a failure in both his personal and professional life. But that all changes when he catches the attention of a stranger at the train station, a filmmaker who needs a score to his latest project, offering the player an opportunity he can’t refuse. Agreeing to take the job because he’s desperate for money, the violinist follows his new employer through the back alleys of the city, and onto an unexpected journey showing us how the art is able to change our lifes.

BAUDDHAYAN  MUKHERJI

Bauddhayan Mukherji (1973) is one of India’s leading advertising filmmakers, Bauddhayan, better known as Buddy, was born and raised in Calcutta. He is the son of a school teacher and a poet and was introduced to the world of music, the arts and literature at a very early age.
He studied at South Point School and, like all Bengalis, was good in the academic world, but his mind was always somewhere else. When he was only 11 years old, he received a copy of the book “Ekei Boley Shooting” written by Satyajit Ray, who changed his life forever, because at that age he decided to become a filmmaker.
Since then, Bauddhayan has followed his heart and has walked in the footsteps of his idol. After school, Bauddhayan majored in Economics at St Xavier’s College, as Satyajit Ray, who had also studied economics. And like him, he left the economy after graduation. Bauddhayan joined the Clarion College of Advertising, the same organization (then D J Keymer), where Ray had joined in his time.
Today Bauddhayan runs his own production company, Little Lamb Films and is considered a breakthrough in Indian film advertising. He has directed over 300 television commercials and won numerous international awards.
In 2010, Bauddhayan won the prestigious Silver Lion in Cannes, the oscars of the commercials. He also won two consecutive One Show awards in New York, Spikes Asia Golds in Singapore, silver in the London International Awards and many more in Goafests, Effies, Midas, Srijón Samman, RAPA, IDPA and others.
He was offered offers to direct Indian films in Bombay, but his heart is Bengali and his first film had to be Bengali. It was Bauddhayan’s way of showing his respect for his language and the one that opened the doors for him to explore and express himself. Teenkahon was born of that desire.
Although Teenkahon is Bauddhayan’s debut feature as a director, this is not the first time he has ever worked in movies. He has executive produced the Bengali film Patalghar, which began the new wave of Bengali films in early 2000.
Bauddhayan, as his idol, investigates various forms of art. He loves to write, he is the only living Bengali poet who has appeared in the penguin Indian anthology. He is also passionate about music, so Bauddhayan and his friends direct Chhutir Pathshala, a Bengali organization in Bombay that educates Bengali children who are not residents of Bengali life forms. Bauddhayan is a professional voice-over artist, an occasional actor and a singer.
With respect to The Violin Player, this is his route:
 7th Jio Mami Mumbai FF (2015) – India Gold
 20th IFFK, Kerala (2015) – International Competition
 37th Durban IFF (2016) International Competition – Best Feature film Award
 13th Stuttgart Indian FF (2016)
 12th Jecheon IMFF, South Korea (2016) – Cine Symphony
 24th Raindance Film Festival (2016) – Intl Competition – nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Actor
 40th Sao Paulo IFF (2016) – New Directors Competition
 61st Cork IFF (2016) – Panorama
 Indian FF The Hague (2016)
 India Kaleidoscope at Momi NY (2016)
 Image India Paris (2016)
 SeeYouSound Festival (2017)
 Washington DC Independent FF (2017)