Kamal Ghorui
Kolkata: ‘Song of Behula’, a short film by SRFTI alumnus that is based on the contemporary retelling of a Hindu folk epic by a Muslim family of chitrakars, has been selected to have its world premiere at Visions du Réel in Switzerland. Juxtaposing a living storytelling tradition with the Adi Ganga river’s present ecological distress, the 13-minute film is an important project in the contemporary fractured climate of religious identities. Akashdeep Banerjee’s film will be screened at the festival’s Opening Scenes section, which spotlights promising, bold and distinctive first shorts or short films made within an academic context. Choosing to focus on a Muslim family telling Hindu folklore was a conscious directorial choice to reflect how “deeply interconnected cultures in India, especially in Bengal, have always been beyond rigid religious identities”. Banerjee pointed out how in the Naya village of West Medinipur, it is only Muslim artisans who continue to preserve the dying tradition of Patachitra scroll painting. They also preserve the Poter Gan which is an art form rooted in medieval Bengal when the Manasamangal Kavya and other Hindu mythological narratives were first composed. “Their practice reveals a deep cultural overlap that persists beyond the dominant narrative of division in the current political climate, reminding us that this shared inheritance is something to value, protect, and carry forward as part of Bengal’s living traditions. In contrast to the growing sense of division in today’s political climate, this intermingling of traditions, myths, and practices continues to represent a more authentic cultural and anthropological reality, where boundaries have historically been fluid rather than fixed,” he said. The film uses an interesting dual screen structure. “I wanted to ground the film in our own epistemologies. Patachitra became central, as a cinematic form operating across image and narration, leading to this structure,” Banerjee explained. The gentle pacing of the edit maintained a balance that preserved the Potua Sangeet while offering minimal context. “Editing alongside shooting helped calibrate information flow, ensuring depth without overwhelming the audience,” he added. Since the people speaking about the decline of the Adi Ganga are not singular, Banerjee used their voices without images. “Removing faces shifted focus to shared memory and protected participants who preferred voice interviews. It also created immersion. Slides highlighted historicity and offered necessary context about Adi Ganga and Manasa Mangal without turning the film into an information driven exercise,” Banerjee added.
