An Irrelevant Dialogue
An octogenarian couple, Shankar and Ila Bagchi, live a life of isolation confined within one room of a big, empty and time-worn house in the city. Childless by choice and unwilling to become a burden on their kin, they are in constant tussle with panic and fear. The thought of a deteriorated future – a life succumbed to bed-bounding sickness or alone without their sole companion, makes their existing loneliness only deeper. After having offered all that they could to the society including pledging their organs, they are convinced of the purposelessness of their present. Plagued by uncertainty of tomorrow and the weary mundanity of today, they resort to writing to the President of India. They plead guilty of a crime they believe to have committed – of living beyond seventy-five years, and request mercy. While awaiting the consequences of this extreme position towards their right to die with dignity, they seek desperate measures to fulfil their desire that challenges the status quo.
Inspired from a true story, the film tries to explore the life of this couple through contemplative aesthetics, carefully stripping it of any superfluous movement, both visual and dramaturgical. The observational portrayal tries to capture the infinite stasis of these two lives in its essential perceived form. However, the normative social structures of our everyday life render these characters insignificant and their extremist take against the conditioned value surrounding life as irrational and inconsequential. An irrelevant dialogue.
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Moinak GuhoDirector
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Moinak GuhoWriter
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Satyajit Ray Film and Television InstituteProducer
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Kalyan ChatterjeeKey Cast"Shankar Bagchi"
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Maya GhoshKey Cast"Ila Bagchi"
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Kenneth CyrusCinematography
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Eshan SilEdit
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Arkadeep KarmakarSound Recording & Design
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Srirup SarkarProduction Design
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Mahak GuptaColorist
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Swatilina SamantaExceutive Producer
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Amitabha DasExceutive Producer
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Miyoung YooOriginal Background Score
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Project Title (Original Language):এক অপ্রাসঙ্গিক সংলাপ (Ek Awprasongik Songlaap)
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Runtime:33 minutes
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Completion Date:July 31, 2019
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Production Budget:19,000 USD
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Country of Origin:India
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Country of Filming:India
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Language:Bengali
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Shooting Format:Digital. ARRI 2.8K RAW
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Aspect Ratio:1.85:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. India.
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17th SiGNS Film FestivalThrissur, Kerala.
India
September 29, 2019
National Premiere
Official Selection - Competition -
39th Filmschool Fest MunichMunich
Germany
November 20, 2019
International Premiere
Award - Best Cinematography: Student Camera Award -
11th Cut.In Student Film FestivalMumbai
India
December 13, 2019
Award - Jury Special Mention for Short Fiction -
Arthouse Asia Film FestivalKolkata
India
January 8, 2020
Official Selection -
3rd Kautik International Film FestivalMarchula, Uttarakhand
India
November 9, 2019
Awards - the Audience Choice Award for Best Indian Short Fiction. -
3rd Kautik International Film FestivalNainital, Uttarakhand
India
November 9, 2019
Awards - the FCCI (Film Critics Circle of India) Award for Best Indian Short Fiction. -
11th Cut.In Student Film FestivalMumbai
India
December 13, 2019
Award - Silver Owl for Cinematography -
4th Kalinga Global Film FestivalBhubaneswar
India
January 18, 2020
Award - Best Student Short Fiction -
Winter Dialogues (Art event/exhibition)Mussorie, Uttarakhand
India
January 26, 2020
Official Selection -
3rd South Asian Short Film FestivalKolkata
India
March 30, 2020
Official Selection -
FFSI Online Film Festival
India
July 27, 2020
Official Selection -
Nottingham Arts Mela
United Kingdom
August 20, 2020
Official Selection -
SPHERE - World Cinema Carnival
India
September 5, 2020
Official Selection -
3rd South Asian Short Film FestivalKolkata
India
October 1, 2020
Ritwik Ghatak Silver Award for 2nd Best Short Fiction -
45th Laceno d'oro International Film FestivalIrpinia
Italy
December 11, 2020
Italian Premiere
Official Competition Selection -
4th Cineville Annual Film FestivalNew Delhi
India
April 14, 2021
Official Selection -
Imagine India Film FestivalMadrid
Spain
May 19, 2021
Spanish Premiere
Official Selection -
Lift Off SessionsOnline
United Kingdom
Official Selection -
International Federation of Film Societies Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
May 24, 2021 -
10th International Film Festival of South AsiaToronto
Canada
August 17, 2021
North American Premiere
Award - Best Director (Featurette Films) -
10th International Film Festival of South AsiaToronto
Canada
August 22, 2021
North American Premiere
Award - Best Actor Female (Featurette Films) -
5th Pame Film FestivalPokhara
Nepal
December 28, 2021
Nepal Premiere
Moinak Guho, is a filmmaker based out of Kolkata. An alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, where he completed his Post Graduation in Cinema, specializing in Direction and Screenplay Writing. During his coursework in SRFTI he has made short films, both fiction and non-fiction, under the scope of his curriculum and also outside of it with independent grants. This, “An Irrelevant Dialogue” his final project in SRFTI had its national premiere at the 13th SiGNS Film Festival, Kerala 2019, and its international premiere at the 39th FilmSchoolFest Munich, 2019, where it won the Best Cinematography award. The film has since won seven awards and has been screened at several festivals. Most of his short films have traveled across festivals like, the 41st Laceno d'oro, Italy; Nottingham Arts Mela, 36th VGIK Student Festival, Moscow; 15th Mumbai International Film Festival, Mumbai; 11th IDSFFK, Kerala; 9th & 11th Cut.In, Mumbai; 4th Woodpecker Film Festival, New Delhi and several others. Besides these, he has assisted Naeem Mohaiemen, Nishtha Jain, Anirban Datta & Sourav Sarangi in their upcoming films. He is currently writing his debut feature film.
Inspired from a true story of a living couple in India, this film is a fictional interpretation of their lives. Through the essayist portrayal of the lives of this couple the film tries to explore a global dialogue which is still considered a taboo across the world leaving two or three countries in particular. What fascinated me immediately as I read the story in a newspaper last year, is primarily the character of the old man in whose arguments I found a reflection of myself and realizing that he believed in these ideologies back in his youth was pleasantly surprising as well as resonating. Standing deep into the 21st century where we all are living isolated lives and the constant change in lifestyle with advancement in technology has made "choice" an incremental index to personal freedom, I believe this conversation that the film aims to initiate becomes essential to engage with, albeit uncomfortable. However, in reality, with these characters being insignificant someone, the argument being against the established "normal" apparently seems to be irrational and inconsequential. An irrelevant dialogue.