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Director Subhrajit Mitras latest film Aagunpakhi,revolves around the Maoist revolution

Written by Shoma A. Chatterji

May 21, 2010 03:40 PM IST

4 min read

Director Subhrajit Mitras latest film Aagunpakhi,revolves around the Maoist revolution
Director Subhrajit Mitra created a splash with his maiden directorial film Mon Amour Shesher Kobita Revisited a couple of years ago. But the film,inspired by Tagores famous love story Shesher Kobita,sank at the box-office without a trace. The young and ambitious Subhrajit,however,did not permit this to pull him down. He is back again with Aagunpakhi The Phoenix that revolves around the Maoist revolution. It has an impressive cast and an excellent musical score by the talented Kalyan Sen Barat.

I had this story in mind even while I was making my first film,so the Maoist agitation is not the inspiration as people might think. The script happened in my mind much before the Maoist revolution that has now spread right across the length and breadth of the country. But this film would never have been possible had Mindscapes Maestros not stepped in to produce my film, says Subhrajit. Besides Rituparna Sengupta,who plays a documentary filmmaker in Aagunpakhi who enters the restrictive areas where these extremists carry on with their armed revolution,the film has a powerful supporting cast comprising Sabyasachi Chakraborty,Shantilal Mukherjee,Kharaj Mukherjee,Sagnik,Anindya,Ankita Rajesh Sharma and Shreya Pande.

I wanted to do this role when Subhrajit first narrated the concept to me two years ago when we were shooting for his earlier film. I enjoyed every minute of working in the film and I think it is quite a timely film though it was certainly not planned to coincide with the agitation that is going on right now, says Rituparna. I was thrilled when the two friends Ranadeb Paul and Pratik Sen of Mindscapes who are based in Bengaluru showed their interest in producing my film with so much enthusiasm. We shot in Midnapore and parts of North Bengal and almost the entire film has been shot on location because the subject demanded this. Aagunpakhi is a topical story of the troubled times we are living in. It explores the finer nuances of the common peoples struggle for justice. The endeavour by Mindscapes Maestros will certainly leave a footprint and extend the map of their endeavours from events,sports and celebrity management to films, says Subhrajit.

We have tried to make a substantial commitment to the Bengali film industry with Aagunpakhi,which marks our foray into film production. We look forward to attracting a large audience as the film defines meaningful entertainment, says Mindscapes Maestros director Ranadeb Paul. The story,authored by Mitra himself who also wrote the script,revolves around the lives of armed rebels. Instead of taking a biased stand,Aagunpakhi tries to explore the causes of what made these people turn against society and take up arms to express their rebellion. My search is to go to the roots of their struggle rather than making moralistic judgements on their action. I have had a first-hand experience with some of these movements when I used to make documentary films and some of the people I met then have become characters in this film. Aagunpakhi does not provide easy solutions,but points out towards some possible answers to the problems at stake, says Subhrajit. Rana Dasgupta is D.O.P.,while FTII alumnus Debkanta Chakrabarty has edited the film. The art direction is by Goutam Basu. The producers hope to release the film by May or June at the latest.

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