Kolkata: Just 2km from Trump Towers is Kolkata’s dumpyard — the backdrop of a Bengali film that is vying for the topmost award of the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF).
The film, directed by 34-year-old Ishaan Ghose, is the first Bengali film to have been set in Dhapa. It opens with a blue-tinted panoramic shot of a boy enveloped by methane gas emanating from a factory where bones extracted from carcasses are machine-treated for various usage. The leftover — called ‘Jhilli’ — is the name from which derives the film’s title. Ishaan’s film, which will have its first Kolkata screening on April 29, traces what happens to two workers when this factory shuts down.
Son of veteran director Goutam Ghose, Ishaan took a call to direct films quite late in his career. Initially, he did the cinematography for some of his father’s features and documentaries. Then, he began shooting a documentary on Tiljala’s ragpickers. “Unfortunately, the organization turned out to be fraudulent,” he said. The project got abandoned midway but by then, Ishaan had already been smitten by the direction bug. “While Kolkata’s urban life and the dumpyard need each other, both seem to be oblivious to the other’s existence. In 2013, I had first gone to Dhapa. Back then, I liked to wander around the city with my camera. Being city-bred, I had no idea about this bone factory,” said the debutante director.
The frequency of his random visits to the site increased. The stench and the filth were initially quite nauseating. In hindsight, it all helped him start an organic pre-production for this independent feature film. Ishaan cast brothers of his childhood friend for ‘Jhilli’ — a film woven around fictitious characters. “My friend’s brother, Gorky, played the lead. He likes bizarre stuff and I knew he would not mind if I asked him to shoot in that squalor. On days of shooting, they would come over to my house before we headed to Dhapa. Post-shoot, we were all stinking. So, everyone came to my house and scrubbed themselves clean before returning to their respective houses,” he said.
It is difficult for viewers not to be reminded of Goutam’s ‘Paar’ while watching ‘Jhilli’. “Yes, I think the pigs will remind them somehow,” he said. But in terms of use of background music, the sound design and the cinematic language, ‘Jhilli’ is very different from Goutam Ghose’s films or any other contemporary Bengali cinema. “I never had a social pressure to take up direction. Our tastes in films are different. Baba prefers classical music while I like electronic music,” he said.
In 2020, Ishaan returned to the Dhapa. That was during the peak of the pandemic. The bone factory, where he had shot, had been replaced by a godown. He spotted a crematorium for unclaimed bodies. During that time, many Covid casualties were being cremated there. Unless compelled, people would avoid a Dhapa visit then. But Ishaan went to see if he could find anything more that would add to his film. Once the KIFF screening is over, he intends to return there again. This time to organize an open-air screening of ‘Jhilli’ there.
The film, directed by 34-year-old Ishaan Ghose, is the first Bengali film to have been set in Dhapa. It opens with a blue-tinted panoramic shot of a boy enveloped by methane gas emanating from a factory where bones extracted from carcasses are machine-treated for various usage. The leftover — called ‘Jhilli’ — is the name from which derives the film’s title. Ishaan’s film, which will have its first Kolkata screening on April 29, traces what happens to two workers when this factory shuts down.
Son of veteran director Goutam Ghose, Ishaan took a call to direct films quite late in his career. Initially, he did the cinematography for some of his father’s features and documentaries. Then, he began shooting a documentary on Tiljala’s ragpickers. “Unfortunately, the organization turned out to be fraudulent,” he said. The project got abandoned midway but by then, Ishaan had already been smitten by the direction bug. “While Kolkata’s urban life and the dumpyard need each other, both seem to be oblivious to the other’s existence. In 2013, I had first gone to Dhapa. Back then, I liked to wander around the city with my camera. Being city-bred, I had no idea about this bone factory,” said the debutante director.
The frequency of his random visits to the site increased. The stench and the filth were initially quite nauseating. In hindsight, it all helped him start an organic pre-production for this independent feature film. Ishaan cast brothers of his childhood friend for ‘Jhilli’ — a film woven around fictitious characters. “My friend’s brother, Gorky, played the lead. He likes bizarre stuff and I knew he would not mind if I asked him to shoot in that squalor. On days of shooting, they would come over to my house before we headed to Dhapa. Post-shoot, we were all stinking. So, everyone came to my house and scrubbed themselves clean before returning to their respective houses,” he said.
It is difficult for viewers not to be reminded of Goutam’s ‘Paar’ while watching ‘Jhilli’. “Yes, I think the pigs will remind them somehow,” he said. But in terms of use of background music, the sound design and the cinematic language, ‘Jhilli’ is very different from Goutam Ghose’s films or any other contemporary Bengali cinema. “I never had a social pressure to take up direction. Our tastes in films are different. Baba prefers classical music while I like electronic music,” he said.
In 2020, Ishaan returned to the Dhapa. That was during the peak of the pandemic. The bone factory, where he had shot, had been replaced by a godown. He spotted a crematorium for unclaimed bodies. During that time, many Covid casualties were being cremated there. Unless compelled, people would avoid a Dhapa visit then. But Ishaan went to see if he could find anything more that would add to his film. Once the KIFF screening is over, he intends to return there again. This time to organize an open-air screening of ‘Jhilli’ there.
