GUWAHATI: Filmmaker Rima Das is optimistic that her third film, Bulbul Can Sing, which will be released across movie halls in Assam on Friday will be accepted by local audiences after the 2018 creation was acclaimed by critics and acknowledged by viewers worldwide.
The film, which will be released across PVRs in India on September 27, had won the national film award for Best Feature Film in Assamese at the 66th National Film Awards ceremony besides a series of awards in film festivals across the globe.
“I am optimistic that Bulbul Can Sing will be accepted at home after a series of global shows where people and critics alike have acknowledged and accepted it. The characters in this film are more real than Village Rockstars and will appeal to the common man, particularly adolescents,” Rima told the media here on Thursday.
The film, which revolves around three teenagers trying to come to terms with their identities, was also screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
The main protagonist of the movie, Bulbul, is played by Arnali Das.
A young girl who lives in a village in Assam, Bulbul has two best friends, Bonny, played by the Bonita Thakuriya and Suman played by Manaoranjan Das. The three come of age but are at odds with the moral codes of the village. What they want to be and what their community expects them to be, become two different things.
Asked why the film had to be abruptly released at a time when other Assamese films are being screened, Rima said, “We were informed that the film has to be released before September 28, 2019 as a norm if we were to apply for Oscar selection. So, it was my responsibility to abide by that even as I am aware that limited screening time might affect our audience here.”
Last year, Village Rockstars had packed houses for five weeks. The filmmaker said that as of now, the movie would have one or two daily screenings across 29 halls. “But we will try to take the film to people in smaller towns and villages,” she said.
Like Village Rockstars, her third creation too is a low-budget film without a crew or professional artistes and shot through a DSLR camera.
“When you have a crew or professional actors, it becomes difficult as there is a daily budget and added pressure to cope with. But when I am alone, I can take my time and work within my space. I like to be patient, capture the best of nature which is reflected in my films,” Rima said.
On what inspires to the genre of her films, “I would not say that I make art films as the art would mean something abstract. I make films because it is my life, I think and dream cinema….Be it Village Rockstars or this film, I try to portray reality in the simplest form and connect people to the story.
Asked about the choice of the young characters, she said that the young people are great storytellers and it is important to portray how they relate to the realities of life. “I have made the movie to appeal to this category how to relate to reality. Besides, I have emphasised on how values are more important than emotions, which can get the better of one’s life,” she added.