Prasun: I wasn’t keen on finding what I wanted to do, it just happened so that I almost accidentally bumped into my ‘now successful’ career.
Journalist: Right. Sir, in your paintings we have seen a sense of self acceptance and assessment.. all your works have a distinct style and pattern. Is it a deliberate attempt?
Prasun: What ‘all’ have you seen by me?
Journalist: Sir for example ‘the cloudiest day’, ‘a girl in holi’, ‘priest of benaras’ and many such brilliant works, you have kept a distinguishing cow in black and white patches throughout… is it..?
Prasun: Well that’s quite precise I should say! Yes indeed, keeping the cow in these works is deliberate, for more reasons than one!
Journalist: Can we get to know at least one of those reasons (smiles)?
Prasun: What I’ll do is tell you the most common reason, and that is cow being the neutral observer in the paintings, everyone else has a part to play specifically. I try to keep this as a symbolic medium in my works to show that someone’s watching. The fact that I chose a cow and not a horse or even a human, may be purely for artistic reasons. But I’ve always believed that even if someone is masturbating in a dark room, when it is being made into a piece of art, someone should be watching. That’s how I see it. I’m not getting into the argument whether it’s right or wrong, but it is certainly the way I like it.
Journalist: Thank you sir, it was a pleasure talking to you.
Prasun: Thank you, my pleasure!
Journalist: Cut…Debu keep the camera in the car, I’ll just be there.
Debu: Ya ma’am.
Prasun: Would you like some coffee or tea miss…..?
Journalist: Megha… Sengupta
Prasun: Right….Miss Sengupta, some tea or coffee?
Megha: Thanks a lot sir, a tea would be great.
Prasun: Great, you can call your cameraman too inside…umm what’s his name…Debu right?
Megha: Right, he’ll be fine there sir!
Prasun: ok, whatever’s fine with you. Kaka, 2 cup chaa please..(shouts)
Megha: Sir since the camera is not here, can I ask you something more personal related to your works?
Prasun: Ofcourse, go ahead, don’t be intimidated, I’m not as bad as I look…(grins)
Megha: haha…no I meant if you don’t mind that is..
Prasun: Sure, I won’t, go ahead
Megha: I have this intuition that something went terribly wrong in your childhood may be, something you didn’t want to see…
Prasun: How the hell did you deduce that? (astonished) is it because I said I like a neutral observer in my paintings?
Megha: well yes.. and much more than that. I was a psychology student in my graduation, before coming into journalism..I had developed a nice knack of reading people’s minds..even now although I don’t practice, I do it quite successfully.
Prasun: Amazing…its an outstanding quality. I’m rather impressed.
Megha: (blushes) Thanks sir, but what I asked….
Prasun: oh yes.. coming to what you asked. You are quite close. I saw something not just what I didn’t want to see, but also what I was not supposed to see.
I used to be a rigorous cycler in my young days. One day when no one was home and I was asked to stay inside, I didn’t follow the orders and went cycling. Remember I was just 9 then. Suddenly on a T crossing joining the main road, I saw a shootout between the police and someone firing from inside his car. I saw the whole action till the firing ceased, the guy was killed. I later discovered that he had kept ammunitions at his place and had links with the naxals. But what really disturbed me was that he was one of our neighbors. As a nine year old, I wasn’t supposed to see all that. But I did. I didn’t even know how to spell naxals, but I saw its consequences.
Megha: My god, that’s a disturbing piece of experience, I wish I had recorded this…
By the way, lovely tea sir.
Prasun: Thank kaka, he’s been doing this all his life. Anyway, where you headed now?
Megha: I’ll have to leave for the edit now. Quite a lot pending. But I’ll keep in touch sir, I had a great time interviewing and speaking to you.
Prasun: same here miss sengupta..
Megha: call me megha..i’ll leave now sir, debu must be really angry. Goodbye sir, have a good day!
Prasun: thank you megha, bye..take care! Tell me when the interview will be aired..
Megha: sure sir, bye!
Kaka: Has the girl left babu..
Prasun: ya, why?
Kaka: I think she’ll come again. She is in love with you babu. I’ve been observing her all afternoon!
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now thats what i would call a "Ritwik". Beautiful characters..........very visual.....it seemed like a conversation straight out of a Ray movie..... i could almost hear Rabindra sangeet playing in the background. But i wish they had shared a little more.......can we get a sequel? !!! :)
ReplyDeleteNayak???
ReplyDeletewasn't the last line too dramatic, i mean "in love with you"?? "o aabar aashbe" bolle o cholto...anyway will agree with parul...the characters were 'visual'. Another thing, psycho grad was deliberate ya incidental?
quite a nice one.... like its coming from a director's note book.. :).. a bit different in style from previous ones... i really liked the way u delivered ur own thought that someone's always watching each n every incidents... that's worth a deep philosophical thinking.. even masturbation is also coming into the process that's typical ritwik's own style..
ReplyDeleteand i was not at all surprised to see the last line... the way the story was going on
it was tending to be a bit predictable about their fondness for each other.. but i can tell u that the the line came a bit early than it was supposed to. i'm at one with Parul that we need a sequel. may be we were looking for something more in this story.
and about characters.. its as usual so live and visual like almost all other stories from urs...
otherwise besh bhalo hoyeche... besh ekta notun notun gondho aache etar modhye... keep it up...
this one's a cut above the rest dude... i cud feel the end ... Keep them coming .... !!
ReplyDeleteda conversation was soo damn real!! how do u do dis? a painter's perspective..a psychologist..!!kaka sayin shes in love! it must have been so tough 2 skech such strong characters wid such strong perspectives!
ReplyDeletevery well indeed twix! :)