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A Tale to Begin With
The Life of Jayanta Mahapatra
Speaker
English & Odiya | 82 mins | India | 2023
Standing tall at 94, Jayanta Mahapatra, the grand old bard of Indian Poetry, finally gave the nod to be filmed for a documentary by Bishweshwar Das, a Cuttack resident and adman. A very private person, Jayanta Da had however one condition, ‘Not to make a linear, and usual…was born in’ kind of film.
JM as people fondly call him had once tinkered with analogue cameras and had ambitions of being a photographer, so when filming began JM slowly blended with his natural camaraderie and simplicity. For the next few months, the motley crew of 8mm Pictures followed Jayanta Da in his many sojourns across his beloved city of Cuttack and few places in Odisha. With a rock star like fan following in poetry festivals and literary meets and the outpouring of love and adulation by commoners alike, the shy and simple Jayanta Babu opened up about life, love and poetry in freewheeling discussions in few places he loves to hang out. Even as he bid adieu, he had a smile on his face. What he finally left, was a body of work that is unparalleled in Indian English poetry. And of course, his faith in the eternal spirit of humanity.
The title of the film is a long self-critiquing poem that Jayanta Da wrote and read after receiving the Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for poetry at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The film is interspersed between this poem and the journeys he made in the last year of his life.
Directed by Bishweshwar Das
Editor: Nabin Roychoudhury
Music: Imon Bose
Cinematography: Sayan Das
Sound Design: Sabyasachi
Supported by: Reza Foundation
Munin Borkotoki Memorial Trust
Jayanti Das
Friends and admirers of Jayanta Babu
The film will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
This event is part of BIC’s programmes to commemorate Odisha Day. The link to the other event is here.
Speaker
Bishweshwar Das
Bishweshwar Das, dreamt of making films right after his 10th (After watching the retrospectives of Satyajit Ray who had passed away that summer). But life had other plans. He meandered into engineering and a brief corporate life before his love for writing and photography landed him a job in advertising.
Having spent almost 2 decades in many ad agencies he began his filmmaking journey with a ‘A tale to begin with’, his tribute to the grand old man of Indian Poetry, Jayanta Mahapatra. The documentary is also a culmination of his love for his birth place Cuttack, his fondness for the written word specially verses and off course JM, whose first poem (The Captive air of Chandipur by Sea) he had read in that summer when Ray had passed away many moons ago. As they say life is a full circle.
