The unit during the shooting of ‘Adamya’
Kolkata: Ranjan Ghosh ’s ‘Adamya’, a small independent Bengali film, travelled 5,407-odd km from the deltaic tides of the Sundarbans to northeastern Siberia to win the NETPAC prize at IX Yakutsk International Film Festival in Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha Republic. The festival, held from Nov 4 to 9, featured a special Focus India segment, in which independent Indian cinema was acknowledged for the first time. He felt they might face some challenges: censorship has been introduced, and the film might be viewed as ‘justifying extremism and terrorism‘.
But the selection and the win show the festival knows the difference between extremism and rebellion; they can identity a patriot from a traitor.“ This recognition, he said, validated the film’s themes of resistance and resilience. “It reaffirms my belief that a deeply local story, told with honesty, can transcend borders. My heartfelt gratitude to the jury, the festival, our presenter Aparna Sen , my fellow producers Anjan Bose and Bajranglal Agarwal, lead actor Aryuun Ghosh and the rest of the team,” he said.
‘Adamya’ was among the four films in this category, the other three being Anoop Lokkur’s ‘Don’t Tell Mother’, Ramalingam Gautam’s ‘Members of the Problematic Family’ and Monjul Baruah’s ‘Romantic Affairs’. Ghosh’s film explores the volatile intersection of extremism and individual patriotism. Inspired by Sukanta Bhattacharya and Bhagat Singh, it frames anti-state rebellion against systemic corruption , questioning whether violent dissent destroys democratic values or attempts to defend them against the ugly face of state-generated violence. For Ghosh, the selection was extra special, given the censorship hurdles the film crossed. “Though the programme director loved our film and wanted to screen it, he was apprehensive of the censorship there.