Actor and producer Jaya Ahsan with the cinematographer Joaher Musavvir Jyoti, at the award ceremony —– TOI
The 5th World Film Festival showcased 10 feature films from six countries, according to festival director Premendra Mazumder. ‘River Tales’ won the Bimal Roy Silver Award for the second Best Feature Film, while Nadie Wasalamudaliarachchi’s ‘Pantrum‘ received a Jury Mention for Feature Film,” Mazumder said Ranajit Ray’s ‘Dolls Don’t Die – Putulnama‘ won the Harisadhan Dasgupta Golden Award for the Best Documentary, and Dip Bhuyan’s ‘River Still Flows’ received the Harisadhan Dasgupta Silver Award for the second Best Documentary.
“Jaya Aar Sharmin” captures the quiet intensity of two women confined during lockdown whose fragile bond grows in silence before straining under the weight of isolation. Ahsaan described her award-winning project as an “honest and pure” film crafted during the pandemic with limited resources. Speaking about the film’s film, Joaher told TOI , “I jumped in to be in the room with great artists and play a small part in that synergy.
Kolkata: Outperforming entries from six countries including Iran, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and India, a Bangladeshi feature film shot during the pandemic claimed the top prize at the 5th World Film Festival in Nandan. lead actor and producer Jaya Ahsan , along with the cinematographer Joaher Musavvir Jyoti, attended the concluding ceremony and were overwhelmed by Kolkata’s warm response While the director could not be present. A documentary from Bangladesh also earned a special mention at the event. The lineup included four Indian entries—Pankaj Borah’s Assamese film ‘River Tales’, Boban Govindan’s Malayalam film ‘Malavazhi‘, Shubham Sanjay Shevade’s Marathi film ‘Magazine’, and Biju Damodaran’s ‘Papa Buca’. “The Bimal Roy Golden Award for the Best Feature Film went to Piplu R Khan’s ‘Jaya Aar Sharmin’. Additionally, Dhritisree Sarkar’s Bengali short fiction ‘The Tale of Katha’ was given the Chidananda Dasgupta Golden Award for the Best Short Fiction, and Mohammad Sajad Motaharizadeh’s ‘Suddenly Rise’ secured the Chidananda Dasgupta Silver Award for the second Best Short Fiction. Reflecting on the production, she shared, “It is a very intimate film made at a time when we did not know what awaited us in future. We were all locked indoors and couldn’t do any work. There was no agenda in making this film apart from giving an expression to our creative and aesthetic vision. As a producer and actors, it became a film that is close to my heart. Ahsaan also celebrated the global recognition of contemporary Bangladeshi cinema, highlighting its experimental and brave nature. Praising the screen debut of stage actor Mohsina Akter and the distinctive vision of director-producer Piplu R Khan, she added, “I am so happy to see that the jury and the audience connected deeply with the film. A film is something you discover, not manufacture. Around that time, I was looking at life like cubism: fragments, contradictions, and glimpses that together become life, which is perhaps where this film came from. acknowledgement feels good, but with a film like this, it feels like someone really saw it. After a point, a film leaves you, travels, and finds its own people and tribe. That is what I love the most, and that feels very beautiful.”