PANAJI: ‘Sainbari to Sandeshkhali’ non-feature film of Indian Panorama at the ongoing 52nd IFFI, makes a grim statement on the law and order situation in West Bengal over the last 50 years.
Sanghamitra Chaudhuri, director of the film, revealed that she got threat calls when she was doing the film, but she did not step back because she has documented-evidence for the “mass murders” that have been covered up even as the victims families wait for justice.
“My research is totally on politically-inclined murders. So, this is more of a history than a political film. I did a thorough research against every scene, there are documentations like eyewitnesses… I would like entire India and the world to see what has happened in West Bengal and is still happening,” said Chaudhuri at a press conference here on Thursday.
With gruesome incidents of mass-killings of 15 thousand East Bengal refugees, a mother being forced to eat rice stained with her son’s blood, among other accounts reflected in the docu-feature; Chaudhuri experienced a lot of pain while making the film. “It’s pathetic…! It is not just the courage that it takes to make a film of this kind, it is also very painful,” she remarked and added that the film has portrayed 15 to 16 incidents that shows that West Bengal is a “very disturbed state”.
She admitted that life in the capital city of Kolkata is markedly different from that in the villages, which are politically sensitive and scared of riots. “There are problems which we are facing and it’s more in the last 15 years than in the past,” claimed Chaudhuri, who has also directed a Bollywood film.
