O Abhagi
Based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya’s short story ‘Abhagir Swargo‘
Writer & Director: Anirban Chakraborty
Presented by Swabhumi Entertainment
Produced by Dr. Prabir Bhaumik
Releasing on 29th March 2023
Cast:
Rafiath Rashid Mithila, Subrata Dutta, Debjani Chatterjee, Ishaan Mazumder, Sayan Ghosh, Jiniya Pande, Krishno Banerjee, and Sourav Halder.
Crew:
Screenplay and Direction- Anirban Chakraborty
DOP- Malay Mondal
Editor- Sujay Datta Ray
Music Director- Mousumi Chatterjee
Synopsis:
Abhagi is a lower cast, poor village woman left by her husband. She lives with her son Kangali in her small mud hut, still they are happy. In her childhood Abhagi once watched Yamraj in a play and fell in love with his aura and power. She got influenced by his words. Yamraj only takes good charactered women with him in his chariot after cremation in fire. From then Abhagi always dreams of fire from her son after death. When Brhammin Ginnima passed away she saw a chariot coming from the heaven in the smoke in which Ginnima was burnt. It took her away to the heaven. Abhagi again dreamed her death like Ginnima. That day she got high fever. After three days she died. Before her death she told her son about her wish of sindoor, alta and being burnt in wood. Kangali fulfilled all the wishes. But he couldn’t arrange the wood to burn. All scolded by saying that he has no need to burn her mother in wood as they are lower cast. He had to burry the dead body of his mother. The fire, Abhagi desired all her life, now is in the eyes of Kangali.
Director’s Note:
“Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was such an author who always gave a lot of content in just a single line and all his stories and novels are familiar to film scripts, that’s why he is my favourite. ‘O ABHAGI’ is an adaptation of ‘ABHAGIR SWARGO’. The raw and harsh reality of rural culture has been portrayed in this film. The presentation and the treatment of every audio visual part is unique and experimental. A lot of new central characters are added in the screenplay with the main characters created by Sarat Chandra. The challenge was to create something new without tampering the essence of the actual story.
The log line of this film could be “An unparalleled battle between the fantasy of a ‘Sati’ and the casteism of the society”.
So the poster had to reflect Abhagi, the’Sati’ as a worrier. She is different, she is alone, she has her own beliefs and ethics. So she had to stand alone. As the fire makes gold pure though it melts it, Abhagi also is in touch with it since childhood. Fire itself symbolizes purity, sacredness and strength. So it is an essential element or part of this poster.
I believe the most exciting part of filmmaking is the shooting part. In this time all artists and crew members work together and try to give their best effort to the film. So many people gather and become like a part of a family. We shot this film in various locations for a long time and we enjoyed so much that after the the final rap up some of us started crying.
We started the shoot in winter and ended in summer. We were shooting in a hilly place where the temperature was so low and the most of the male artists were in bare body and the female artists were in just a light weight cotton sari. There was a sequence where Mithila (Abhagi) and the young boy Sourav (Kangali) were taking bath in a river. Both the artists never complained to me for shooting that sequence in that climate. Thanks to Mithila for her cooperation with us to fight aginst nature and all odds. So many memories are there. We shot in a deep forest at almost midnight still the nearby villagers were there till pack-up to experience a new thing like film shooting to them. Some of them acted also in some sequences. I found so much enthusiasm in them. Subrata Dutta is also a nice person and a great actor. After having lunch he had to take another lunch for a scene and the quantity he had to consume was a lot.”