Venkat Raman
Auckland, October 12, 2020
‘Belladonna’ wins international acclaim at IFA Istanbul Film Awards
Anirban Dutta, Swastika Ganguly, Bikram Banerjee and Preeta Vyas at the screening of ‘Belladonna’ on September 26, 2020 in AucklandDuring 1950s, rumours of strange happenings in uninhabited houses, hill-station cottages and large, out-of-town mansions were rampant. They included mysterious disappearances of people, often visitors from other places.
Some of them became successful films, which had thriller value, but injected scare among their watchers in cinema houses.
One such film is ‘Belladonna,’ which I was privileged to view more than two weeks ago (on September 26, 2020) at Ferndale House in Mt Albert, Auckland along with its acting and filming crew. My apologies for this delayed review, the cause of which is the pressure on our time with the ensuing general election.
The film ‘thrilled me,’ not in the emotional sense but by the thought that it brought out the best of talents in our community. From conception to execution, it was replete with quality.
International Award
‘Belladonna’ won the Best Actress Award for its main character, well enacted by Swastika Ganguly and the Best Film Award for her husband Anirban Datta.
Produced by Euphoria Entertainment Inc, a South Asian Performing Group based in Auckland, the film is based on a true incident that occurred in the early 1950s in Champabari, a village located in Jirania Tehsil of West Tripura District in Tripura, North India.
Preeta Vyas, one of the founders of Euphoria Entertainment Inc said that Champabari became increasingly infamous about 70 years ago.
“The Himalayan foothills in Northern India were known for a string of human disappearances reported from a cottage in the Village. Several attempts were made to unearth the mystery behind those disappearances, but none came up with a conclusive explanation. Legend says that the Cottage was set on fire by outraged villagers bringing it down but even today the melancholy voice of a woman is often heard chanting the local folklore in the dead of night. ‘Belladonna’ is based on this legend. It is our humble attempt at psychological film-making,” she said.
Directed by Anirban Datta, the film features Swastika Ganguly in the titular role, Bikram Banerjee in another lead role, Rishabh Kapoor, Raj Singh, Devadatt Manohar Paranjape, James Duncan, Saswata Ray and Vijayendra Bose.
About Psychological Thrillers
Psychological thriller is a genre commonly used to describe movies and books that deal with psychological narratives in a thrilling setting.
In terms of context and convention, it is a subgenre of the broader ranging thriller narrative structure, with similarities to Gothic and detective fiction in the sense of sometimes with a ‘dissolving sense of reality.’
It is often told through the viewpoint of psychologically stressed characters, revealing their distorted mental perceptions and focusing on the complex and often tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters.
Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action, and paranoia. Closely related to the psychological horror genre, the latter generally involves more horror and terror elements and themes.
About Swastika Ganguly
Born in Kolkata, Swastika Ganguly is a Biomedical Engineer by profession and an actor by passion.
Graduating with a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata she arrived in New Zealand to pursue her master’s in biomedical sciences at University of Auckland.
A brilliant student, Swastika was a topper at the University and has extensive experience in multinational including PricewaterhouseCoopers (Kolkata), Evalueserve (Gurgaon in Haryana, close to New Delhi) and is currently employed in Auckland.
She has been a literary and arts enthusiast since her childhood, winning several awards in Kolkata at debates and at painting competitions. Being a theatre lover, she has participated in a multitude of plays (mostly in English) since her childhood at the Annual Cultural Festival conducted by her alma mater (mostly School).
About Anirban Dutta
Anirban Dutta, who is the Producer, Editor and Cinematographer of ‘Belladonna’ is a graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, a City in the Haridwar District of Uttarakhand State in North India. He completed his PhD in Structural Engineering and is employed at an engineering firm in Auckland.
Like his wife Swastika Ganguly, Anirban is a connoisseur of arts and culture, trained by several theatre thespians to qualify as an Assistant Director at Jadavpur University Drama School.
Both of them are alumni from Nava Nalanda High School (one of the most esteemed educational institutions in Kolkata).
About Euphoria Entertainment Inc
Euphoria Entertainment Inc was established in 2017 by Swastika Ganguly, Anirban Datta and Bikram Banerjee to provide a platform for talented people to showcase their skills.
Swastika said that the primary focus of the enterprise is film and theatre productions for the New Zealand audience.
A display of Euphoria Entertainment Inc productions
“Preeta Vyas, Devdutt Paranjape, Amit Rathod and Shaival Chakravartyand Gaurav are our four strong pillars. We are gratified that our team has been invited to attend the Golden Star Awards organised by Istanbul Film Awards in March 2021. The event will be held at the heart of Constantine’s Byzantine Civilisation, the modern-day Constantinople, Istanbul. The film has also paved its way into the official selection at Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards and Lift Off Film Festival amongst many others,” she said.
Acclaim for ‘Amigo 1.0’
Euphoria Entertainment Inc gained another distinction recently.
Its ‘Amigo 1.0’ was awarded ‘The Best Lockdown-Themed Short Film’ at the Shoestring Film Challenge, 2020 (New Zealand) and has been selected to be featured at FTC Talents Online Film Awards (Bollywood Actor Suniel Shetty’s Production House) under the ‘Best Actress’ (Swastika Ganguly) and ‘Best Story and Screenplay’ (Anirban Datta) along with Istanbul Film Festival, 2020 under ‘The Best Short Film Shot using a Mobile Phone.’
Swastika said that ‘Amigo’ narrates the psychological impact that prolonged self-isolation could have on the human mind.
“It revolves around the story of a girl stuck in a global lockdown for two years following Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. The film represented its dexterity in reflecting Indian culture in New Zealand (shot completely during the Level 4 Lockdown period in New Zealand) in Bengali,” she said.
Domestic violence in ‘Abhinetri’
She said that in a recent bid to go beyond the shores of New Zealand, Euphoria collaborated with ‘Krosswindz,’ a leading Bengali Band based in Kolkata, for its upcoming Bengali short film, ‘Abhinetri.’
“We are extremely fortunate to have popular singer Upal Sengupta (from another leading Bengali Chandrabindoo) enacting a special part in the film. ‘Abhinetri’ (The Memoirs of an Actress) is an ode to all the strong women across the globe who have or have not survived domestic violence. The film depicts the life of a theatre actress, her journey from rags to riches, from slums to the high risers, to fame and stardom and eventually her heart-wrenching story of going into complete oblivion following a series of traumatic incidents that scarred her for life!” Swastika said.
Radha-Krishna in ‘Bhalobeshe Sokhi’
Swastika said that the latest project of Euphoria Entertainment Inc is ‘Bhalobeshe Sokhi,’ (‘Lovingly Yours’) is a modern-day adaptation of the story of Radha-Krishna, inspired from the Vaishnavi philosophy of “Radha-Bhav.’
“The story depicts the journey of self-discovery of Sreeradha (a modern-day woman living a mundane life) triggered by a chance encounter with Dhyuti (an artiste who takes life in her own pace and rhythm). This encounter forces Sreeradha to question age old social norms and changes how she views relationships and life,” she said.
Useful and interesting links:
Music video: https://vimeo.com/449272266/01d38de36d
Link to Amigo 1.0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyWS__7dfu0&t=18s
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