Atanu Ghosh's next on time travel

Atanu Ghosh���������s next ��������� ���������Abby Sen Er Ajob Duniya��������� ��������� starring Parambrata Chatterjee, Chiranjeet Chakrabarti and Aparajita Ghosh Das ��������� is a romantic comedy based on time-travel
Laughter is the best medicine that Tollywood is prescribing for Year 2011. If Anik Dutta���������s ���������Bhooter Bhobishyot��������� with an ensemble cast is about the problems that ghosts find themselves in when spooky houses are being razed to the ground because of the increasing need for building multiplexes, Soumitra Bagchi���������s ���������Le Halwa��������� is a Chaplinesque situational comedy, starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Kharaj Mukherjee and Shantilal Mukherjee, among others.And now, comes the news that Atanu Ghosh has pushed back his film on surrogate parenting and is instead making a romantic comedy titled ���������Abby Sen Er Ajob Duniya���������. Shooting for the latter will begin in March and will have Parambrata Chatterjee, Chiranjeet Chakrabarti and Aparajita Ghosh Das in the cast.
Says Atanu, whose ���������Takhan Teish��������� is all set to release on January 21, ���������My film is based on a story that I wrote some seven to eight years ago. The story was very futuristic then. Post-recession, I decided to firmly ground the film in reality.���������
The protagonist of this film, Abby Sen (Parambrata Chatterjee), is too mediocre to get a job in 2010. Having got the pink slip from various organizations, he comes to believe that had he been around 30 years earlier, he would have managed to eke out a living for himself. As luck would have it, he meets a pompous scientist who claims to have often time-travelled. He agrees to allow Abby to indulge in the same. But this offer comes with a rider. He has to either return to Year 2010 in two days or stay on in 1980 for one whole year. Abby chooses the latter and the film then turns into a romantic comedy where he literally makes a mess of his personal life even while being decently successful in his career.
Though we are already into Year 2011, Atanu insists on sticking to the 2010 and 1980 timeline for his film. ���������The latter is an important year in my script and I want to make use of some landmark events that happened in 1980, including the death of Uttam Kumar,��������� the director says.
While Atanu���������s film is a comedy, it is also layered with satire. ���������Abby Sen belongs to the broadcasting industry. My satire is on how this industry has undergone a sea-change from being quite simple in the 80s to the peppy format of today. While you laugh at this character, you also empathize with his situation,��������� Atanu adds.
The form of the film is also interesting. ���������I have used interviews where people talk directly to the camera about Abby Sen. Though the film will be shot on 35 mm, different types of digital cameras will be used for some scenes. Soumik Halder is my DOP. I���������m also using a lot of handheld shots and computer graphics,��������� the director informs.
Atanu insists that Parambrata, who has done a number of telefilms with him on the small screen, is just the right cast for this role because of his ���������interesting range as an actor���������. ���������Parambrata will play a television producer in this feature film. I don���������t think he has ever tried this kind of a comedy before. Aparajita plays a singer with whom Abby has a relationship in 1980. But he can���������t commit because he is already married and settled in 2010. Aparajita has a great comic timing that���������s hardly been explored in feature films. She has played comic roles in my telefilms, ���������Adhora Madhuri��������� and ���������Deadline��������� and my short series titled ���������Abak Prithibi��������� that was based on Tarapada Roy���������s story. As for the scientist���������s character, I wanted someone with a dominant personality. Chiranjeet is hardly seen in movies now. I���������m sure the audience would like to see him play a tall-talker,��������� the director adds.
Aparajita is excited about playing a singer from the 80s. ���������It���������s a very difficult script that involves the concept of time-travel. I���������m sure Atanuda will handle it well. The two worlds involving the real and the larger-than-life exist parallely. I love the fairytale element in this comedy and am waiting to begin shooting for this movie,��������� Aparajita says.
Chiranjeet too is no less thrilled with the fairytale element in the script. ���������I���������m impressed with Atanu as a director. I liked his ���������Angshumaner Chhobi��������� and ���������Takhan Teish���������. He has the capacity for intelligent thinking. The dialogues are hilarious. When I read Atanu���������s script, I was reminded of some of the futuristic pieces that my father, Saila Chakrabarti, used to write in Bengali newspapers. He had once written a story where he had imagined of swinging multi-storied buildings! It might have sounded very absurd then but I recently heard that such a thing has actually happened in Dubai. When I get a movie offer that deals with a script which is slightly futuristic, it excites me. Today, acting is a hobby and not a profession. So, if I get a script that reminds me of the writing of Jerome K Jerome and Sukumar Ray, I will definitely try to do justice to it.���������
Though Parambrata hasn���������t read Atanu���������s script as yet, he has loved the story. ���������I have worked with Atanuda in so many telefilms that I can trust him blindly. The story of how a 30-something man thinks that the only cure to resurrect his failed career is to time-travel, is hilarious,��������� Parambrata says.
As for the return of the interest in comedy in Bengali cinema, Parambrata says, ���������A mixed bag of movies are working at the box-office these days. There was a time when mainstream Bengali movies would be based on comedy. We had films like ���������Golmaal���������, ���������Olot Palot���������, ���������MLA Fatakeshto��������� and ���������Hungama���������, among others. While mainstream Bengali movies have shifted to action, the middle-of-the-road cinema will see quite a few interesting comedies. Even, my ���������Jiyo Kaka!!��������� that releases on February 4 is a black comedy.���������
Atanu, on his part, feels the interest in comedy will benefit the industry at large that has often been too obsessed with relationship-oriented and serious cinema to draw the urban audience. As the director puts it, ���������All the three films in various stages of production are based on very interesting ideas. It���������s good that directors are now exploring newer subjects.��������� Once Atanu is done with the shooting of his comedy, he will begin shooting for a film based on Ashok Kumar Mukhopadhyay���������s ���������Ekok Pita��������� that has Dhritiman Chatterjee playing the protagonist���������s father who is a French professor.
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