Carnival selected at 41st International Film Festt Rotterdam

It's carnival time for Madhuja Mukherjee. The first feature film of Jadavpur University's head of the department of film studies titled "Carnival" has been selected for its world premiere at the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Bright Future category.
The experimental film sans dialogues has been shot and edited by Avik Mukhopadhyay and has Dhritiman Chaterji, Shayan Munshi and Dibyendu Bhattacharya in the cast.The music and the sound design for the movie have been done by Prabuddha Banerjee.
Ask Madhuja about the film and she says, "I teach by profession and am also involved in filmmaking. I have worked within the industry set-up and in alternative and international projects. I've often felt that the pleasure and leisure associated with Kolkata and Durga Pujas are not accessible to women in the same way as they are accessible to men. Durga Pujas, for me, have been associated with extreme joy and violence. In 2010, I spent the Durga Pujas in Kolkata and wanted to make a film on these two extremes. "Carnival" is this story of this young man who returns to the city during the Pujas after the death of his mother. He feels edgy by the odd juxtaposition of the numbness of his father and the extreme joy that the city is engulfed in."
The film will be screened in Rotterdam on January 31. "Since this was indeed an independent-home production of sorts, we experimented in every possible way. In terms of production costs (all of us worked for free), in terms of the mise-en-scene (no sets, no make up, no lights), and, later, in terms of the edit style (editing multiple versions and using after-effects) and sound design (mostly found sounds), we pushed the envelop. The kind of faith Dhritiman-da, Shayan, Dibyendu and Prabuddha had on alternative cinema is overwhelming. We used Avik's own set-up. Prabuddha did the music at his own place. Avik, Prabuddha and I are going to Rotterdam to attend the screening too," Madhuja signs off.