Play scripts come alive through short films at Theatre-Film-Theatre festival

It’s probably safe to say that during the lockdown, most performing artistes primarily choose to go either of the two ways – inward or online. For celebrated theatremaker Atul Kumar, though, the way to cope with the crisis was to jump into creating new work. The result of which is this unique project called the ‘Theatre-Film-Theatre, Festival of Shorts’.

Premiering online on August 30, the month-long online festival is showcasing 15 short films that are based on play scripts.
The initiative, according to Atul – who is also the artistic director of Kamshet-based The Company Theatre (TCT) – is an attempt to keep the artistes engaged in creative work. “More than hundred artistes came together to make these short films. Most of these artistes are theatre practitioners from different parts of the country. In fact, many of these films were created remotely – from ideating, exchanging material and auditioning to filming, editing as well as post-production work. All the artistes took up this project pro-bono,” he elaborates.

Every second day of the fest, a new film will be released on TCT’s YouTube channel, and the audiences can watch these shorts for free. ‘TheatreFilmTheatre’ is jointly curated by Vara Raturi, Mallika Singh, Sonal Gupta, Baani Singh, Anupam Barve and Atul.

The fest will feature a short film inspired by Bengaluru-based theatre director Abhishek Majumdar’s much-talked-about play ‘The Djinns of Eidgah’. Titled ‘Zar’, the 14-minute movie is directed by Zoya Khan. From musicals to films inspired by the rich oeuvre of Shakespeare, Tagore, Kafka and more, the shorts are unique pieces of devised work. Among the other films include ‘Aab-E-Zamzam’, a 13-minute Hindi-English film by Mohit Agarwal; ‘Shakkar Ke Paanch Daane’, a 5-minute Hindi animation by Chinmaya Sharma; ‘Aarzi’, a 12-minute Hindi movie by Rohan Phatak; and ‘Choice’ a 6-minute Hindi film by Akash Wagachoure.

Talking about his takeaway from the festival, Atul, whose main domain over the years has been the stage, says, “Of course, this new project blurs the line between cinema and theatre. But personally, it was a fulfilling experience to work with a young lot of artistes, who were initially both excited and afraid to craft and present work that’s merges the screen and the stage. I intend to work with more newcomers, less-experienced artistes soon. Meanwhile, this experience has led to a new train of thought. In the future, I would like to experiment more with the medium of cinema and how theatre can be interspersed with it.”