a scene from Village Rockstar 2,
Thiruvananthapuram
In 2017, Rima Das joined the film festival circuit as a one-person crew behind the acclaimed Assamese film. Village RockstarThe credit rolls mostly consisted of his name scrolling one by one, as he wrote the story and screenplay, and handled direction, cinematography, editing, and production design. The epitome of the ‘indie spirit’, it became a joyous celebration of carefree childhood. The film was also India’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 90th Academy Awards.
Seven years later, when Ms. Das returns with the sequel Village Rockstar 2Despite access to funds and support, she says, despite the praise her films have received, not much has changed in her approach.
same approach
“When I started making the sequel, I was somehow determined to maintain the purity of the first part. It took me about four years to complete it. The approach has been more or less the same, except I have a better camera and I’ve been more careful about sound. This time, I explored more about shooting in natural light as I have gained a better understanding of light over the years. In its production size and emotional range, the film is definitely bigger than the first film,” she says in an interview The Hindua day before the screening of Village Rockstar 2 In the Kaleidoscope section at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).
The first part featured Dhunu (played by Reema’s niece Bhanita Das) in the role of a girl who dreams of having her own guitar and starting a band with her friends. “Whenever I saw the final part of him fulfilling his dream of playing the guitar for the first time on the big screen, I felt that the story should continue. It was a big risk because the first part was so popular and remains my most successful film. “I just did my best,” she says.
Filmmaker Reema Das
changed life
Just as Richard Linklater returns to the same set of characters after a few years to find out how their lives have changed in the intervening period, Ms. Das looks at the changing aspirations and mindset of Dhunu and her group of friends. Are.
“Bhanita has great potential as an actor. Over the years I have seen him grow stronger. Even as a person, she does things in a very unconventional way, but it seems very natural. I always love shooting her visuals. But, the shooting process was not smooth in the beginning. When they were all children, it was very easy because there were no mobiles or internet in the village and they were quite concentrated at that time. This was something new for him too. This time these things had changed and I also had to manage his mood. But despite all this he has not lost his purity and things soon fell into place,” says Ms Das.
two together
They started working together in July 2020 Village Rockstar 2 And Tora’s husbandBoth are set in his hometown Chaygaon. Centered on the family life of a small business owner as it unravels during the pandemic, Tora’s husband To be completed in 2022. The locations of the films are barely 2 km apart, she says, but they look like completely different worlds, one semi-urban and the other an ancient village.
when they started shooting Village Rockstar 2He had a large crew, but later decided to work in isolation. “After working with the crew for about three months, I realized that I needed solitude to work on this film. I had to wait and be patient to get the right view and lighting. Although the story is about how teenagers pursue their dreams in a challenging economic backdrop, it is also about the nature and land of Assam as well as the relationship between a mother and daughter. I see this film as a tribute to my people and my land,” she says.
published – December 15, 2024 07:02 PM IST
