(The Academy of Fine Arts)
Film: The Academy of Fine Arts
Cast: Rudranil Ghosh, Saurav Das, Paayel Sarkar, Rishav Basu, Rahul Banerjee, Amit Saha, Sudip Mukherjee and Anuradha Mukherjee
Director: Jayabroto Das
Producers: Prateek Chakravorty, Soumya Sarkar
Cinematography: Arnab Laha
Editor: Imamul Baker Apolo, Debarghya Laha
Jayabroto Das’s debut film The Academy of Fine Arts is a tribute to Quentin Tarantino and Guy Richie, two iconic filmmakers who are from the mainstream and yet, are totally subversive.
The Academy of Fine Arts is a bold, slick and darkly comic neo-noir crime thriller. It puts you at the edge of your seat right from the start till the credits roll and Rudranil Ghosh one of the main actors, ask you to not leave the hall, but patiently read all the names connected with the making of the film. It is hard work and we often overlook that.
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It has not been an easy film to make. One gets that straightaway. All the characters are profane and wicked. Just as you catch a glimpse of redemption in any one of them, gets dashed as the story unravels. There is one excuse or as we say in Bengali, chhuto not to be good or noble.
The plot over the theft of an expensive bottle of scotch, named here ‘MacGuffin’, which is a device or again you can call it chhuto to take the story forward in a film. Coined and popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, the importance of the actual object – here the liquor bottle is immaterial. But the action over it encompassing violence, occasional tenderness and the ultimate futility of “crime” are central to the film. There is a fantastic scene of a madman foraging for food inside a flat that makes it a film that will perhaps be quite hard to replicate in Tollywood, known for its pretty and safe stories.
Extremely well executed, the director excels at his craft obviously honed at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute where he was a student.
The characters in the story (without giving spoilers) commit one heist after the other in trying to retrieve and sell the priceless liquor bottle that results in betrayal, killings and more.
It is not about the bottle that should survive at any cost. It symbolic of our own survival in this precarious world of ours, made fragile with each passing day.
“The narrative embraces sharp dialogues, a non-linear story-telling, graphic violence and very adult humor. So it is not exactly a family entertainer and may not get that kind of audiences that one seeks towards a hit.”
The profanities fall like sheets of rain and after a point, it starts to sound normal as it is among the subaltern classes – people whom we choose to look away from – people who make up the bulk of our population.
A group of criminals under the patronage of their gangster leader consider themselves to be self-proclaimed fine artistes (of crime). No wonder they are masters at double crossing, dreaming the high life while mired in the depressing low life all around them.
The group is led by Dinabandhu or Dinu (played superbly by Rudranil Ghosh) who plans to steal a rare antique liquor bottle from another more powerful demented (a psychopath really) gangster called Kim Ling resulting in, as you have probably guessed by now –bloodbath and general mayhem sandwiching a middle layer of sex, drugs and depravity. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
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The narrative embraces sharp dialogues, a non-linear story-telling, graphic violence and very adult humour. So it is not exactly a family entertainer and may not get that kind of audiences that one seeks towards a hit. But so tight and compelling in its presentation that it is not to be missed by lovers of serious and good cinema. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
Violence is nothing new in films all over the world. Hollywood gangster films apart, films such as Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange, Coppola’s The Godfather and Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs literally reek of violence and blood. The blood and gore are smeared in every corner or wall of this film but it is not an ode to violence. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
“The treatment of the film too deserves a mention. The graphic book look and the ‘breaking the fourth wall’ technique are done with competence.”
It is over the top violence to prove that when we continue to see violence like we do in wars and bloodshed, but not directly, we stop reacting to it. We normalize it.
The women too are tough in this film. Their greed and wants are as heinous as the men’s – ruthless and without scruples.
The treatment of the film too deserves a mention. The graphic book look and the ‘breaking the fourth wall’ technique are done with competence. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
The fourth wall is broken when the characters break the imaginary barrier between a fictional format by addressing the audiences directly and creating a one-on-one connection with the viewers. Rudranil Ghosh excelled in this with his comic lines. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
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The acting is superb. Sudip Mukherjee as the cockroach fearing gangster, Kim Ling, Amit Saha of Nadharer Bhela fame as the mute Bireshwar Bal, Sourav Das as Jibon, Rishav Basu as Sachin, Rahul Baneerji as Rakhal and Rudranil Ghosh light up the screen with their presence. Payel Sarkar as Richa too shines, with the rest of the female cast lending their own support to the film. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
Tight editing by Aashik Sarkar and cinematography by Arnab Laha, the music by Soumya Rit which is both carpet music and edgy, adhere to the whole cinematic vision of creating a cohesive film that injects great vitality to the modern Bengali film industry. (The Academy of Fine Arts)
Photo Courtesy: Bookmyshow, District, IMDB, Youtube.
A masters' in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University, Manjira Majumdar has dabbled in journalism, teaching and gender activism. She shares her love for cinema, books, art and four-legged creatures with her family consisting of a husband and two daughters.
