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| (c) Filmbüro Baden-Württemberg |
(am) „The Promise“ is an exceptional short film by Bidula Bhattacharjee which was screened on the last day at the 11th Indian Film Festival in Stuttgart. The 10 minutes Bengali short tale is though a light hearted one but has a very strong message for the viewers to be engrafted.
Love and romance have different meanings with different generations. Love for two 40 years old souls is having tea together in the morning which for a young generation couple is too boring and vague. But this morning tea for the old couple holds so much value that they can never imagine of any other way to show their love for each other. While the married son of the old couple is shown to argue over whose responsibility it is to make the tea but the young couple jogs together every morning in the park. So the young, active, busy generation has travelled a long distance away from their predecessors – not only with their technologies but also with their lifestyles and emotional aspects.
The film actually takes the viewer to an ecstatic moment where the old man talks to his late spouse offering her the morning tea. This shows that the promise of sharing tea with his wife is an eternal one and through this he finds his love still alive. Love and romance is a state of the mind which is unaware of the physical being of two souls. Pining for his beloved even in her absence the old man keeps his promise to spend time with her just sitting and staring at the photo frame.
Bidula Bhattacharjee shows in the film that unlike the fast furious relationship status of today’s dynamic young world, the previous generation had so much value and meaning for their love and romance. The desire for more, the rebellious attitude and arrogance of independence have hollowed the emotions in the generation-Y who are almost blinded without the digital technologies and social networks. But the generation of baby boomers was more dedicated lovers who had simple strategy of no expectation, no disappointments but to keep the promise till the eternity. Such was the era of Divine Love over a cup of morning tea and a pair of love birds.
theinder.net had the opportunity to talk to film director Bidula Bhattacharjee about „The Promise“ and her upcoming projects. The video interviews in English and Bengali will follow soon.
