Urban Legends

It’s easy to imagine a director driving around the city, scouting for locations, stopping by an old North Kolkata gali and being overwhelmed by the sheer drama of the place. It’s also deeply satisfying to presume that the director will try and script a beautiful scene around the place, capturing its mood with the same quiet confidence with which Satyajit Ray captured Varanasi in Aparajito. But filmmaker Onir will not give us any such pleasure. “I don’t want to document a nostalgia-hued city. I don’t want to do the tram, Princep Ghat and North Kolkata cliché in my film. Visually, the Kolkata of my film will be a departure. My Kolkata will be more about Gariahat, Deshapriya Park and the Southern fringes of the city,” says Onir who was in the city to haunt for location for his forthcoming film I Am Afia. What? A film set in Kolkata without long, winding shots of Kumartuli, Howrah Bridge and Victoria Memorial? Sacrilege, many would say.

Source: Indian Express