Akin to the feelings of a cricketer getting his ton on his maiden Test, Ritam Chakraborty saw the parallel in his maiden effort winning the best short documentary award at the conclusion of the 16th International Documentary Short Film Festival that concluded in Thiruvananthapuram recently. Salvation Dream, a 25-minute effort without any dialogues brought out the realities that death is constant and absolute. That the movie won the best cinematography Jury award too, made it a double joy from the one based in the City of Joy, Kolkatta.
The well-crafted documentary represented the grandfather’s death of the filmmaker, which many saw as a spiritual transformation beyond all mundane and exhausted living as if it is a transcendence of nature toward the journey of eternal salvation. Dwelling on the happening, Ritam recounted his school days when he was magnetically drawn to view international movies. “There was a family friend, who supplied in abundant measure the world of pirated movies.
That was the stepping stone to do Journalism-Mass Communication and Film course at Kolkata University. Once the confidence shot up and with the maturity that I had it in me to plunge into a familiar arc, things fell in place as if it was programmed that way,'' opened up Ritam, with the enthusiasm of a college student on his first date. Getting to know the world of film festivals was just an arm’s length away for Ritam when the college arranged a film festival, which was a roaring success fr.