Discussion:
[DOCUWALLAHS2] Film screening: S.D. - a documentary on Saroj Dutta & his times
Kasturi kasturi.basu@gmail.com [docuwallahs2]
7 years ago
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​Dear friends,

We are pleased to inform you that our work on the film on Saroj Dutta has
finally come to a close. The first public screening of *S.D.* will be held
at the Jogesh Mime Academy auditorium (Kalighat Park) as part of the 5th
Kolkata People's Film Festival, on 21st January 2018 (Sunday) at 3:45 pm.

This film would not have been possible without the monetary, physical and
emotional support of a lot of you. Several friends, professionals in their
fields, have given their labour of love for the film, and few others worked
for a very nominal amount we could raise. On behalf of the film team, we
salute each one of you who joined efforts in making this film possible.

Those of you who are in Kolkata, hope you can make it to the first
screening! We are posting a synopsis below.

Warm regards,

Kasturi and Mitali

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*S.D.*
Bangla with English subtitles/ 100 mins/ 2018
Dir: Kasturi Basu and Mitali Biswas

In 1971, Saroj Dutta, communist revolutionary and poet, disappeared from
the city of Kolkata. His was a copybook case of forced disappearance amidst
widespread State repression on communist rebels. A secret killing that
since became part of the urban folklore, a crime the State denies till
date. Saroj Dutta, or S.D. as he was popularly known as, wore many
identities. Poet, translator, journalist, revolutionary, iconoclast.
Looking at his life and times five decades later, how do we make sense of
the historical figure that S.D. was? Does his life hold a key to
understanding the turbulent, audacious and rebellious Sixties and Seventies
in India and the world? Does his journey as a communist reveal the
trajectory, faultlines and schisms in the fractured and divided legacy of
the communist movement in India? Were his polemical writings on the
iconoclasm of the Seventies a precursor for the emerging historiography
taking a departure from past tradition to re-evaluate the Bengal
Renaissance?

The film is a search for many such answers. Using Saroj Dutta’s writings
and poems, memories that inhabit spaces and sites in the present-day city,
a flood of rich archival material and conversations with several active
participants of the heady days of the first phase of the Naxalbari movement
(1967-1972), this documentary explores how Saroj Dutta’s story - in its
eventful turns and brutal execution - talks to our present.

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