Debutant director Ishaan Ghose demonstrates the lives of those who has the chops to carry an entire society on their shoulders through his first film “Jhilli”, an SVF Distribution
Kolkata,08th November 2022, Tuesday: Bengali film, “Jhilli”, known to all the Indie film lovers that won The Best Film Award for the International Competition on Innovation in Moving Images at the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival, will be now released in theatrical space on 11th November 2022.
Directed and written by Ishaan Ghose, “Jhilli” portrays about human endurance, their suffering and celebration of life. Spectacular and grotesque footage of people and animals scrounging a living in the middle of Kolkata’s largest city dump, as the world outside is rapidly changing.
The producer of the film initially was Goutam Ghose, who was also present at the press conference yesterday, said, “I really liked the film not because it has been made by my son. Ishaan has tried to find a new language in this film. His perspective is quite different following the time zone we live in. The body-and-soul filmmaking was as unusual then as it is now. The whole process was like my own endurance test, wading through obstacles and surviving it. I am extremely thankful to SVF for backing my son’s special work and delivering it to the audience”.
Jhilli, which suggests dispose of, appears the underbelly of the city centering on the subaltern lives of Bokul, the protagonist of the film and his companions. In the press meet, Ishaan clarified that he had no solidified script when he begun the film nor any set designer. The group extemporized as they shot at the diverse corners in Dhapa, which is a landfill sites where the solid wastes of the city of Kolkata are dumped.
When asked Ishaan about his vision behind the film, he said, “So many short or feature films are literally made with blood, sweat, tears and a mountain of expectations that somewhere we lose the drill in the middle. Hence, I wanted to do something honest and truthful with my own life, to signify its intensity and originality and the only way I could do it is making a film that would take me somewhere unknown. With Jhilli , the process of learning is unfathomable. I shall forever be grateful to SVF who helped us in producing the film and delivering it to the mass.”
The film has been selected in multiple international film festivals including Torino International Film Festival Mammoth Lakes Film Festival and will now be available for all in big screens from 11th November, an SVF distribution.
