We make it to The Cannes!!

“It was a random weekday: the phone-call happened to go slightly differently that day: however, it was not sufficiently different to sense something was underway. The husband had asked the wife whether she could manage a quick break to see one of his old acquaintances who would pass on to her a parcel for him. She could.

That evening she was waiting for this man, in a cafe. The waiter at the coffee-shop served a glass of water. And this was where things started getting unusual.The drink that was served- which looked, smelled, tasted and was believed to be just water was, well, not water. And then, things started happening.”

This is how the story had started about two years back - in my office cab, on my blackberry, along my way back home from office one late night. It took me all the way home, which should mean about an hour, rounded. A year later, and strangely enough, it found space on my husband’s desk in form of scribbled dialogues and sketched back-drops… he decided he wanted to make it into a film. But how? Well, some FDs were dissolved and some good friends had volunteered to do their bit, too. Cast, crew, attritions, searches, and many, many a calls later, we had found ourselves in our beloved city of Kolkata which we call home but never stayed in for over a decade now. But then, there we were, looking up locations, seeking help and advices, and more than anything, volunteers. Some volunteered their apartment, some their office, and some, their café shop. Some, even a hospital! That is how things work, really, if you really, really want them to… Trust me!

But then, that was a long three months back. Four days of hectic shoot later, the days then went into rounds over rounds of iterative post production, quite a few visit to the sound studios for the song records to background scores, to voice dubs. Some more FDs found their way into the Savings account, and soon out of it too. Time passed.

And then, one early morning, today, happened. An early email, that’s all! That, we’ve been chosen!! We’ve been selected for our film to be screened at The Short Film Corner at The Cannes! 



Dreams come true. And for Elixir which is essentially a story about dreams, it came true truly literally!

Here’s the official announcement at The Cannes website - http://sub.festival-cannes.fr/SfcCatalogue/MovieDetail/4d8cf010-7f83-48c8-944f-9c59df2bba57

And as the accolades start flowing in, we're still punching ourselves hard into reality! Here is, by the way, the link to the Times of India feature!!


The excerpt goes like:

"Guha's 35-minute-long film is about a journey that begins when a woman waiting for someone in a cafe is served a glass of water by a waiter. 
...

An Economics masters from Kolkata's Indian Statistical Institute, Anirban now works in a multinational bank. "I used to do theater in my school and college days. Post that, I also did stage productions in Bangalore and Delhi. Eventually, I wanted to tell my story to more people and wanted to experiment further. That basically pulled me into film making," said Anirban from Gurgaon. His film stars Daminee Basu, Arindom Ghosh, Mahul Brahma and Dr Koushik Dutta.



Anirban will be off to Cannes for the screening. Accompanying him will be his wife Sinjini Sengupta who wrote the story on which 'Elixir' is based. Said Sinjini, "When my husband decided to make a short film based on my story, the first question was finances. Some fixed deposits were dissolved. Good friends had volunteered to do their bit, too. Cast, crew, attritions, searches and many calls later, we found ourselves in Kolkata! Mine is basically a story of magic realism and a journey of the soul." 

And, to keep posted on when and where you can watch us, here is the FB page of the film:

ELIXIR - The Short Film