Dear Mozo aka Angshuman Barkakoty,
I first met you at the time of the TV Series Peking Express where we bonded instantly over discussions about Ram Gopal Varma, Ritwik Ghatak, Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Dibakar Bannerjee, Scorcese, short films, pseudo intellectuals, lack of subtitled assamese film dvds and many other such common topics. I remember the statement you made – ‘In India, there seem to be more people in love with vodka than in Russia itself’ – which was a dig at various fake people we keep meeting in this business of ours. And that you had famously remarked – ‘I can live without cinema, but can’t live without old monk’.
2010 has been a fuckall year when it comes to filmmakers who have been snatched away unfairly from this world – Saurabh Usha Narang, Pankaj Advani, Manish Acharya and now you. Unfair ! Bloody Unfair !
I remember watching this short film with the LPA gang in Hotel Janpath Delhi, amidst much heated discussions with everyone about cinema. I remember where I said -“Why is this angle so weird?” And you had said “The film is meant to be so. I wanted the weirdness”. The trivia that you shared – how you wrote the film in Hindi which is your second language, how the actor Adil Hussain (superb) improvised the ‘juice’ line, how the art & poster design was done – is the sort of stuff we filmwalas can listen to all day long.
Then you showed me your other short film – Windows – which I instantly professed my love for – shot LSD style with dollops of voyerism. It didn’t seem like a film at all. And the DVD commentary-ish VO made it completely personal. And I remember how happy you were when I told you the same. ‘Yes. I wanted to do that but only a few people who have seen the film have managed to get it’. And I remember being very happy & gloated with that observation of mine. I became a fanboy then 🙂
“The first shot of the film is a director’s shot.
The second shot of the film is an editor’s shot.”
And as the film went on, it slowly became an other worldy trippy experience for me.
And today as it’s been almost more than a week that you have passed away due to multiple organ failure, and someone shared your film’s link – instantly I was reminded of you and the times we spent together. The telephone conversations from Kolkatta – discussing independent filmmaking & the masala bollywood; bitching about some of the typical film institute teachers who know all what is wrong with a film down to the smallest frame yet have themselves never made a half decent film (I can imagine you laughing as you read this line, from wherever you are). When you called me to inform that your film has been selected to Pusan film festival, I couldnt help but be proud, yet I knew that your best was yet to come.
Unfortunately, now it will never come.
RIP Mozo Darling. Take care and I hope they allow you to make movies in heaven.
Kartik Krishnan
The Doctor, Nurse and the Patient
Synopsis : To a man just woken up from coma, a nurse coldly announces his mother’s death. From then on, his doctor and the nurse meet mysterious deaths in turn. This revenge play deals with indifference to other human beings through tense genre touches, culminating in an unbelievable finale.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 