Shiva (Sagnik Mukherji), an audio installation artist from Kolkata, travels to one of India's biggest coal mines in the country's East to seek inspiration for his new piece, and discovers a huge potential in diversity of sounds. But before the first scene completely unfolds, his primary reason for the journey ebbs away, and Shiva's attention wanders off towards the scarred natural environment and its people. Everywhere he looks, the beautiful landscape gets depleted by the toxic fumes coming from the fires burning for over a century, suffocating animals, soil, the miners and their families.
Whispers Of Fire & Water is screening in Locarno Film Festival
In his debut feature “Whispers Of Fire & Water” which has just received its world premiere in Locarno's The Concorso Cineasti del presente, former engineer turned independent filmmaker Lubdhak Chatterjee uses two of four elements to address the pressing problems of a mining area in which fire doesn't cease to burn. Water emerges as the demarcation line between the area polluted by heavy industry, and the (still) untouched, green hills scarcely populated by farmers and simple people refusing to immigrate to big cities.
It is not wrong to say that the sound plays an equally important role in the film as its main protagonist. Shiva's recording equipment is the connector between two worlds, one drowned in clouds of smoke and debris, the other occupied by living, breathing creatures: woodpeckers, crickets and other insects, chirping birds and plants bending in the wind. His ear is attentive to the mighty burble of a waterfall, ripples in the crystal clear river, heavy rainfalls and the villagers celebrating the annual carnival with dance and song. The work done by the whole sound department is impressive and one of the film's biggest driving forces, fabulously rounded up through the sound design by Sougata Banerjee and aided by the music done by the prodigy Banaras-gharana tabla player Rohen Bose (son of the sarod maestro Debojyoti Bose), which is smoothly conducting the pace of the story.
Check also this interview
Shiva is staying in the campus, waiting for permission to enter the mine, although he already has one which enables him to do his work. This makes his mysterious project partner in Kolkata very nervous, but he is nevertheless given one week to sort everything out and come back with the complete recording. As he awaits the needed permit, he gets aware of the miners protesting under his window and asking for basics like shoes to keep them safe in the pit.
Lubdak Chattrjee initially analyses the socio-political system through a series of strictly observational, non-interventional static long shots and only later switches his approach by introducing people of flesh and blood right in front of the camera and inseparable from the emotionally-driven construction of the narrative. A female investigative journalist (Rohini Chatterjee) is introduced with a question about working conditions and the company's policy for a local TV station. The way she puts things into perspective gives “Whispers Of Fire & Water” briefly a sense of documentary, as does one scene showing miners at work to the voice-over typical of news reels.
There is a lot of beauty in Chatterjee's take on capitalism, such as when Shiva, slouched on his couch, is watching Charlie Chaplin perform The Fork Dance in “The Gold Rush”. A few moments later, one hears the mining corporation officially denying any wrong-doings in the ‘Gandhi maidan'. Likewise, parts of the film cast focus on the corrupted structure of society. Standardly good Deepak Halder plays a role of a slimy representative of law who is covering some wrong-doings in the area, and intimidating Shiva into escaping the place.
In one of his inspections of the small, workers' settlements, Shiva gets approached by a man who presents himself as Subir Roy (Saikat Chatterjee) , a ‘non resident Bengali'. A professor by profession, after spending decades with the people from the area, he has realised that ‘education is the only way to end their dystopia”. He is, just like Shiva, an odd one out.
During a visit to a local doctor, Shiva learns that every year around the carnival time, villagers who sought The Tree of Knowledge (The Peepal Tree that the locals worship) would start disappearing. This story intrigues him so much that he decides to join one local (Amit Saha) who lives there, and leave the campus. The ending leaves many questions open, but its ultimate message is that humans are not in control of the laws of nature.
Behind the calm, humane lensing is Kenneth Cyrus, (the recipient of Best Cinematography award at Munich International Festival of Film Schools in 2019 for Moinak Guho's short “An Irrelevant Dialogue”). Cyrus has also handled the colour correction. Parts of the film were shot in the Maromar forest in Jharkhand with participation of villagers from Surkumi and Henar.
“Whispers of Fire & water” is A Little Lamb Films & NIV Art Movies Production.
