The September 9 film Adieu Godard, directed by Amartya Bhattacharya, is a tribute to the legendary French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard. The film revolves around an old man named Ananda, who happens to be an adult-film addict. He secretly watches them with some friends in a conservative Indian village. One day, they accidentally come across a Godard film. Ananda gets attracted to Godard’s film and gradually develops an obsession. Fuelled by curiosity, he rents more Godard films and starts gaining interest. He initiates the idea of hosting a film festival in their village where Godard’s films will be screened. The festival gets organised after a lot of drama.

“I happen to be a big admirer of Jean-Luc Godard and his film-making. A tribute film was always on my mind. After making three surreal feature films which were mostly philosophical and psychoanalytic ones, I wanted to make a simple narrative film for the first time. While thinking about my subject, the idea automatically came to my mind, and I allowed it to bloom. Though the form of this film is in complete contrast to Godard’s formalism, I found this contradiction interesting and gripping. Even in the execution of the film, I made sure that the film remains as simple, candid and innocent as possible, both in the structure and in form. It’s as if, I am a witness to the innocent rural Indian culture which unknowingly embraces cultural diversity, but often struggles to integrate them within the conventional framework of their social realities,” says Amartya. Though the director has made Bengali and Odia films before, he chose to make this film in Odia and shot this in Odisha because he felt that the the contrast works socially. “The indegineous culture in Odisha villages makes the French new wave auteur an alien subject to the villagers, which is the trigger for humour. The film has won a number of awards including the Best Film in Indian languages competition at KIFF this year, and has been received very well internationally. I’m sure this film will touch every viewer. It’s a very entertaining film,” says Amartya.

Director Amartya Bhattacharya