Maintaining traditions, Windows Production House is all set to release their ‘May magic’ film of this year — director Pathikrit Basu’s Dabaru — on May 10. The film is a biopic inspired by the growing-up years of Indian chess grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly, the Calcutta boy who had become an International Master at the age of 16 and a grandmaster at the age of 19. On April 30, the cast and crew of the film, in the presence of Surya Sekhar Ganguly, launched the film’s trailer at Vaayu Cafe, presented by St. Augustine’s Day School Barrackpore.

The intriguing trailer of the film gives a peek into the prodigy Surya Sekhar’s life at his north Calcutta house, where he was growing up with his mother and grandfather, both of whom had identified the little boy’s talent and were helping him to hone his skills. It shows his troubled relationship with his father and the obstacles that come his way in achieving a dream.

Pathikrit Basu

Deepankar De, who played the role of his grandfather, said: “Dabaru was a tough film to make. We had a great script and I have never done a biopic before. My character has an importance in the journey of Surya Sekhar becoming a grandmaster. I am so grateful that I am standing beside Surya Sekhar Ganguly and talking.”

Surya Sekhar was present at the launch with his mother. In the film, Rituparna Sengupta plays the role of his mother, Karuna. “When Shibu (Shiboprosad Mukherjee) called me for this film, I told him that I have no association with sport. But when he told me that I would be playing grandmaster Surya Sekhar’s mother’s role, I was keen on listening to the script. I am glad to see that his mother is here today. We don’t often get such opportunities where we can share the same space with a character we portray. Every mother makes many sacrifices. I have experienced the film through many emotional journeys,” said Rituparna.

Chiranjeet Chakraborty, who plays a coach in the film, said: “While we were growing up, in my neighbourhood I used to see people play chess and felt that people who have no work to do play it. People just sit for hours. There’s minimal movement involved. You cannot teach a talented person… they only have their eyes on the goal, not the circumstances.” Koushik Sen, who is also part of the ensemble cast and plays the character of a coach, said: “When we were growing up, we were not encouraged to play chess. We later started learning about Dibyendu Barua, the Russian masters and then Surya Sekhar Ganguly from the sports magazines. The best thing about a Windows film is that they study the society and try to understand what people want to watch on screen.” Shankar Chakraborty, who will play Surya Sekhar’s father, said: “Chess is a mind game and I have never tried to play it because I am not intelligent! A person’s journey has been shown in this film. I am grateful to Windows for doing this film.”

Tirtha Mistry, Samadarshi Sarkar and Argha Basu Roy, the child actors in the film, were selected from their schools by auditioning and trained for their roles in a workshop. Argha Basu Roy of Patha Bhavan, who had earlier played the character of Posto in the Windows film Posto, will be seen playing the role of the teenage Surya Sekhar Ganguly. “Surya Sekhar Ganguly himself taught me the game for the film. All the senior actors helped us a lot to play our roles,” said Argha.

Surya Sekhar, who was present at the launch, said: “Actors are so sincere about small things. On screen, they look like professional chess players. I am very curious to see how people will react. Shibu told me he wants people to feel interested in this game after watching this film. I think they have achieved that with their making.”

Rituparna Sengupta, Chiranjeet Chakraborty, Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy

Nandita Roy and Sanjay Agarwal are presenting the film. Shiboprosad Mukherjee is the creative producer of the film. “We saw this craze towards chess suddenly increasing post-pandemic. The number of chess clubs that have come up is unbelievable. Surya Sekhar Ganguly’s story was very interesting and we gave Pathikrit the story to develop it as he wanted to work with us. My organisation always believes in working with the spirited youth and giving them a chance. May is our favourite month, so we wanted to release a film of the children’s genre, as we do but incorporated a sports biopic with it this time,” said Nandita.