Tomar amar golpo hoto jodi
Golpo hoto raatbirete jege
Bhor akashe hariye gele tara
Thamiye ador bajar jetam rege…

A song has been composed steeped in the romanticism, laced with the fantasy and fraught with the dissonance that informs the core of the lyrical cinema that is Manikbabur Megh.

Directed by Abhinandan Banerjee, Manikbabur Megh is a solitary middle-class, middle-aged individual’s lonely trudge through life in which his only attachment is the companionship he develops with a piece of cloud. There is neither colour nor music in the ordinary man’s workaday motions — going to the fish market, dozing amid a pile of files in office, and tending to a paralytic father whose death provides the only break in his routine. His emotions take colour only in his mind. The film is shot in black-and-white and has no songs.

Manikbabur Megh, adjudged the Best Film in the Asian Select category at the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), is set for a theatrical release on July 12.

If Chandan Sen, who has bagged the Best Actor award at the Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Moscow as the laconic, oppressed and alienated Manikbabu, is the face and soul of the film, the film has now found a voice. Anirban Bhattacharya will present Manikbabur Megh, and has sung a song, which will play while the end credits roll.

“Can you think of any producer who would bet on a story of a man and his feelings for a piece of cloud?” co-producer Bauddhayan Mukherji challenges t2 with a rhetorical question. “That is why we had to make the film,” says the National Award-winning ad filmmaker, who himself has directorial credits for indie features like Teenkahon, The Violin Player and Marichjhapi to his name.

Abhinandan had collaborated on the screenplay for Bauddhayan’s debut feature Teenkahon. “He told me the story of Manikbabur Megh one night in Santiniketan. It blew my mind,” recalls Monalisa Mukherji, his wife and co-producer of the film.

Set points

The Little Lamb Films duo were on the sets of Bharatlaxmi Studios in Calcutta recently where the song was being shot. “This will be the only promotional tool for the film. We are not a big production house. We have to use our resources intelligently,” Bauddhayan tells t2, while overseeing the shoot.

Anirban had recorded the song earlier in Mumbai. The tune, composed by Subhajit Mukherjee, is soft, melancholic and reflective, like the film, and Anirban’s dulcet voice plays in the ear even after the sound system on the floor falls silent with the call to “cut”. “Subhajit is an ace composer and music producer in the advertising world. He used to be with the band Lakkhichhara (as lead vocalist and composer),” Monalisa explains.

The lyrics were penned by Abhinandan himself. “The words came intuitively when we were working on the edits, in 2021. The shooting took place in April-May 2019,” says the architect-turned-filmmaker. “Doesn’t the shape of the cloud remind you of the human brain? That’s how I had visualised the poster too.”

On the sets of the promo shoot, it is Bauddhayan calling the shots. “I am directing the song as my belated birthday gift to Abhinandan (who turned 32 on June 11),” he smiles.

The only props on the floor are a high chair and a cloud hanging over it. “That’s synthetic cotton fitted over a frame with blown-up paper lanterns within,” Monalisa explains.

Abhinandan Banerjee, director of the film

Anirban, dressed in a white shirt and grey trousers, takes his position on the chair. As the prelude plays on the track, Bauddhayan turns to the DoP Debojeet Roy: “The camera starts moving towards him on the count of 20.”

As the long shot pans into a close-up, Anirban, looking downward, raises his head. “Cut,” comes the call.

The rest of the song is a play with smoke. “They are putting dry ice in those machines,” Monalisa explains, as assistants feed them with scoops from an ice box. “There is boiling water underneath. That creates the steam.”

The retakes are decided by how the smoke settles on the floor. The effect on the monitor is magical — as if Anirban is seated amidst clouds.

Proper cinema

A while later, Chandan Sen, aka Manikbabu, drops by. When t2 tells him that he is to the film what Tulsi Chakrabarti was to Satyajit Ray’s Paras Pathar, the veteran actor responds: “Bangali bohukal cinema dekheni — serial noy, OTT noy, proper cinema. Pather Panchali dekhe manush kemon chomke gechhilo?” he says.

Sen had accompanied the crew to Goa when it was screened at Iffi. “The south Indian filmmakers were jubilant. They said they wanted to make films like this. I expect deep sighs here too (from local filmmakers), just like there were after Asha Jaoar Majhe (which won the Indira Gandhi Best Debut Film of a Director award at the National Film Awards in 2015),” Sen reflects.

The film, he adds, is a feeling, a sentiment. “It is on the urban crisis of loneliness — ekakitwer sonkot. The 96 minutes you spend in the hall watching the film, you will feel completely alone. That was my feeling when I saw it.”

Agrees Monalisa: “Films are made on the battles of the mighty or the tragedies of the poor. But no one talks of the middle class. Their lives are too mundane to make it to the big screen. This film is our tribute to their struggles, dreams and aspirations,” she says.

The song will be released on Wednesday.