Author Kunal Basu launched his latest book, Filmi Stories, with an engaging talk with film-maker Srijit Mukherji that was moderated by founder of Kolkata Literary Meet, Malavika Banerjee, in the presence of a packed audience at Trincas on a sunny Sunday morning. An anthology, Filmi Stories at first attracted compliments for its visually potent narratives from Mukherji, who described Basu’s writing as disarmingly honest and refreshing. Explaining the title, Basu said: “These eight stories are my effort to bridge the gap between Srijit and me and saying that look he makes films, I write, but maybe this book will give you a visual experience as well as the literary experience. At least, that’s the intention. So, I called the book Filmi Stories.”
Among the eight stories, Mukherji informed the crowd that his favourite is the first one — Ok Tata. “When I read Ok Tata, I found out that it was not just introspective in terms of human emotions, very off the beaten track exploring a very unlikely bond between two humans, but also the passages in the story were extremely cinematic. It gives you a vision of a road film. You can see the highway, you can smell the dhaba… it’s sensory and not just audio-visual.” And these are the things the film-maker in him looks for when making a book-to-screen project.
Basu’s last collection of short stories was The Japanese Wife (2008), the title story of which was picked up by director Aparna Sen for the screen. Talking about what led to Filmi Stories, he said: “After I had finished my last novel In An Ideal World, which came out in 2022, I had this mental break and the pandemic was on and there was no option of going out and exploring or researching so I was like let me search what’s inside me; what are the stories that are waiting to be written. And Ok Tata happened. The other stories followed soon.”
The launch was peppered with personal anecdotes that often entertained everyone. Basu’s Jailbird, part of Filmi Stories, made the duo regret the fact that they have never been arrested and jailed! “I did spend some time in the Presidency Jail procuring permission from the officials. I have had amazing interactions with some of the convicts. The women’s ward was a different experience altogether and that gave me the plot of the story — a jailor playing Cupid to a pair of convicts in jail,” said Basu.
The Gumnaami director who has shot inside jails multiple times, shared his twin failed attempts of getting arrested and his description of Calcutta Police vs Delhi Police send a wave of laughter in the iconic Park Street venue.
Before reading a passage of the story Fake, the author of Kalkatta teased the audience with a brief on other stories from the book. He also shared the genesis of a few stories including Passport Wallah for which he interacted with a middle-aged man who made fake passports. The talk later veered towards finding great stories in the marginalised sections, their favourite book-to-screen films and more before the audience indulged in another round of intense discussion.