Short film ‘Vartul’ to be screened at 8th Third Eye Asian film festival
Times of India: It’s 10-year-old Damu’s eagerness to watch film slides on a bioscope that lands him in trouble. On his way to buy jaggery for his mother,Damu decides to play a game with his peers in order to earn some extra money to see the magical visions his Bioscopewallah offers. However, his plan fails him and he returns home in tears.
Vartul,’ (Circle), a moving short film, scripted and directed by Pune-based filmmaker Santosh Ram, has been nominated in the competition section of the 8th Third Eye Asian Film Festival to be held in Mumbai from December 3 to 10.
The film features Chinmay Patwardhan (last seen in Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraaj’) as Damu and actress Ashwini Giri as his mother, among other characters. “The boy makes a mistake and later owns it up. His mother realises the lesson her child has learnt and forgives him. This is what I wanted to show in my films,” says Ram, who calls Vartul’ semi-autobiographical.
Born in Udgir in Latur district, Ram himself scraped together money to watch images on the bioscope in his childhood. “Each of us looks out for something different in the bioscope. And I relished this childhood experience,” says Ram, who has also done his MA in English.
Vartul’ has also been screened at Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival 2009 in Delhi and the 2nd Nashik International Film Festival 2009.
Ram’s next project is a feature-length film. “It is based on relationships in typical middle-class Maharashtrian families,” he says. The short film format isn’t as popular as full-length feature films, says Ram. “Short films don’t have much space or value in India. that’s why I struggled for two years to get the necessary funding for Vartul,’” he says.
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