Anusha set to take docu on Badal Sircar to IFFI with dad Ashoke

Anusha Viswanathan is glad to be going to IFFI with her father, Ashoke Viswanathan, for their documentary on Badal Sircar. The docu has got selected for screening at the Indian Panorama. Speaking about the experience of shooting the non-fiction, Anusha said, “The whole process of this project has been extremely enlightening for me. It was a wonderful experience and I’m really excited for people to watch it when it is screened at IFFI.This documentary speaks of Badal Sircar and his work with alternative theatre and it is an extremely important part of Bengal’s theatrical culture and I’m glad that this documentary will showcase that to an international audience in this film festival.”

This film is designed in the form of a polemical documentary in which the work of the celebrated playwright and theatre director Badal Sircar is assessed and critiqued. The arguments put forth in this audio-visual essay relate mainly to his pioneering endeavours in the field of alternative theatre, which he preferred to call the third theatre.

Ashoke Viswanathan thinks it’s all the more special since he shot the film with his daughter assisting him. “It was wonderful working with Anusha in this film; we have worked together before, where she had done some additional photography in Paris. She has also played a cameo in one of my recent films. Her contribution is more during scripting and in post-production. It would be nice going to IFFI together and trying to gauge the feedback there. This work is special because Anusha is interested in theatre and there is a great deal of experimental theatre in this film. Besides, it is important for her to form her own opinions about Badal Sircar who didn’t believe in theatre on the proscenium although many of his plays were successful on stage — the very stage which the master shunned later,” he said.