Final-Film Festival-13-11-08.p65 - Directorate of Film Festivals

directed his 2nd student diploma film as a faculty member titled'THE LOST RAINBOW'.DIRECTOR'S STATEMENTI was in search of a story which mainly dealt with humanemotions. When I heard the story written by Sati, the originalstory writer for this project, I decided to develop this idea as itwas a subject with deep emotional overtones - MEMORIES OFCHILDHOOD - sibling rivalry, that which remain with a personforever. Some childhood events stay with us always in the formof guilt. Slowly growing inside us, growing with us,gnawing atour heart, our mind our soul…slowly to metamorphose withtime into a kind of pest. They (childhood events) make us feelsmall, insignificant, humbled and remain our best teachers.The main challenge as in my previous short film "OADH"was working with the child artists. It's very important to getchildren to be natural in front of the camera. I believe that it'snot difficult to make children act and end up behaving as adultsbut to NOT make them act which is the real challenge. Chinmayand Omkar, the two jewels of my film completely transformedinto my characters Sameer and Nitin. Even after shoot it washard to tell that they were not real brothers, such was the bonding,the camaraderie. Most of the film is situated in the village sovisually I wanted the film to have a natural quality so we shoton real locations in mostly natural light with a very enthusiasticand committed student crew. Going with the tone of the film,the instrumentation of the background score is minimal primarilyusing the flute.Since it was an academic project with limitations of time,money and resources, I would say that it was due to the unstintedsupport and enthusiasm of the cast and crew, villagers, friendsand strangers who went out of their way to make this film whatit is. I would like to add that the support and co-operation ofmy child actor's parents was exceptional and went a long way inmaking this project an absolute pleasure to work on.SYNOPSISHOPE DIES LAST IN WARVideo / Colour/English/80 minutes54 Indian soldiers taken as Prisoners of War during the Indo-Pak war of 1971 are yet to return home. While waiting for them,some of the parents have died, some of the wives remarried andsome children lost hope and committed suicide but the realordeal has been for those who did not give up. For them life hasbecome a tight rope walking between hope and despair yet theyhave fought the mental battle of attrition for almost four decadesand are still not willing to resign.This film is a saga of these families' struggle, spanning threegenerations, to get their men back. It records a tragic stalemate,sufferings of love and shining moments of humanity, courageand hope.68 69