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Camera cause
Still with the shorts. Do not be misled by the brevity
of the film, is the first message Korak Day conveys. His 30-minute
short My Karma encapsulates the “experience” of a full-length
feature, he insists. The select gathering that watched the film
in early July seemed to agree. Even before a commercial release
in the city, Korak’s film has traveled to western shores for a
world premiere — at the New York International Film Festival,
in Las Vegas, on July 25. And come September, Korak flies to the
Los Angeles Film Festival with My Karma as an official
entry.
Though Korak created a ripple in the city film circuit
with his first short Kolkatar Kali, he prefers to remain
less of a filmmaker and more of a social worker. Over the past
one-year or more, Korak has been juggling film-making and social
work — scripting My Karma while working for Aamar Nijer,
a non-profit organization he floated to help the underprivileged
women and children of Rajabazar.
“For me, film is a medium — and by far the best —
to reach people for, and with, whom I have been working all these
years. The pain depicted by the actors in My Karma is a
reflection of what I have seen while working with these people,”
says the 32-year-old, whose skinny looks and frail frame belie
his age and experience.
Korak’s character — a dying man — adds a curious
twist in the lives of the lead pair (Arjun Chakraborty and Moon
Moon Sen) in the film tracing the tale of a lamb sacrificed in
the pursuit of a better life. Reborn a rich executive, Arjun finds
himself enmeshed in the trappings of the material world. “I want
to make commercially-viable films to generate funds for Aamar
Nijer,” is the crux of Korak’s cause. |
