SYNOPSIS
The Terrace is the absolute place in the life of a young schoolteacher Mitra, who sketches & writes with a passion. Mitra is offered to write for a prestigious local magazine for a special edition which is a dream come true for her. Her communication and relationships with the sky, birds, clouds and the neighbours comes to a halt when the common terrace is locked up by the occupants. This further blocks her mind to conclude her story. Life becomes unbearable when Mitra’s school closes for summer vacations and she is confined to the stuffy overbearing house with an uncompassionate husband. With the film ‘Chhaad’ the writer & debutante director Indrani Chakrabarti explores the protagonist’s relationship with the terrace and eventually her disillusionment attached to it. The terrace is reflective of Mitra’s emotional reasoning and so when the terrace is taken away she suffers from existential crisis. The story writing process makes the woman lead realize that her inability to rescue her own-self was a crisis deeper than her need for the open space of the terrace- Is there an escape from reality?
DIRECTOR
A filmmaker based in Kolkata Indrani Chakrabarti has independently made several documentary films and short fiction films that have visited several festivals in India and abroad. Indrani’s film ‘Ladaakh Chale Rickshawala’- A pan-Indian documentary on a rickshawala who travelled to Ladaakh from Kolkata on his tri-cycle rickshaw, won the National Award for the Best Adventure Film, 2017. ‘Ladaakh Chale Rickshawala’ was in the official selection of the Kolkata International Film Festival 2018 and also at the SIGNS 2018, Kerela. Ladaakh Chale Rickshawala is also in the competition section of the 15th KSFF,2019 organized by Chitrabani in collaboration with Nandan. It was screened at the Bengali –Kannada Film Festival, 2019, Bangalore, The Hyderabad Bengali Festival 2019, Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, 2020. One of her other important works is a short film in Bangla called ‘Ekti Choto Chobi’. Ekti Choto Chobi was premiered at the Kalpanirjhar Short Fiction Film Festival,2011. Thereafter it was screened at the Kolkata Short Film Festival, 2011, The Imphal International Short Film Festival, 2012, The SIGHS 2012, Kerala, The Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival, 2013 where it was awarded the Best Screenplay Award. The film was also screened at The 13th Dhaka International Film Festival in 2014. Her film on the inmates of Presidency Jail, ‘Beyond the Four Walls’ was screened at the Prakriti Film Festival, 2014. Her documentary film ‘Story of the Witch’ on witch hunting in rural Bengal was screened at the Festival for Social Communication organized by Rupkala Kendro in 2005. Her personal documentary ‘Destiny’ was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), 2004 and at the Short Film Section of the Kolkata Film Festival, 2003. It was also screened at the Kurz International Film Festival Hamburg, Germany in June 2004 where it was highly appreciated. Indrani has written the scripts for all the short and documentary films that she has made so far. Chhaad- The Terrace is her first feature film.