Docu-Forum

Lake of Fleeting Lights
A film by Malay Dasgupta
79 min., Bengali with English subtitles, HD, Colour/B&W, India, 2016
 
The documentary is an introspective journey in time with Joy Goswami, a leading Bengali poet, through his writings, his memories and dreams. It explores the creative angst of a sexagenarian poet, settled in an urban milieu and in somewhat disconcerting time that provokes an existential dilemma in his self. Writing for more than four decades, poetry for Joy Goswami has always been a device for negotiating with his ‘self’ and ‘time’. As the poet encounters individual and societal difficulties, his struggle does not remain confined only within himself, but points to similar struggles of art and artists all over the world. This impressionistic documentary, interspersed with recitations of his poems, anecdotes and remembrance, provides a rare glimpse of a poet’s mind, touching everything from the mundane to the sublime. The film traces the poet’s very own way of negotiating the present dilemma, and his endeavor to craft a sublime tapestry of poetic images, like the fleeting lights on a placid lake that may turn out to be the reservoir of life to carry on in this dark world.
 
 
Malay Dasgupta is a media consultant and documentary film maker. He studied Comparative Literature in Jadavpur University, Kolkata. On completing his post-graduation he started making independent documentaries. His first documentary ‘Dangling on a String’ (1991) was on the traditional puppet theatre of Bengal, following which he made a documentary on the last surviving musician of the ‘Vishnupur Gharana’ of Indian classical music, Bindhyabasini (1993). He has made several documentaries like ‘Song of my Life’ (2005), ‘Amina Revisited’ (2006) ‘My Life, My Music’ (2008-09), ‘Land of Eighteen Tides & One Goddess’ (2012) which have been screened in different film festivals in India and abroad. Malay has worked extensively for different television channels and corporate production houses. He has conducted video film making workshops with the post-graduate students in the department of Film Studies in Jadavpur University and in the department of Mass Communication in Rajasthan University. He has also been the Head of the Department (Media), at the International School of Business & Media, Kolkata. Malay lives in Kolkata and is presently associated with CMI, a media institute promoted by the ABP Group.