Art, nature play major role in protagonist's romantic choices in Aquarium, says director Deep Ghosh

Deep Ghosh’s recent short film Aquarium, which deals with the concept of freedom in love, is currently being streamed on the app My CinemaHall.

Featuring theatre artistes such as Sahana Basu Bhaduri, Sujit Kumar Barman, Sangeeta Chhetri, Ankur Biswas and Sujay Shah, the silent film tells the story of a woman, who repeatedly falls in love with various individuals of all sexes.

Formerly a computer science student, Ghosh has been creating short films and documentaries since 2016. Some of his previous works such as Eyeliner, Zebra Crossing and Ethno Bazaar have gained recognition at several film festivals.

Ghosh did not initially intend to become a filmmaker. However, he found the audio-visual medium to be best suited to convey his messages.

His film Eyeliner was based on the journey of India’s first transgender lawyer Megh Sayantan Ghosh and Chapal Bhaduri, a theatre and jatra artiste known for his impersonation of women.

However, when he decided to make Aquarium, the filmmaker wanted to break the habit of using cinema to convey a certain social message. “No medium of art follows a pattern for long; rather, it has its own flow. On the other hand, there is a trend in the Bengali film industry of sticking to a particular pattern for consecutive works once it clicks with the audience,” said Ghosh, who opted to make a film that would focus on his protagonist’s emotions and feelings.

While scripting the film, Ghosh watched Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Jonaki (2018) and was quite inspired by it. “I gradually began feeling the urge to adopt a particular narrative style and tell the story through Aquarium. We shot the film in 2020 and released it on 1 January,” said Ghosh.

In Aquarium, the protagonist repeatedly falls in love with people, who are associated with certain art forms. Nature also has a great role to play in each of her romantic unions. “I believe that the concept of sexual liberation or freedom of sexual preference has been incorporated in the film with a nuanced approach. It is up to the audience to relate to those ideas as social messages or simply as important aspects of the film,” said Ghosh.

It was difficult for Ghosh to make the travel arrangements for the entire cast from Kolkata; hence, he chose to work with theatre artistes from North Bengal. “Sahana Basu has also worked in Jonaki. She has done a brilliant job. Sujay Shah is a National School of Drama pass out and the other actor Ankur has also done a good job in the film. There is an important song at the end of the film, which kind of works as the summary of the concept of the film as well. Ananya Mukherji from Bankura has sung the song,” said Ghosh.

The director is in talks with people from Addatimes to have the film streamed on the platform.

Watch the trailer and let us know if you are keen on watching the film.