Subhrajit Mitra's Avijatrik wins three awards at 7th Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival of Boston

Subhrajit Mitra’s upcoming film Avijatrik has won the Best Film, Best Music and Best Production Design Awards at the seventh edition of the Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival (CIFFB) of Boston.

A tribute to Satyajit Ray, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Soumitra Chatterjee, Avijatrik takes off from where Ray’s Apu trilogy ended with Apur Sansar in 1959.

Based on the last one-third part of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s novel Aparajito, Avijatrik narrates the journey of an older Apu (Arjun Chakraborty) and his son Kajal, as the former relives his entire childhood through the eyes of his boy.

Avijatrik also features Sreelekha Mitra, Arpita Chatterjee, Subhro S Das, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Ditipriya Roy.

The film has been produced by Gaurang Jalan’s Gaurang films and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Bhandarkar Entertainment while NCKS Explorations has co-presented the film. “This year has been remarkable for Avijatrik,” said Jalan, on receiving the award.

“We set out to make a film that would be a befitting tribute to maestros Satyajit Ray, Soumitra da and Pandit Ravi Shankar. As a producer, I am very happy with such heartwarming responses from film festivals all over the world,” he added.

Avijatrik was premiered at the 26^th Kolkata International Film Festival [2020] and was also screened in the panorama section of the 51^st International Film Festival of India, Goa. Among around 30 film festivals around the globe, the film was also selected to be screened at the 38^th Miami International Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival and Seattle Film Festival.

Bhandarkar said, “We are happy to hear about adding more awards in our kitty with Avijatrik’s journey at CIFFB. As a filmmaker, there is no better reward than seeing your film resonating with audiences all across.”

The music of the film has been scored by Pandit Bickram Ghosh while the title track is Anoushka Shankar's version of her father’s iconic Pather Panchali theme tune.

To retain the authentic essence of the period film, which is set in the 1940s, Avijatrik was shot in black and white on 68 locations. 

The film is slated to be released in theatres on 26 November.