‘Adieu Godard’ not typical art film, it’s very entertaining: director Amartya

When the team of Odia film ‘Adieu Godard’ went to shoot a scene in rural Odisha, they actually had to screen a movie by legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard for locals.

It’s anyone’s guess how angry the villagers might have gotten for bringing them to one place and showing them a French film that they don’t understand, director Amartya Bhattacharyya said.

“What we were trying to show in the film was actually what we were doing,” he told PTI pointing out the operational challenges of shooting the movie, which released on Friday.

Shot entirely in Odisha, ‘Adieu Godard’ follows the story of an old man named Ananda who is addicted to pornography and secretly watches adult films with some men in the evening.

One day, the protagonist, Choudhary Bikash Dash, accidentally brings home a DVD after assuming it to be pornography. But it turned out to be the 1960 cinema ‘Breathless’, the first and the most iconic movie of Godard.

Ananda gets attracted by the newness and gradually develops an obsession. Then, he then attempts to host a film festival on Godard in their village.

The name of the movie suggests that it is a tribute to Godard, but it is not a quintessential tribute film, according to Bhattacharyya.

“This movie has the potential to reach a lot of people because it is not at all boring or slow kind of a typical art film. It is very engaging and entertaining,” the National Award winner said.

Bhattarcharyya said the movie was not a propagandist film and the dark satire underscored the importance of cross-cultural exchange of ideas.

He pointed out that there the message of the film cannot be given in a line and it was not a spoon-feeding of the typical art films, which would try to impose a statement on the viewer.

Bhattarcharyya doesn’t like to make those kinds of films that are imposing some educational stuff. “There is also a lot of educational value in the film, but that comes through organically,” he said, adding that each and every viewer would have certain messages to take back.

He felt blessed that Adieu Godard became the first Odia film to have a world premiere at the Moscow International Film Festival. It has been to around 20 international festivals and won six awards, including the best picture in the Indian languages section at the prestigious Kolkata International Film Festival this year.