Film directed by Kolkata physician reaches film festivals, including in his own city

A film made by a practising doctor, drawing from his personal experiences in the profession, has made it to the Kolkata International Film Festival in the ‘Bengali Panorama’ section.

Pinjar, debut film of the 42-year-old Europe-educated practitioner of general medicine, Rudrajit Roy, conveys how people live, in effect, in different kinds of prisons, whether of gender, religion, poverty, customs, or silence.

The Kolkata International Film Festival will be held November 6-13. The film will also be screened on Monday, November 3, at the Asian Film Festival in Barcelona; and was recently screened at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival.

“The story unfolds,” the synopsis says, “through five characters and a wild bird, each mirroring the other’s yearning for freedom. Tarak, a weary bird-catcher, earns his living by imprisoning what he most admires — flight. His daughter, Jhimli, fierce yet innocent, grows up watching birds lose their sky. Paromita, a widowed schoolteacher, hides her loneliness behind the discipline of routine. Shefali, an educated working woman, paints over her bruises with silence. And Iqbal, a migrant Muslim man, struggles to belong in a city that only tolerates him. Threaded through their intersecting lives is a forest bird — stolen, sold, and caged — a quiet witness to human captivity.”

“The idea came to me about a decade ago, during my early days of medical practice. I was travelling by train to a village when I noticed a man carrying a small cage covered with a gamchha (towel). Peeking through it was a parrot — that single image stayed with me for years. It felt symbolic, like a reflection of how both humans and animals live in invisible cages of their own. The rest of the story grew from my life experiences, from my patients,” Dr. Roy told The Hindu.

The physician, a private consultant, took a three-week break from work to shoot this film. “Life is too short, and I want to live it doing what truly fulfils me. During the making of Pinjar, I would spend my nights working on the film after my clinic and hospital rounds. My team was incredibly supportive. When the time came to shoot, I finally took a 21-day leave — my first in two years — which I had been saving just for this film,” he said.

The cast of the 2.17-hour-long Bengali-Hindi film includes Mamata Shankar, Joy Sengupta, Satakshi Nandy, and Sagnik Mukherjee.

Helping a Muslim man during the COVID-19 lockdown when others were not very forthcoming in doing so was one of the events that contributed to the story of Pinjar. “I guided him to get government shelter in a hotel and ensured he received proper medical treatment. He eventually recovered successfully. Incidents like these reminded me that humanity always comes before identity. Many such unknown people came into my life during that time, and each story reinforced my belief that compassion and empathy are our real strengths, no matter what our faith or background,” Dr. Roy said.

“Watching world cinema made me a film fanatic. At the same time, I always wanted to be a doctor. Medicine and cinema, for me, are connected by empathy. While one heals the body, the other can heal the mind and soul. Through my films, I want to tell stories that can move, comfort, and perhaps even heal someone,” Dr. Roy said.