'Dostojee' To Release On November 11

Bengali filmmaker Prasoon Chatterjee, whose directorial debut ‘Dostojee’ has won laurels in several international film festivals including the Nara International Film Festival (IFF) in Japan, says it is a social drama set in a border hamlet of West Bengal and ever relevant as it sees the world through the eyes of two children amid the backdrop of polarization.

The Bengali film had its world premiere at the 65th BFI London Film Festival last year, and got accolades in important film festivals including the Zlin Film Festival in the Czech Republic — one of the oldest film festivals for children - and at the Nara IFF, it had competed in the International Competition category with seven other films from around the world to get the top honour.

The film will be released in the country on November 11.

Chatterjee told PTI, he owed the success and string of awards the film got, to the cast and crew as "Dostojee is a collaborative effort".

"We hope the audiences will be able to connect with the message the way audiences worldwide could connect when it was screened at different film festivals in past one year. I have so many beautiful and poignant memories, But now I want it to be seen by people of my own country," he added. 

Dostojee talks about pure, unadulterated love and bonding between two childhood friends, two boys, which remains unscathed amid the communal violence, strife and rift between people. It is a social drama set in an interior village in West Bengal, close to the Bangladesh border. The backdrop is the time when the country was rocked by Babri Masjid demolition, Mumbai blasts, he said.

However, his film talks about the futility of polarization and fight among people, it calls for ushering in a better world for the children, a world of amity, Chatterjee said. 

The film has a bunch of fresh faces - including child actors Asiq Sheikh and Arif Seikh among others.