Tripti Dimri in a still of Bulbbul. (Image courtesy: officialcsfilms)
Strong points
- Anurag Kashyap congratulated director Anvita Dutta
- He said it was “a great learning experience for me as a filmmaker here”
- Bulbbul is produced by Anushka Sharma for Netflix
New Delhi:
In a fairly extraordinary thread on Twitter, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap wrote about the impact of the new film Bulbbul had on him and that he had actually read the script several years ago. Mr. Kashyap’s long thread is both a review of Bulbbul and an overview of the film and storytelling professions.
“It is very rare that a first film has this kind of impact on me. I did not expect it,” said Anurag Kashyap. In the middle, he cites some other early films that had a similar impact, among them Court, Theseus ship, Udaan, Masaan and Liar’s dice. Note – a separate thread on the first movies coming soon from the comments section has been inundated with responses asking Anurag Kashyap why he missed this or that movie (Sairat cropped).
Return to Bulbbul. When Anurag Kashyap read the script – he still has it in his mailbox – he did not watch the movie he ultimately became. “He had the vision, he had everything in the film but it was still not what I saw,” he wrote. Very rarely, the first cut of a film has the kind of impact that the final film offers, wrote Mr. Kashyap, adding that this was the case with his own seminal works such as Gangs Of Wasseypur.
“The first cuts are often close to the scripts. This means that the script had everything but was not the final film,” said Anurag Kashyap. Then begins the process of “snacking to find the movie” and that is exactly what Mr. Kashyap said. BulbbulAnvita Dutt’s first director did. Once he looked Bulbbul, Anurag Kashyap saw him again – with a glass of whiskey, of course – to find out why, by reading the script, he hadn’t visualized what he had been transformed into. “I saw (Anvita) take her time, I could feel her agony, her ecstasy,” wrote Mr. Kashyap, “this is where I would say edit Bulbbul rewrote Bulbbul. “
Anurag Kashyap has also praised music, cinematography and performance in Bulbbul, especially that of actress Tripti Dimri, interpreted as the main eponymous role – a bride married to a much older man who grew up in the attractive and confident mistress of the manor. Anurag Kashyap describes the film as an “edifying tale” and “Bengali Gothic”.
Read his full thread here – be warned, it’s very long:
I remember the movies that gave me a career, whether it was Black Friday or GOW, didn’t have the kind of impact on the first cut he finally made. The first cuts are often close to scripts. Which means the script had everything but was not the final movie.
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
When I saw Bulbul, the title sequence sucked me, the reds, I love the red, the red is cinematic, visceral. What I did not expect was the red nights, the red moon, of a mystery of horror which she had transformed into a fable of bad mood, a pure poetry and which had fascinated me and absorbed.
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
I saw her knowing that her Bulbul was here but she had not yet found it, I could see her not giving up or thinking that I had made my film and that’s it..NON..She continued , shredding, she and the editor playing with it, that’s where I would say that editing Bulbul rewrote Bulbul
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
The two tracks. The last time I saw them was at Laila Majnu where the film spoke more about Majnu @ avinashtiw85 (a criminally ignored performance this year) playing Satya, but this time the movie was not about him, sure to let his Laila become Bulbul and fly.
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
Discover Bulbul .. it’s not a scary horror, it’s an edifying tale, it’s a fable of the times, it’s Bengali Gothic (if there ever is such a thing). He joins the list of the best first films I have seen in this millennium like Court, Fandry, Subramaniapuram, Udaan, Masaan, Makdee
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
Safe enough to stay in the background and in the shade but strong enough to start casting your own shadow, holding the flag high for his more famous younger sister @AnushkaSharma , which empowers all their filmmakers and the people under whom they produce @OfficialCSFilms .
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
I couldn’t find more people on Twitter involved, so I hurried them. Good learning for me as a filmmaker here. Thank you Anvita Dutt
– Anurag Kashyap (@ anuragkashyap72) June 25, 2020
Bulbbul, now streaming on Netflix, is produced by Anushka Sharma’s Clean Slate Filmz. The period film was warmly received by critics and the public. In addition to Tripti Dimri, the cast includes Rahul Bose, Avinash Tiway, Paoli Dam and Parambrata Chatterjee.
