Baghthan

Chandra, the only descendant of the ancestors who created his beautiful village, contemplates about the ancestors, descendants, his beloved , his demised better half, the songs, the stories, the pathways he had walked thousand of times, and the rest place where he had rested tons of his fatigues. At the very verge of his life these memories are the only things that he is longing for.

It was always fascinating to hear the story of trapping tiger in a stone cage from my grandfather. I used to visit the cage whenever I visited his village which also consisted of breath taking natural beauty and cultural heritages. Gradually the people of the village migrated away. The migration even accelerated after the earthquake of 2015. When I visited the village in 2018 there were only 3 houses left but now severely affected by the wild beasts from the surrounding forest. I learned that my grandfather's family was migrating within few months. I saw the dilemma of my grandfather about migrating. He really did not want to migrate because the village was the land of his ancestors. But he could not stay because everyone was moving out and the old man had no choice left. I saw something out of this whole situation. I felt the narrative could be interesting if I compared the heydays of the ancestors of my grandfather who avoided migration by killing the troublesome tiger in the cage whereas my grandfather was compelled to leave the village. I also wanted to imagine how my grandfather had felt while leaving the village at his old age. I wanted to make a film about my memories and childhood nostalgias attached to him and the village. Through the medium of cinema, I attempted to capture the real village and I casted my own grandfather as the protagonist. Bagthan came out of all this. I tried to weave my nostalgias. I fictionalized and dramatized my grandfather's youthful days. I attempted to capture the last days of the dying village. Through the tools of audio visual I wanted to narrate my personal connection to the village. The village is the metaphorical representation of my country and the tiger is that of the system. Like the old man and his family migrating outside of the village in the film, one third of the population is compelled to migrate outside of the country temporarily or permanently due to corrupt and incapable system. The migration of my own family to the capital city in my childhood, I think, is somehow subconsciously crafted in this film.