After winning accolades for her performance in Kushan Nandy’s thriller “Babumoshai Bandookbaaz” actress Bidita Bag recently won the coveted “Best Supporting Actress” award at “Calcutta International Cult Film Festival 2018” for a bilingual (Tamil, Bengali) short film ‘Sinam’ (Anger).
In ‘Sinam’ she played an aspiring documentary film maker called ‘Durga’ who got inspired by the story of a prostitute “Shakti’ and while filming the journey of that prostitute she comes to know some hard hitting facts of her life. Says Bidita, “I am extremely delighted and honoured that the jury members considered my performance and worthy of this award. Being a Bengali at heart any recognition that comes from my hometown of Kolkata holds a special place in my heart.” This short film also marks Bidita Bag’s debut as a singer, she rendered a mesmerisingly beautiful Bengali song composed by National Poet RabindraNath Tagore, “Ami tomari matir kanya”(I am a daughter of your soil).
“Sinam’ is a story of a prostitute called Shakti and documentary film maker Durga. The call is unsuspecting and it piques the interest of a documentary film-maker, when the caller identifies her as a prostitute and shocks her when she says that her father is the reason why she finds herself in a brothel today… When Durga, the film-maker visits Shakthi, the prostitute, we get to hear the story of the travails of a woman, named after an Indian Goddess confessing her story to another that bears a similar name of another Goddess! This ironical subtlety forms the bedrock of the narration, which is an account of anger (Sinam) prevailing over love. The film is directed by Anand Murthy and produced by Nesan Thirunesan who recently launched the London and Chennai based film production house “Nesan Creations”.
“Sinam” won eight awards at an international film festival. Kollywood actress Sai Dhanshika of “Kabali” fame was also credited and won a “Best Actress” Award for the same film.