Exploring the Limits of Desire
Exploring the Limits of Desire
A conversation between Putul Mahmood and Chandrima Bhattacharya
As prolific as the conversation of love and desire continue to grow and multiply (as they should) and those around sexual and bodily agency, seldom do we interrogate the limits these very ideas can can invoke. The limits that are posed on this very nature of desire and desirability, of relational ethics and perhaps even that of morality. The gatekeeping that continue to be exercised at the intersection of the body and more importantly, the mind - the ways in which layers of meaning is mapped onto them - and how departures from the normative is interpreted and received. How do these migrations invoke queerness and how do we develop a response towards it.
About Three Sisters:
On a hot humid afternoon in August 2017 an attempt was made to persuade their family to take the three sisters back home. My film crew and I travelled with some social workers and the three sisters to their home near the border between Bangladesh and India
This is a story about the three sisters' madness, their longing for familial love and their tremendous grace and dignity in the face of denial of that love.
About the Panelists:
Putul Mahmood:
She is the Producer of the Indie Bengali feature film Cosmic Sex directed by Amitabh Chakraborty. The film premiered at the Osians Cine Fan Festival of Arab and Asian Cinema where it won the Best Actress Award and was widely distributed across international online platforms as well as having a theatrical release in Bengal.
She has directed several short fiction and documentary films including You Who Never Arrived featuring Irrfan Khan and Geetanjali Kulkarni, Man of Silence- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, I Shoot U, Atasi, Three Sisters and Kajal. Atasi won the Best Film Silver Conch (under 60 mins category) at MIFF 2020.Three Sisters won the National Award for the Best Film on Social Issues at the 68th National Awards.
Putul Mahmood also works as a Screenplay Consultant on short fiction and feature films- Serious Men on Netflix starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is one of her recent works in that capacity. Serious Men won the Best Film Award at the Filmfare 2021 online Awards and was nominated to the Emmy Awards in the Best Actor Category.