Kolkata – Impermanence, the documentary on the Dalai Lama by eminent filmmaker Gautam Ghose, is ready for its US premier this month.
Still enamoured about his experience with the extraordinary man “because he is so different from most of us”, Ghose recalled how the Dalai Lama always talked about his aversion to human follies like jealousy, greed, violence that can only lead to misery and advocated compassion for every fellow human being.
“As he wrapped a chadar each on me and the Italian producer of the film Sergio Scapagnini after the docu-features special screening in New Delhi, I felt enthralled by his touch, it was a magical feel,” Ghose said.
The US premier will be the third premier of the film on the Buddhist spiritual head, after the international premier held in Venice last September and the Indian premier in New Delhi last month where a host of dignitaries including the Dalai Lama himself was present, Ghose said.
In the US, which comprises a major chunk of the international film market, the film would be first shown in North America and then screened in TV channels, Ghose, who had accompanied the Dalai Lama to several places during the making of the film from 1998 to 2004, said.”In my 60-minute film that traces his journey from a Tibetan hamlet as Tenzin Gyatso to the current avatar of the Dalai Lama where he has spiritual discourse with his disciples at Dharmasala,” Ghose said.
The Dalai Lama believes in the utter futility of conflict between men in the backdrop of the impermanence of life, said Ghose, who trailed the spiritual leader during his frequent tours worldwide in past six years to take a closer look at the man.
“Basically, I tried to capture the philosopher that the Dalai Lama is, who believes in impermanence of life as exemplified in the Buddhist religion. He calls upon his followers not to expect any miracle from him,” Ghose, who has made documentaries on legendary musician Ustad Bismillah Khan, late Rabindra Sangeet exponent Kanika Bandyopadhyay and late film maestro Satyajit Ray, said.
The internationally-known feature and docu-feature maker, is now busy conceptualising his next venture, an Indo-Italian co-production project, which is expected to get rolling soon.
“It is going to be bi-lingual, in English and Hindi and 35 percent of its shooting would be done in Europe,” he said.
The film, which will be a sort of confluence of experiences of two friends in Europe and India, would seek to capture the flow of life in India from the points of view of an European who is on an exploration of this country after his experience with his own students.
