Filmmaker Indranil Banerjee’s short ‘Urmimala’ becomes centre of attention at international film festivals

Filmmaker Indranil Banerjee is on a roll. He cracked the magic of conjuring a horror anthology in 20 minutes on a minimum budget. The anthology, called 4 Shades of Leap, is purported to be India’s first mini-series. He then got invited to be on the honourable jury at the prestigious Seattle International Film Festival 2021.

And now, to add to that, his latest short film Urmimala is garnering rave reception and applause at prestigious international film festivals. Within the past week itself, the short has cooped up as many as five awards—Asish Pathak for Best Actor at the 4th Florida Beach International film festival, Best Director at Mount Fuji International Film Festival, Best Soundtrack at Europe Film Festival, Best Director FINALIST at Sweden Film Awards and Best Director at Best Istanbul Film Awards. 

Urmimala has Asish Pathak, Piyali Dhar, Shampa Mukherjee, Satya Chandan Sardar and Gokul Mullick in important roles. The film centres around an established author whose life changes forever one day. An attractive promiscuous woman steps into his room at midnight, exuding a quiet aura, and introduces herself. The characters created by the author often jump out of his mind into the real plane, or do they? The blurred space between real and imaginary, emanating from the head space of an author, forms the crux of the narrative.

Banerjee, who seems to strike gold with whatever he is taking up now, is happy to have his hard work recognised. The filmmaker grew up watching films from the East and West, such as Satyajit Ray’s Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, James Cameron’s Titanic, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and more. His excitement for films made him choose a career in photography to learn more about the art of filmmaking. The gifted director found his inspiration in great filmmakers like James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and Satyajit Ray. He also credited a part of the making of his filmmaking sensibilities to his elder sister Indrani Banerjee. He thanks her for giving him books on filmmaking to learn from.

The young director has an impressive list of filmography to boast of. He helmed the critically acclaimed films like The Chase, The Mirage, Trinayani—The 3rd Eye, One Night Stand and Hakchoooo before Urmimala caught his eye.