The Blue Redemption

Directed by Shivdeep Shinde and Prabandh Bhise

Starring: Sudarshan Sonai Randive, Swapnil Agade, Suhas Jagdale, Kakaso Patil, Milind Pansare, Ganesh Bhalerao, Amit Khot

Year: 2018

Country: India

Author Review: Roberto Matteucci

Indian cinema is the most important in the world, both for public and for production.

His strength is in the great works, in the stories, in the famous music and in the originality

But the hope of the future of Indian cinema is in the many young passionate filmmakers, true lovers of the most beautiful show in the world. They grow up studying film in schools or watching thousands of films. Their intelligent and emotional vision meet with their youthful enthusiasm, and both influence their imagination.

The product of young people is not a replica of a great tradition, but the study of new cinematographic forms, in the search for new languages, in assimilating different cultures.

The example is the production of two young Indians, to their first work - Shivdeep Shinde and Prabandh Bhise - in the film The Blue Redemption. Now, the movie is at the last stage of the post-production (last but not least of the others), and it should be completed on May 26th, 2018.

The history is deeply sophisticated, they have many links, many meanings. In the interview with Shivdeep Shinde - at the end of the article - he speaks of intense studies on the psyche, especially concerning the most important human phases, such as madness, and death. It is always a complicated subject in the cinema; for a good description is necessary an experimentation and modern language.

The plot tells about a curator who studies human behaviour by observing his subjects but in reality, he himself falls under the same circumstances.

The film is a mixture of the mental trials of the characters, with the use of reason, mind, environment and psychedelic substances. Furthermore, there is a relationship between the different versions of life and death.

In the trailer for the release of the film - https://youtu.be/_qT8G946e58 - we discover some linguistic schemes used. It starts from black and white, elegant and relaxing, allows us to focus on the perfection of the frame, the position of the camera is designed to get the best images, the characters are or in the foreground, or located at the edge to leave the background free. They assume eccentric positions to reinforce how small is the man in front of the life. The characters are really identified, they are true, for their need to live, for their madness, for their death. They may be characteristic, witty, particular, but in their graceful posture, they show also a deep emotion.

The directors use the black colour without fear, in abundance; he often fills the scene totally, leaving the characters to the extremity.

Narrate the insanity, the scared of the life, the philosophy of the death with cinematographic interpretative language is hard, therefore, the authors also use the graphics. There are masks, evident symbols of the desire to escape.

There are drawings, paintings on walls rich in symbology. The images contain the signs of a difficult moment of the mind, not easily understandable, so when a man covers them with other paintings he fully shows his torment.

The anguish comes from afar, as they show the writings of the seven deadly sins in Latin on a wall. Man's sins are not born casually, they are inside us. We are attracted to them, yet we are frightened at the same time and we are fighting against them in vain. It is the reason for the existence of sins and why we must live with them.

The complete vision of the film will allow us to understand the many faces apparently introverted and distracted in their daily slow and precise gestures. Behind there is the desire to live, to reach a liberation.

The film, thanks to the refined preparation, can aspire to participate in festivals all over the world, waiting to be distributed on VOD video on demand channels.

The two authors, both from Pune, seem to unite in their artistic ability.

The 27-year-old Shivdeep Shinde studied art while 36-year-old Prabandh Bhise studied gynecology. We could imagine that Prabandh Bhise has made the scientific part, for the medical study of human anomalies, and of the fears of existing.

The first may have provided the elegant aesthetic, as many difficult, because to represent the psychic disturbances in images is problematic.

The fortune of Indian cinema is to have young authors irrevocably ready to present themselves all over the world. The language used is universal, a comprehensible reading everywhere. In fact, cinema doesn't know boundaries: beautiful images are weapons capable of bypassing any barriers.

One of the authors Shivdeep Shinde has confirmed the idea and the exaltation of the production:

"We have been working together on some ideas for the film when we came across different schools of philosophical thoughts. We were inclined towards the philosophy of death and deliverance. We worked over a few concepts and after many nights of brainstorming we created The Blue Redemption. The subject matter demanded cinematic experimentation and hence we had to struggle to enclose it in a conventional narrative. For deeper understanding of the ideas, we read many articles and books regarding human behavior, impact of isolation and extreme psychological stress on mind, death, animal instincts and enlightenment. Gradually, the characters and images unfurled. We have discussed evolution, life and death in the film. In order to catch the written words and the underlying emotions in cinematic language, we watched art films. Hungarian film maker Bela Tarr's cinematic technique and narrative pace influenced us in particular and helped build confidence. Also, the works of Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth with its dark lyrics and poetry envisioned our creation. We insisted in keeping the team manageable and in order. So we studied the technical skills through online articles, podcasts and YouTube channels. It has been a great help to aspiring film makers like us. We planned the tasks and completed the process step-by-step. We think that in case of expressions in films, animations conveys most efficiently. So we are working on our next animation project- Battle of Falcon, and do hope to get the production company it deserves. Also, we are in the midst of writing script for a film in Marathi/ Hindi, Liquid Sunshine. Both these project will be ready for production within a couple of months."