When stories for cause join hands with cinema for a cause, where both have the same vision, mission, and passion, magic happens! 30 th Nov...
When stories for cause join hands with cinema for a cause, where both have the same vision, mission, and passion, magic happens! 30th November 2024 witnessed one of its kind 1stcelebration of the success of short film ‘I Want… Maa’. It was indeed a unique celebration as this was the first time that a short film celebrated its success in a grand, yet homely environment honouring every member of the cast and crew.
Special guests, filmmaker Sanjay Mishra and his wife Payal Mishra and journalist Sompa Karmakar from Aranyadut Patrika added value by gracing the occasion with their presence.
From the pen of screenplay writer and producer of the film, Alakananda Pramanik to the lenses of Cinema For A Cause, the journey had been incredible. Being an author and storyteller, Alakananda aka Supermom’s stories had always been for a cause based on real-life incidents- the cause to positively change people’s lives. When Abhishek Ganguli, founder – Cinema For A Cause collaborated with Alakananda and adapted her story ‘I Want… Maa’ into an emotional and touching short film under his expert Directorship, little did they realize that the film would touch hearts and leave a huge impact on the audience.
Since its release, the film has seen a downpour of awards, recognitions and appreciations from various film festivals, and continues to do so. The film received Awards for ‘Best Child Actor’ and ‘Best Experimental Writer (screenplay)’ from West Bengal Short Film Festival 2024, ‘Best English Short Film-India’ from Global Independent Film Festival of India, ‘Special Jury's Choice Honouring Outstanding Performance With Appreciation’ from Durgapur International Film Festival 2024, ‘Best Director’ from Mumbai Entertainment International Film Festival 2023,‘Best Dialogues’ from Satyajit Ritwik Mrinal International Kolkata Film Festival 2023, etc. The film also received recognition at the prestigious SHORTS 2023 at Jamshedpur and at the Short Film Festival 2024 by Kolkata International Foundation for Arts, Literature and Culture.
I Want…. Maa is a powerful and impactful story highlighting the struggles of single parents and their children. The story is about the child of a single mother who is struggling to keep up with her life’s pace trying hard to balance work and motherhood. She loves her child a lot and is working hard to give him a better life but is not able to spend time with him resulting in attention and time deficit. The child loves both his parents, but parental conflict leaves the child craving for love and a happy family life.
Through her hectic life, the mother sometimes finds solace in browsing through social media and rewinds over calls with a new love in life.
The child craves for his mother’s touch, his mother’s love, and most importantly her time when he can eagerly tell her all about school and his achievements. The stars his teacher gave him for doing well in class and his emotions when his classmates clapped for him. He wants to share his happiness with his mother. He imagines her joyfully hugging and kissing him!
For Mother’s Day, the teacher gives the class a home assignment. The child pours his heart into his notebook. The concluding message wrenches the audience’s heart and makes them realize the value of this delicate bond between parent-child in today’s chaotic digital life.
Team ‘I Want… Maa’ celebrated the success of their film by cutting a cake and distributing mementos to their cast and crew and guests on the completion of one year. The film was screened which took everyone back in time reminiscing every moment of the making of the film.
The film’s director Abhishek Ganguli, producer Alakananda Pramanik, lead actor Antara Raychaudhury, lead child actor Inesh Ghosh, child actor Siddhiksha Sharma, actor Shubhashis Ghosh spoke about their experience of being a part of the film and their I Want… Maa journey.
Alakananda emotionally concluded, ‘When ‘I Want… Maa’ was released, and I could see my dream turn into reality. I could see the positive change it was bringing in parent-child relationships. The film touched people’s hearts and souls. I attribute the success of the film to each and every person directly and indirectly involved with the making of the film and thank them from the bottom of my heart. My heartfelt thanks to Abhishek for turning my short story into a soul-stirring impactful short film under his expert direction that has and is being noticed by the jury of several film festivals across our nation.’
The film, ‘I Want… Maa’ is a reminder of all of what we as parents have lost or are losing as we are sucked into the vicious whirlpool of digital life that has dismantled our sense of emotion and priority. We have started taking relationships for granted. It's still not too late to tweak your priorities a little to be there physically and emotionally for your child and your loved ones.
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