Seven years back, death shook filmmaker Rajaditya Banerjee as he lost his filmmaker brother Bappaditya Bandyopadhya and father, Debashish Banerjee within a span of eight months. Even though the loss was irreparable, Banerjee rose from the ashes and took up his camera to carry on the legacy they have left behind.With keen interest in cosmology, Rajaditya ventured out to learn more about how death is perceived around the world. He found his answers near home at Varanasi, which culminated into Death of Death, his first documentary film. He went on to make a trilogy on the topic, and has now shifted his focus on the segments of our cultural heritage that are at the brink of extinction.
His documentation work on the critically endangered Toto language- Lost for Words, recently premiered at the 20th Dhaka International Film Festival.
Death has been a consistent factor of interest in your work. What is your perception of the cycle of life?
I come from a family of filmmakers. My elder brother Bappaditya Bandopadhyay, had made quite a mark through his films Elar Char Adhyay & Kagojer Bou within the short span of his life. My father, too, often took a break from his busy schedule as the editor of popular children’s magazine Anandamela to create documentaries. I, on the other hand, have always been keen to pursue theatre. However, their demise pushed my boundaries beyond imagination. I realised, death can be interpreted in more ways than one. It is beyond the mere lifelessness of the physical body. It is a celebration of life that culminates into death.
In your documentary, you have explored cultural practices that are declining at a rapid rate?
I have always been fascinated by people who are underdogs, who contribute majorly to our society. However, they often remain unheard due to the economic misbalance of the society. I have previously documented the present day scenario of the polymorphic Bohurupis in a film titled ‘Dying art of the Bohurupis of Bengal’. My latest film Lost for Words, speaks of the dying language of Toto spoken by the inhabitants of Totopara, the last village situated on the border of India and Bhutan.
What have been some of the major findings while working on Lost for Words?
The documentation was filmed over a period of three and a half years and during this time we realised India is losing its diverse range of languages at a rapid rate. The Totos are Tibetan migrants who were eventually snatched off their land, lifestyle as well as their language due to the established dominance of Nepali, Bengali, Hindi and English in this region over time. UNESCO has declared the Toto language as critically endangered with only a thousand to thirteen hundred speakers left. The language is all the more unique as it does not have any pictorial representation of alphabets to call its own. It was only in 2014 that a member of the tribe named Dhaniram Toto invented the Toto Alphabet.
The film recently premiered at the Dhaka International Film Festival. What was the response?
Coincidentally, the Bangladeshi people understand the value of a language as one of the major issues they fought for was their language- Bangla. It was extremely special for a film on language to premiere in the land that fought for its language.