A familiar name among the television viewers of Assam, Ashok Sarma has undertaken a unique project that may well put him in the record books. He is out to do a 75-minute film in 75 minutes of real time, an enterprise nobody in the world has attempted so far.

What’s unique in this unprecedented film is that it will begin and end in one ‘shot’, which, in other words, means that there will be no ‘cut’ in the film once the camera rolls. Even though the film will comprise a number of scenes, they will not be shot in one frame — the camera will capture them in close shot, mid shot, long shot, zoom in, zoom out, and in trolly shots. There will be no mixing of scenes shot, hence, the film editor’s contributions will be reduced to the minimum.

Titled Premikar Sandhanat Anisha in Assamese, and In Quest of the Beloved One Night in English, this suspense genre film will feature only one character and have no dialogue. A qualified electrical engineer, Sarma, who has earlier made a number television serials in Assamese for Guwahati Doordarshan, has written the story and screenplay of the film. He is also the producer of this unique film. Incidentally, this is Sarma’s first attempt at filmmaking.

Legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s The Rope is hailed as the ‘first movie shot in real time’. But this film, made in 1930s, was not a one-shot film, but comprised different ten-minute shots without cut. Hitchcock used a series of longest ever shots of ten minutes each to make this film, which then set a world record.

In India, too, there are instances of shooting of films being completed in the shortest possible time. For example, the entire shooting of the two-hour film Advutam, a bilingual in Malayalam and English, was completed in 71 minutes. A film on euthanasia, made in 2005 by Malayalam filmmaker Jayaraj, it had all total 60 characters and two cameras were used to shoot the film. But Advutam was essentially an experimental film.

The first commercial film to be shot in quickest time was another Malayalam film Bhagwan, starring Mohanlal and directed by Prashant Mambuli. The shooting of this two-and-half-hour film with a budget of Rs 2 crore was completed in 12 hours flat. It had 150 characters.

Ashok Sarma’s film will be the first venture to be shot and completed in real time of 75 minutes. The lone character of the film will be portrayed by Pradeep Nishith, a popular mobile theatre actor of Assam who has also acted in some Hindi television serials in Mumbai. The film will be shot using a digital camera, by Suraj Dowerah. The shooting of the film that has Mahendra Roy as the chief assistant director and Gitartha Prateem as the assistant director, will be held this month.

The film will be sent to all the main international and national film festivals and efforts will also be made to find a mention in the Guiness Book of World Records and the Limca Book of Records.

But, is not Premikar Sandhanat Anisha an experimental film like Advutam? “I will not call it exactly an experimental venture even as I know that it will not be easy for me to release it commercially. Yet, I have taken up this project only to establish the fact that in the wake of the technical advancement made in the film medium, it is not difficult to make a film of longer duration in one shot and in real time. Premikar Sandhanat Anisha is an attempt in that direction,” says Sarma.

Bornali Konwar