acid symphony part 2; Bengali short film; Winner of Certificate of Merit from Thessaloniki, Greece

Director: Sumantra Chattopadhyay, sumantrachat@yahoo.com

Victor had always observed something strange about Manuela, but he could never pinpoint what it was. And when Victor was feeling that he was going to understand her, Manuela just vanished into the blue. That was about twenty-five years back, and strangely enough Victor has seldom remembered her from after two years of her disappearance.

But today when the Government of India is awarding him the highest honour for lifetime contributions to music, Victor is finding himself engrossed in the memories of Manuela. Victor remembered his trying days when he had to go from door to door requesting for an audition. All the then big groups showed him cold shoulders, until an impresario Aslam, agreed to try him for a big show but on one condition. He was to pay fifty thousand Indian rupees to him. Victor was on the verge of becoming berserk. There was no way on earth he could get so much money, let alone so soon. Manuela, the deep-eyed fiery and mystic Anglo Indian girl friend asked him to go on with his rehearsals without bothering about the money. Victor remembered the night before the show. She had come with the money to his shabby apartment and that night said quite out of place negative things. They spent the night together.

Victor had never seen her like that before or after. In fact Victor never saw her after that night. In the show Victor played like a genius. Never did he have to turn back again. Manuela who used to work in a small restaurant seemed to have vanished into thin air.

*******

Victors butler comes and announces a young lady wants to meet him and she is really adamant. Victor asks him to usher her in. What she said in a nutshell is ---- Manuela had agreed to become the whore of a Sheikh for fifty thousand rupees. She spent her days in the Sheikhs Harem and has died a year back from a deadly sexually transmitted disease. She had never contacted him as she had had promised so to the Sheikh. She has said to her daughter about her father before dying and had written a letter to Victor in her deathbed. She has also made her daughter promise not to contact him before Victor receives the countrys highest honour.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• bengali
• short
• film