Film based on Bengali rock singer Rupam Islam’s album to be premiered at Italian film fest

Kolkata: A movie based on Bengali rock singer Rupam Islam's album Aami (Myself) is set for world premiere at the prestigious Salerno International Film Festival in Italy later this month, director Amartya Bhattacharyya said. The album was launched in 2020, and is Rupam's first collaboration with guitar maestro Amyt Datta. The Bengali movie Son of Adam will be screened on December 1, three days after the 77th edition of the festival is opened.

"The film is about a fictional character who is born in a jungle and gets lured to modern civilization. But unable to cope with the complexities of the society, he decides to go back to where he had come from," Bhattacharyya said.

Son of Adam features all eight songs of the album Aami and the film is named after one of the songs – Adomer Santan. The song revolves around a primitive man who is perplexed by the duality of innocence and experience.

Islam, 49, the lead singer of the popular rock band ‘Fossils’, said, "Inspired by the songs of Aami, Amartya wrote a screenplay and narrated it to me. It felt unique and different in a lot of ways. It's a very unconventional approach. We worked together, and I could see that the team was fuelled by a lot of passion.”

The director said the film is important in the context of Indian history because the country has a legacy of communicating through songs.

“This film narrates a story mainly through songs rather than dialogues,” Bhattacharyya said.

Swastik Chowdhury and Priyanka Ghosh Roy play the male and female leads respectively in the movie, while Islam and Datta appear in interesting cameo roles.

Chowdhury is also the producer of the film which was shot at various places.

“I was amazed by some extraordinary locations. Not just Kolkata, the film explores several beautiful locations across Andaman, Darjeeling, and western parts of Odisha. The final outcome is very exciting. I think the film will offer something very fresh and new,” Islam said ahead of the movie’s world premiere.

The Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Salerno (Salerno International Film Festival) is one of the oldest film festivals, which started in 1946.