My father, Umakanta Mahapatra was a quintessential storyteller. He could relate and tell stories to anyone from the age range of one year to eighty years and tell stories appropriate to his audience. I come from a family with a rich literary heritage starting with my father as a storyteller, my uncle as a poet and finally my maternal grandfather who as a hobby translated Shakespeare’s work into Sanskrit.
Recognizing the need for my father’s works to reach a wider audience, we established UA Kathachitra in their honour to promote my father’s literary work and to produce contemporary and period films, as well as promote fresh talent with creative artistic vision and ideas. As a first step, we have started to translate his stories and adapt one of his short stories – “Joseph” into a feature film titled “Josef – Born in Grace”.
“Josef – Born in Grace” is an adaptation of a short story “Joseph” written by Umakanta Mahapatra and is set in the foothills of the Himalayas between 1960 and 1980 in India.
Father O’Hara (Victor Banerjee), a missionary doctor with the help of his caretaker Maularam (Sudarshan Juyal), raises an orphan baby Josef (Hitesh Bisht). While still a young boy, Josef is sent to Dehradun for his studies and vocational training. Josef (Subrat Dutta) returns with a reputation as a great cook as well as his love for alcohol.
The feature film explores in its unfolding of time, the different paths that Father O’Hara, Josef, and Maularam take in their respective journeys for spiritual fulfilment through memories, duty, and search as well as their interaction with friends and acquaintances. Through static mise-en-scenes, the narrative of the film reflects the all-encompassing nature of time, pre-empting and repeating itself in allegorical hues.
Today’s consumer culture not only harms the soul of man, but also questions and erodes his consciousness and spiritual being.
The role of any filmmaker or artist in our times, while being a participant in the historical process, therefore, is to identify and affirm all that is best around him and his reality – love, beauty, faith, and hope and in all these look for which is eternal, transcendent, and divine.
Josef – Born in Grace is adapted from the short story Joseph written by the late Umakanta Mahapatra. The story appealed to me since I could sense each of the characters in it opening up to an abstract realm, far removed from his/her physical reality. It was a cinematic challenge for me to give it a distinct rhythm.
Although this independent film is set between 1960 – 1980, the period facts, people, artefacts, props, costumes, etc had to be seen as something living and breathing. The effort was to create a sense of timelessness. The stillness and the calm of the locations in the mid-ranges of the Himalayas had, gave a feeling of this timelessness and universality.
Susant Misra
Susant Misra graduated from the Film and Television Institute and over a thirty-year career has directed notable films which include but are not limited to Nischal Baadal, Indradhanura Chhai, Biswaprakash and Dharini.
His films have received acclaim at various film festivals such as Oberhausen, Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Sochi, Moscow, Rotterdam, Montreal, Cairo, Shanghai, Singapore, Paris, IFFI, MAMI, & MIFF.
Susant’s films are marked by the austerity of form and explore the conflict between instinct and reason, human relationships, individual transcendence, broad philosophical and spiritual ideas with a meditative eye. He is very selective in doing fiction work and Josef – Born in Grace is his first after about sixteen years.
While teaching at various institutes, he is also a Jury Member at various film festivals. He is a co-founder of the Bring Your Own Film Festival held in Puri, India, every February since 2004.
The endeavour was to create poetry on screen, to find a particular way of relating to reality, philosophically and spiritually seeing and showing life with truth.
Victor Bannerjee as “Father O’ Hara”
Victor Banerjee is an Indian actor who has worked for prominent directors such as Roman Polanski, James Ivory, Sir David Lean, Jerry London, Ronald Neame, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Satyajit Ray and Ram Gopal Varma. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award in 1986 for his role in “A Passage to India”. He has won three National awards, all in separate categories. He has also won the Gold award at the Houston International Film Festival as well as several more in India and overseas. He also runs the “Moran Blind School” in Upper Assam.
Subrat Dutta as “Josef”
Subrat Dutta is an Indian actor who has post graduated from the National School of Drama and has trained in the Central School of Speech and Drama, London. He is the winner of the “Best Actor Award” at Cairo International Film Festival for “Madholal Keep Walking” and Osian’s Cinefan festival of Asian and Arab Cinema for “Calcuatte, Unabashed”. He has acted as a lead actor in 27 Films; as supporting actor in 35 films; and several television serials which include but are not limited to Bibar, Chaturanga, III Smoking Barrels, T for Taj Mahal, and Selection Day. He is best known for his roles in Hindi films like Talaash, Tango Charlie, Zameen, The Shaukeens, Rakht Charitra, Bhootnath Returns, and Bengali films like Jor.
Sudarshan Juyal as “Maularam”
Sudarshan graduated from the National School of Drama and Film and Television Institute. He has been trained by renowned names in the art and theatre world and has been associated with many theatre groups as well as with mainstream films and television programs. Presently, he has been travelling extensively to conduct theatre, cinema and design workshops with a huge cross section of the next generation.
Gautam Chatterjee as “Mr. D’Costa”
Gautam Chatterjee is a bureaucrat by day and an artist by night. On the creative side, he is a trained singer and has Bengali Rabindra sangeet, Hindi bhajans and ghazals albums to his name. He was instrumental in recreating the Tagore classic ‘Tasher Desh’ in Hindi where he crafted the dialogues, the lyrics and directed the play. As a Theatre artist, he has played the roles of Byomkesh Bakshi in the Bengali plays “Chiriyakhana” and as Qasim in “Alibaba”. Alibaba was also staged in Hindi. Of late he has started pursuing his passion as a film actor.
Anamika Goswami as “Dona”
Being born and brought up in an Army background, she spent her early days travelling all over India. She completed her schooling in Lucknow before completing her Masters in English. While experimenting with various jobs, she finally found her passion in Yoga. Even though she was not attached to the film industry she spent a long time in her hometown in Uttarakhand, which made her the ideal choice for the role of “Dona”, She took to this role like a duck to water. Presently she is working closely to turn a dream into a reality of having a self-sustainable eco-village.
Deepica Elizabeth Lakra as “Rajula”
Deepica Elizabeth Lakra, hails from the Oraon community, Sundargarh, Odisha and teaches English in a college in Sambalpur, Odisha. She first acted in the indie film ‘A Dog and his Man’. She is interested in social drama, independent, and experimental cinema and has extensively researched the history of Odia cinema. She is currently studying French to add to her repertoire of languages that already include English, Hindi, Oriya, Sadri and Kosali. Her hobbies include photography and food culture. She enjoys exploring her personal capacity and collaborating on creative projects for experience and learning.
Debasish Sahu as “Biju”
Having completed his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Berhampur University, Debasish trained under Mr. Robin Das and Mr. N.K. Sharma. Thereafter, he started working as a full-time actor in Odia feature and short films from 2005 onwards. So far, he has already acted in 15 Odia films as well as Hindi films. He is also well versed in different forms of Martial Arts like Karate, Judo, Thangta and Kalaripayatu.
Hitesh Bisht as “Young Josef”
Hitesh Bisht is a young actor from Talla Ramgarh, Uttarakhand. His hobbies include playing sports and PUBG Mobile, and photography. Josef – Born in Grace is his first film.
The film is directed by National Award Winner Susant Misra (Indradhanura Chhai, Biswaprakash, & Dharini) whose movies have been screened in some of the most prestigious film festivals across the world, including Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Cairo, Rotterdam, Sochi (Grand Prix Winner), Moscow, and Montreal. He is joined by National Award Winner Sudheer Palsane (Ko: Yad – The Silent Way, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, Katyar Kaljat Ghusali) for cinematography, and National Award Winner Sukant Panigrahy (Dev D, Ek Tha Tiger, Drishyam) for art direction. UA Kathachitra also aims to promote fresh talent. Their faith is shown in Vaidehi Krishnan who on her debut as the Costume Designer does full justice to the theme and period of the film.
The Manikarnika International Film Festival 2022 has been really special to us. We couldn’t be happier to share that the actor Subrat Dutta, who played
“Josef – Born in Grace” has been selected at the Manikarnika International Film Festival. The festival will be running from 15th to 18th October 2022
We are delighted to announce that “Josef – Born in Grace” has won the Best Feature Film award at the Mumbai Indie-Film Festival 2022. Our
We’re excited and happy to announce that our film “Josef – Born in Grace” has been selected for screening at Mumbai Indie-Film Festival 2022 on
We’re very excited to announce that Josef – Born in Grace selected at the Christian Film Festival that was held on September 25, 2021. The film, cast, and crew won several awards including:
This follows on the footsteps of the Lifetime Achievement Award received by Victor Banerjee and Best Actor Award that Subrat Dutta won for his role as Josef at the Dehradun International Film Festival earlier this month. It’s very gratifying to receive these awards very close to the three year anniversary of when we were starting to shoot the film in Raniket! September truly has been a rewarding month for us.
Josef – Born in Grace previously won the Silver Remi for Best Christian Film at WorldFest Houston in 2020, and was selected at the Great Lakes Christian Film Festival in 2021.
We are very happy to share that Subrat Dutta who played Josef in our independent film “Josef – Born in Grace” has won the best
When I wrote about how Victor Banerjee (IMDB) joined our production of “Josef – Born in Grace”, I talked about the leaps of faith many people took in order to bring this film to life. Before Victorda joined us, I first had to get our director to take a leap of faith.
I had wanted to adapt my father’s short story “Joseph” into a movie for many years. In 2018, things started to fall into place. We had a director in Lulu (Susant Misra – IMDB), and a script was starting take shape. We had to start getting the crew in place.
As regards the selection of the cast, I cannot help but recollect as to how Victor Banerjee (IMDB) came to be associated with the film.
For the role of Josef, Lulu (Susant Misra) chose Subrat as he had earlier worked with him. All I knew about him was that he had graduated from the National School of Drama. Lulu was sure that he was the right actor for the titular role, and I trusted instincts.
Original Title: JOSEF – BORN IN GRACE
International Title: JOSEF – BORN IN GRACE
Format: 2K
Aspect Ratio: 1:1.85
Sound: DIGITAL 5.1
Original Language: HINDI
Country of Production: INDIA
Year of Production: 2019
info@uakathachitra.com
ishan@uathachitra.com
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Times of India