Dyutiman Bhattacharya firmly believes that neither is a job that busy nor a day so short as to prevent one from pursuing their passions. With this attitude to life, it is no surprise that this West Bengal cop is more in the news for his artwork and being a wordsmith than for the sordid affairs of crime and investigation.
Currently the Superintendent of Police in Cooch Behar, the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer is now being talked about for a documentary on light pollution he made recently; the movie titled Let There be Darkness, whose tagline explains all it is about: ‘When have you last seen a firefly or the Milky Way?’
“I am an avid sky watcher. Over the years, I’ve seen the stars and the Milky Way vanish from our sight. We have increased the number of lights manifold, and this ‘glow’ has robbed us of our skies. I often ask myself, ‘When did I last see a firefly?’ I am at a loss for answers. The LED lights have taken away our jonakis (fireflies),” Mr. Bhattacharya told The Hindu.
Won awards
Let There be Darkness, which received two awards at a film festival in Florence, Italy and is currently being screened at a festival in Vila Real, Portugal, is 18 minutes long and, according to the director, took ₹50,000 and around six months to make.
“The main challenge was shooting at night. We needed the right kind of lens to capture all those myriad artificial lights that are omnipresent in our lives. The film was made with a motley crew. Viplab Majumder, an alumnus of FTII, Pune, kept the editing taut so that the subject didn’t become boring. Eminent actor Barun Chanda narrated the script in his baritone voice, giving life to the script. We intend to showcase the film in festivals so that more people become aware about light pollution,” he said.
Oblivious of sky watching
He said the current generation was totally unaware about sky watching with the naked eye, and that to send a message to them, the script has been kept “poetic” rather than too informative or preachy. “There are four interviews: amateur astronomer Biswarup Ray recalls stargazing trips he made just for a glimpse of a comet. Environmental scientist Dr. Swati Nandi Chakraborty talks about the consequences of our actions whereas art historian Debdutta Gupta talks about Yin and Yang, the idea of light and darkness complementing each other. Dr Ranjan Basu, professor of microbiology, talks about how constant high-intensity lights create photo excitement of the optic neurons in our retinas and that this continuous excitement causes fatigue of our neurons and the brain,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.
When asked how a senior police officer like him could afford time for his passions, he said: “You may picture me as a harried man in uniform, but I try to straddle many roles: a writer of fiction and textbooks, illustrator, graphic novelist, wildlife photographer, documentary maker, actor and a compulsive runner. As a self-taught painter, I have been holding exhibitions regularly. Being a policeman is just a job, which provides me my daily bread. Period,” the officer said.
