“it was a very sensitive and well written, visualized and conceptualized story about jazz as it was and is…in India….thoroughly enjoyable….
I am so happy that the 3rd generation of aspiring jazz musicians of future India saw the film and got blown by what they saw…it was very inspiring for them ..I hope I get to see your film sometime in the near future……”
Louiz B
“Thank you for that wonderful trek through history – for me it was a lovely account of the times, not just jazz. [I have these photographs of my parents engagement/wedding in 1959, beautiful women in waisted dresses and very clean shaven men (did they wax their chins or what!), sitting, drinking, dancing – a sax peeping out of a frame. You put all these black & white memories to music last evening, thank you.]
Carlton was a lovely storyteller, he has the smile of a 6 year old, that’s what probably kept him in Calcutta. When your smile grows up, it’s time to leave. Your docu was sensitive, even compassionate,”
Merle A
“Lovely film Susheel, really lovely, My 19 year old daughter enjoyed it too, so that’s suggest an appeal outside of jazz”
Farhad K
It’s easy to make a straightforward documentary. What you used was in fact a great hook — Carlton. You told the story mostly through a musician who has straddled the generations.
My regret now is I never met Carlton who turns out to be a great guitarist plus a most interesting personality.
You allowed the individuals and the locations to speak for themselves and never seemed to impose your own ideas. That is commendable indeed.If I have one negative to share, it is that there was greater emphasis on a decaying and poor Calcutta than necessary.
By the way, I just loved the drummer with Carlton.
Farrukh M
I think the reluctance of your audience to leave at the end of the film said it all.
WELL DONE!!!
Ajay R
A little gem of a tale that needed to be told.
To my mind,so many elements of what generally constitutes a fine
“Documentary film ” seemed to come together.
The geographical journey of Jazz has been well documented,of course I
am reminded of Oppenheimer’s Journey of Mankind maps when such
diasporical movements of jazz musicians flash on the screen, circa
between the Great Wars, for instance.
But,what makes Carlton so compelling [besides his early bebop licks, so
almost preserved as in a Florentine museum],is that question which is
raised in your film —“After all,what ELSE could Carlton have done?”
Carlton is performing HIS evolutionary function,transmitting this glorious music ,amidst all his quotidian trials and tribulations in a not particularly hospitable environment,with much dignity and grace and despite the
shabbiness,even squalor of his immediate surroundings.And if he comes across as a bit of an anachronism to some,sometimes,so what?
His “choice” has acquired an almost fateful or karmic quality,paradoxically — as in “What else can a poor boy do,Except play in a Rock’n’Roll Band,For Sleepy London Town,Aint Just No Place,For A Street Fighting Man”.
The world would certainly be a better place if more of us endeavoured to find the Carlton within each of us. As you seem to have done so joyfully,so sensitively.
The Abhijit bits were particularly endearing.I wait for images to do
that to me,by the way.Thanks again.That Christine Correa sequence, when she first listens to her father’s band,comes close.Wonderful stuff.
And Carlton’s “class” consciousness and Louis’ almost resigned cynicism
about the current bunch of Corporate Baba Loag reminded me about the
“warts and all” nature of this medium,a timely homily against any
attempt to deify anyone or anything ,either the musician or the marketplace or for that matter,the art form .All that we can do is be thankful;we are privileged to all be participants in this great Passion Play.
Thanks, again.And shine on,friend!
Deepak M
