Supriyo Sen couldn’t have asked for more as his directorial debut ‘Tangra Blues’ has earned appreciation from all corners. Starring Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Madhumita Sarcar the film talks about redemption through music.

We asked the director after coming from the world of documentary, what he had to learn and un-learn to direct a feature film like this.

“My long-term engagement with the medium of documentary really helped in shaping up the look and feel of the film. Finding real locations, combining actors and non-actors, shooting in low or available light with hand-held camera, designing the sound in a very organic way — all these are very close to my own documentary aesthetics. Also cinematographer Ranjan Palit, editor Sumit Das, music director Nabarun Bose, lyricist Pranjal Das, sound designer Anindit Ray and Adeep Singh Maki, colourist Manikumar and production designer Riddhi Basak contributed a lot to achieve this raw, grungy look of the film,” explained Supriyo during an exclusive chat with ETimes.

He adds what he learned while making his first fiction is not to wait for things to happen: “Every small detail need to be planned beforehand. There is not much space for improvisation on the spot. My associate director Aranyak Chatterjee, Sohini Mukherjee and the entire team worked hard to make my maiden journey smoother on the bumpy road of fiction film-making.”

The film ‘Tangra Blues’ is loosely inspired by the real-life story of Sanjay Mandal and his music group from Tangra. There are things that coincide with Sanjay’s life; others fail to do so. Madhumita plays Joyee, who is moved by the performances of the music band, made solely out of the raw talents of young slum kids.