{"id":4397,"date":"2018-07-17T18:15:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T12:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=4397"},"modified":"2018-07-18T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T04:38:27","slug":"the-bounty-celebrate-200-years-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/the-bounty-celebrate-200-years-frankenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Sci Fi Gem: To Celebrate 200 Years of Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sci

The bounty hunter against a green screen<\/p><\/div>\n

Sudipto Shankar Roy spent a large part of 2016 adding VFX to the shots he had taken way back in 2014 against a green screen set up in the living room of his rented apartment. He was eager to complete his sci fi film The Bounty<\/em>, set in a barren, treeless, dystopic distant future. The Bounty <\/em>is the outcome of Sudipto\u2019s solo effort in scripting, direction, camera, editing and production. His work on The Bounty <\/em>began after 9pm every night and continued till the crack of dawn. The day time hours were taken up in more mundane affairs. In the stillness of the night Sudipto\u2019s computer traced the contours of the bounty hunter\u2019s radioactivity meter foregrounded against the barren landscape of the futuristic earth.<\/p>\n

Two hundred years ago, one evening in June 1816, sitting in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, Mary Shelly had conceived the story of Frankenstein. Challenged by Lord Byron to come up with a ghost story, she penned down her first thoughts on creation of artificial man. Outside there was a thunder storm. Incessant rain lashed against her window pane. An occasional lightning lit up the entire lake and triggered Mary Shelly\u2019s thoughts on the stories of galvanism that she had earlier heard. In London there had been demonstrations of \u2018galvanizing\u2019 a corpse with electric shocks. In her mind, Shelly explored the possibility of component parts of a creature manufactured, brought together and endowed with \u2018vital warmth\u2019. \u201cHow would this manufactured creature be?\u201d Shelly pondered.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Galvanism<\/p><\/div>\n

Shelly\u2019s protagonist Frankenstein s<\/em>ecretly began to construct an animate creature, envisioning the creation of a wonderful race. He told himself, \u201cAlthough I possess the capacity of galvanizing animation, I doubted at first whether I should attempt to create a being like myself.\u201d He shut himself out from the world and worked in complete secrecy.<\/p>\n

Sudipto\u2019s protagonist, the bounty hunter from outer space too is on a secret mission. His spaceship lands on the ruins of human civilization \u2013 a barren wilderness of destroyed skyscapers. The door of the spaceship opens and the bounty hunter comes out in a hover bike flying through ruined cities, through desolate locales with dead trees and destroyed buildings, in search of something rare \u2013 a bounty. His detector detects a sign of life amidst the ruins.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The bounty hunter rides his hover bike<\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike the Bounty Hunter, Victor Frankenstein does not undertake a journey. He stays put in his shack to fulfill his mission of creating artificial life. When the \u201ccreature\u201d eventually comes to life, Frankenstein is so repelled by his own creation that he runs away from it. In the course of the story, the \u201ccreature\u201d not only goes on a murderous spree, but also takes complete control of Victor\u2019s life, demanding that Victor create a female companion for the \u201ccreature\u201d. Victor resists, having learnt the lesson from his first creation. The \u201ccreature\u201d grows more demanding, taking greater and greater control of Victor\u2019s life. Eventually, after devouring Victor\u2019s near and dear ones, the \u201ccreature\u201d is the cause of Victor\u2019s death amidst the floating ice sheets in North Pole.<\/p>\n

\"Frankenstein\"

Frankenstein is so repelled by his own creation that he runs away from it<\/p><\/div>\n

The book Frankenstein: Or The Modern Prometheus<\/em> was eventually published on the 1st<\/sup> of January, 1818. Frankenstein was recognized as a gothic fiction. The term \u2018science\u2019 had not yet been coined. Today Frankenstein is acknowledged as the first science fiction because the central character, Victor Frankenstein, made a deliberate decision and turned to modern, systematic experiments in the laboratory.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Mary Shelly\u2019s Frankenstein is a warning against the destructive potential of cold reason and logic. The \u201ccreature\u201d, also referred to as \u201cmonster\u201d in the novel, becomes a symbol of Frankenstein\u2019s folly in trying to emulate natural forces of creation.<\/p>\n

Many a science fiction, written later, is a retelling of the Frankenstein story. Be it Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde<\/em> or 2001: A Space Odyssey,<\/em> it is a story of man\u2019s creation taking control of man – the result of man\u2019s folly in trying to play God.<\/p>\n

Victor suffers from this God syndrome. He constantly alludes to his imminent doom. He calls his interest in natural philosophy (as science was then called), \u201cthe genius that has regulated my fate\u201d and \u201cthe fatal impulse that led to my ruin”. Victor\u2019s narrative is rife with nostalgia for a happier time. He dwells on the fuzzy memories of his blissful childhood. He seeks solace in the lap of pristine nature, reminding himself and the reader that man is a part of nature and not above nature.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately on the earth that the bounty hunter descends, nature as we know it, is absent \u2013 apparently destroyed by human civilization. Modern science has taught us to understand the ways of nature and to turn it to our benefit, thus reasserting man\u2019s mastery over nature. In her epochal literary work, Mary Shelly hints at the ultimate destiny of human civilization driven by this misplaced sense of mastery. In Sudipto Shankar Roy\u2019s film The Bounty,<\/em> we get a glimpse of this ultimate destiny.<\/p>\n

\"Spaceship

The spaceship lands on the surface of a desolate, ruined earth<\/p><\/div>\n

Most science fictions paint a dystopic world. The Los Angeles of 2019 in Blade Runner,<\/em> the London of AD 2540 in Huxley\u2019s Brave New World<\/em> spell doom brought about by technological development. H.G Wells, author of seminal science fictions like The Time Machine<\/em> and War of the Worlds<\/em> famously said, \u201cMankind which began in a cave and behind a windbreak will end in the disease-soaked ruins of a slum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sudipto\u2019s science fiction film The Bounty<\/em> projects a barren, uninhabited landscape, perhaps after the diseases have destroyed the human race.<\/p>\n

\"bounty

The earth through the Bounty Hunter’s spaceship<\/p><\/div>\n

Mary Shelly had not lived to see the transformation of life brought about by electricity, but she had witnessed the transformation of the city brought about by the industrial revolution. Shelly\u2019s searching intellect and imagination could perhaps sense the ultimate doom of this progress.<\/p>\n

If we turn our attention to the Orient, Bengal in particular, we find that the science fiction stories have a different flavour. In Satyajit Ray\u2019s Bonku Babur Bondhu, <\/em>when the Alien spaceship lands on a pond in a God forsaken village in Bengal, the lotus buds blossom. The alien with a large head, sunken cheeks, a small mouth, nose and ears and three fingers radiates benevolence and has a positive effect on the entire village.<\/p>\n

Perhaps an explanation for this difference in approach can be found in anthropomorphism. Writes Amitav Ghosh in his book The Great Derangement, <\/em>\u201cIn the Indian epics \u2013 and this is a tradition that remains vibrantly alive to this day \u2013 there is a completely matter of fact acceptance of the agency of non human beings of many kinds. Non humans provide much of the momentum of the epics; they create the resolutions that allow the narrative to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Bimal\u2019s deep attachment to his vehicle and his sensitivity to his taxi\u2019s thirst and other physical needs (in Ajantrik<\/em>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ascribing intelligence and agency to non humans casts a different kind of glow to the man machine relationship. It is a relationship of camarederie, of mutual dependence. In Ritwik Ghatak\u2019s film Ajantrik, <\/em>Bimal\u2019s deep attachment to his vehicle, his sensitivity to his taxi\u2019s thirst and other physical needs, elevates the machine to the level of human in the spectator\u2019s eyes. A civilization steeped in the values of \u201cenlightenment\u201d, that sees man as the sole agent of perception and creation, would not appreciate Bimal\u2019s sentiments. But for a civilization that ascribes divinity to the elements and worships a lingam, Bimal\u2019s attachment to an inanimate object seems perfectly natural. That is why on the day of Vishwakarma Puja, machines of all kind are worshipped with floral garlands and vermilion.<\/p>\n

Amitav Ghosh writes, \u201cIn the Sunderbans, the people who live in and around the mangrove forest, have never doubted that tigers and other animals possess intelligence and agency. For the first peoples of the Yukon, even glaciers are endowed with moods and feelings, likes and dislikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bidhushekhar

Bidhushekhar’s iron head is shaking violently – as if saying “No” (Bidhushekhar is a robot assembled by Prof Shanku)<\/p><\/div>\n

When Satyajit Ray took up his pen to write science fiction, he created the character of Professor Shanku, a friendly neighbourhood scientist residing in a small town named Giridi. Shanku, in his humble laboratory, had assembled a robot and given it a name Bidhushekhar. One day Shanku wrote in his diary, \u201cSince the last two days, Bidhushekhar has been making a strange sound. Why should a mechanical man made of hinges and gears make such a sound? He is only supposed to perform the tasks that he is programmed to do. He is my creation. I know what he is supposed to do and what he is capable of. He cannot have a mind of his own and definitely he does not have an intelligence. \u2026..I have noticed one thing. When I create something applying my scientific knowledge and reasoning, many a times these \u2018creatures\u2019 perform beyond my expectation. Sometimes I feel that an invisible power is guiding me on. Is that really so?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ray endows the robot Bidhushekhar with an agency, a sense of judgement and a clairvoyance too, that is not programmed into its architecture. Shanku\u2019s relation with the robot Bidhushekhar is similar to Bimal\u2019s relation with his car in Ajantrik. <\/em><\/p>\n

In several other stories of Professor Shanku, Satyajit Ray gives an agency to non humans. Of particular interest is the story Professor Shanku O Golok Rohoshyo. <\/em>In this story, a ball twice the size of a tennis ball, found on the bank of river Usri, turns out to be a mini planet where the cycle of seasons is completed in 24 hours. It is discovered later that the planet is inhabited by microscopic organisms that reside below its surface and that are capable of spreading deadly disease. These microbes have a voice and they appeal to Professor Shanku to set them free. Interestingly, the voices of these microbes are picked up by another creation of Prof. Shanku \u2013 the microsonograph. Using the mocrosonograph, Shanku had heard the song of the ants and the shriek of the blades of grass when they were being mowed by the gardener. So, the scientist Shanku is aware of the layered and complex vibes of life around him and he created an instrument to pick up these vibes.<\/p>\n

The microsonograph may bring back memories of a real instrument created by a real scientist. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose invented the crescograph to measure plant response to various stimuli. His instrument measured quivering of injured plants, which Bose interpreted as \u2018power of feeling in plants\u2019.<\/p>\n

Amitav Ghosh writes, \u201cSir Jagadish Chandra Bose attributed elements of consciousness to vegetables and even metals. Japanese primatologist Imanishi Kinji insisted on the unity of all elements on the planet earth \u2013 living and non living.\u201d Scientific imagination, manifest in science as well as science fiction, in civilizations beyond the orb of \u2018age of enlightenment\u2019, is devoid of the harsh arrogance of supremacy of man.<\/p>\n

\"Sudipto

Sudipto Shankar Roy<\/p><\/div>\n

Sudipto\u2019s bounty hunter is in search of something insignificant \u2013 not the skull of his adversary, not the map of eldorado, not a pot of gold, but a spot of greenery raising its head amidst the ruins. He vanquishes his competitor to take control of this green sapling. Against the dull grey monochrome of destruction, the spot of green glistens with hope. \u201cFor visual inspiration I turned to Robert Rodrigues\u2019s Sin City, <\/em>which is predominantly black and white, with colours added selectively only for emphasis,\u201d recalls Sudipto.<\/p>\n

It is revealed in the last scene of The Bounty <\/em>that the bounty hunter is trying to recreate the lost Garden of Eden from the scratch \u2013 as if to bring back the lost innocence of mankind. He sets sail from the edge of the solar system in search of a single breathing, living green entity.<\/p>\n

In the last shot of the film, the bounty hunter plants his treasure inside the greenhouse of his spaceship. The camera zooms out to reveal a huge chamber of living, breathing greenery. The shot is one minute long. The first time he started to render it took him a couple of weeks. \u201cI was not satisfied,\u201d says Sudipto. “I did the shot again. Not from scratch but modified the existing one. This time it again took a couple of weeks to render but results came out fine. Finally the film was over in July 2017.”<\/p>\n

The bounty hunter is satisfied with his latest find \u2013 a living, breathing sapling that will flourish in his greenhouse. Perhaps by the end of his journey he will set foot on a suitable planet where he will plant them and let them multiply, thus spreading life. Science fiction will continue to make prophesies for the future. It is upto the present generation to heed or not to heed.<\/p>\n