Sea of Lost Time

A foul odour – maybe similar to the one that every year befell the small town in which Gabriel García Márquez’s story Sea of Lost Time is set – has wafted through the corridors of the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune since Gajēndra Cauhān was appointed head of that institution. One of the biggest scandals of his administration was the termination of a graduation film production for acting students Gurvi?dar Singh had set out to direct, based on Gabriel García Márquez’s above-mentioned story; the decision felt dubiously motivated, to say the least, as Singh was known to be a vociferous critic of Cauhān. Never one to give up, Singh looked at the materials shot so far – and found therein a moving gem of realist cinema that honours the feel and substance of lines such as: “They swim to the depth of the sea, passing various levels in time. They see the bodies of their dead floating past them.”