At a time when most of urban youth are trapped in the quiet chaos of deadlines, digital fatigue, and sleepless nights, director Nandan Ghosh’s Get Up Kingshuk arrives at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) as a calm, observant mirror showcasing a generation that’s always awake, yet never fully alive.
Get Up Kingshuk has been selected in the Bengali Panorama Competitive Section. This 78-minute feature film traces the life of the protagonist named Kingshuk. He is a small-town boy trying to navigate the unpredictable rhythms of Kolkata. On paper, Kingshuk has everything: a job, love, and friends. But his life becomes a silent battle every night when he is unable to go to sleep early or wake up on time. What began as a basic sleep problem quickly turns into a metaphor for everything he is attempting to get away from, including the weariness of not belonging anywhere, the restlessness of city life, and the burden of expectations.
In an exclusive interview with News Ei Samay, director Nandan Ghosh said, “The story is deeply personal." “It was born out of my own experiences and people around me. My creative producer, Pritam and I moved from small towns like Medinipur and Kakdwip to Kolkata after Class 12. We shared a flat, faced cultural shocks, adjusted to city life, and carried invisible anxieties. One day, Pritam told me that I didn’t have a ‘real crisis’. It made me reflect and realise that my struggle was different — I couldn’t sleep. That’s when Get Up Kingshuk took root.”
Realism woven with a hint of fantasy
Shot with limited resources and deep conviction, Get Up Kingshuk celebrates guerrilla filmmaking and the warmth of 1990s Bengali telefilms. The film flows like an unhurried day from morning dawn till deep night, where reality slowly dissolves into a dream.
“Since the story revolves around sleep, the transition to a dream state felt organic,” Ghosh explains. “Cinema, to me, has always had a sense of fantasy. I wanted that gentle drift from the outer world to the inner subconscious. That’s where Kingshuk truly exists.”
With Arnab Kar’s lens capturing the charm of Kolkata’s rooftops and alleys, and Anurag Dasgupta and Rupak Hor’s music adding a of intimacy, the film builds a rhythm which is both fragile and familiar. The editing by Shubhajit Dutta keeps the pace, which is not rushed, not indulgent but smoothly lets the silences breathe.
The cast, led by Shahir Raj playing Kingshuk, features other notable gems like Sandipan Tapadar, Anutorsh Mukhopadhyay, Arup Kar, Kaushik Mondal, Dipanwita Das, Bhagyashree Roychowdhury, Rajshree Biswas, and Mouparna Saha, each contributing to the film’s success.
A portrait of the modern young Bengali
The character of Kingshuk feels eerily familiar. His exhaustion, confusion, and inability to rest echo through countless young people who have migrated to the city, chasing stability while quietly losing peace. Ghosh believes this story belongs to them as much as it belongs to him.
“Every generation has its own crisis,” he says. “In the 1950s, cinema showed the nation-builders. The ’60s had Apu which was full of curiosity and struggle. The ’70s gave us the angry young man, from Amitabh Bachchan to Ranjit Mullick in Interview or Riddhiman Chatterjee in Padatik. My Kingshuk represents today’s youth — people who look fine from the outside but are fighting their inner storms.”
Get Up Kingshuk never tries to deliver a message. Instead, it opens a quiet conversation about burnout, displacement, and belonging.
“If audiences connect with it, I hope they support more independent voices from Bengal,” he says. “So many young people leave home for Kolkata or other big cities — their pace of life, their emotions, their anxieties are different. This film is for them — for everyone who’s learning to survive, to dream, and to wake up again.”
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A wake-up call?
As the film is about to be screened this week at KIFF, Nandan Ghosh remains humble and reflective. Get Up Kingshuk may not shout its ideas, but it lingers like the half-lit window on a sleepless night.
In the end, Kingshuk’s struggle is not just about insomnia. It’s about reclaiming rhythm in a world that has forgotten how to rest. Perhaps that’s why, as Nandan Ghosh puts it, “There’s a Kingshuk within all of us — someone trying to get up again, no matter how many sleepless nights come before morning.”
Showtimes:
7 November 2025 – Nazrul Tirtha 2 – 5 PM
11 November 2025 – Rabindra Sadan – 6:30 PM
