Just Like Another Day

Set against the backdrop of West Bengal’s political transition in 2012–13, when a historic shift in power began reshaping the social atmosphere of the state, Unread Pages explores another quieter transformation unfolding alongside it: the rapid spread of digitalization, computers, and the internet, which gradually altered the culture of reading itself. As physical libraries struggle against growing irrelevance, the film follows a group of local library workers in Howrah trying to preserve spaces increasingly abandoned by time. At its center is an unemployed young library worker whose fragile personal aspirations become deeply intertwined with his unconditional love for books and the fading world they inhabit. Blending social change with intimate human emotion, Unread Pages is a melancholic portrait of bibliophilia standing at the edge of twilight.

The nameless protagonist wanders in the street to offer an empathetic hug to strangers after listening to their stories; trauma, depression, stress and anxiety characterize those stories to which the hero acts as an outlet. But how much moral capacity does he have to continue his quest?

A self-proclaimed director (Sudipto) and his crew chase Gulla (Mehtab) a poor boy trying to understand his life. They want to capture his everyday life with their video camera. Unemployed Gulla’s condition is just like his old broken cycle. Gulla shows the least interest in the filming and the chase goes on.

A short film by Sudipto Nag.