When I was first sent the link of this small beautiful gem titled BONJOUR JI by the director Satinder Kassoana, then frankly I assumed it to be another purposefully made short film propagating a particular sect or religion following the set routine. Films made with the same sickening vision of looking at the world through a pair of prejudiced glasses worn with a loud pride of the history I was no more interested in ………. and therefore remained unresponsive for a while without caring about its interesting title called ‘Bonjour Ji’.
However, the moment I watched the film for its first five minutes only, its content and execution readily made me realize my big mistake as it was way ahead than those typical religious films I was literally done with and was certainly something special and unique with a class of its own unarguably.
Written, enacted, executed and directed with an appreciable wider vision talking about the world and its citizens as a whole, 'Bonjour Ji' is an introspective short film revolving around few characters sidelined by the majority community in a foreign land. Set in Montreal it has a soothing yet powerful narration making us realize the fact that,
how our biased assumptions about the other create unnecessary racial differences leading to scary communication gaps.
How ‘the looks’ and ‘the name’ remain the only two factors we base our assumptions on while dealing with a stranger?
How we go on considering the other with all wrong perspectives due to our own set conditioning of mind formed by a questionable upbringing, irresponsible media and provocative people around.
And how we go on making this blessed world a difficult place to live without even thinking about the illogical reasoning of our thought process demeaning the other.
Through a beautifully structured story progression amalgamating the incidents happening with its various characters, this significant short film thoughtfully suggests or rather guides that it’s just a simple, unbiased conversation we all need to solve many major issues. And the idea reminded me of a worth sharing, life teaching phrase heard from my university Vice Chancellor when he conveyed that, “Accepting, Respecting and Protecting the identity of others is the only rule to be followed in this world today”.
So with a big thanks to director Satinder Kassoana for sharing this small gem, I wish the film reaches many more misguided souls making them realize the grave consequences of arrogantly ‘misreading the other’. Featuring Rup Singh Magon (of JOSH band fame) it’s a multi-lingual presentation with English subtitles deserving all the appreciation and awards won in various festivals and is a strongly recommended watch for every cinema loving friend of BTC at the earliest.
Cheers!
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BONJOUR JI Short film by Satinder Kassoana, A Must watch multilingual short film, Bonjour Ji Review by Bobby Sing, Short Film featuring Rup Magon of JOSH, Award Winning short film on Racial discrimination, Articles on Cinema by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com
