Kahaani: A Story.

Post the humungous success and critical acclaim of The Dirty Picture, one had to feel a certain buzz about the next Vidya Balan ‘starrer’, Kahaani. Not only because of the prime cast, but also because of the huge presence of primarily good actors from the Bengali film Industry working in a Bollywood film and also the presence of Calcutta/Kolkata. Kahaani is essentially about what the title suggests. It is about stories and telling them. That director Sujoy Ghosh and co writer Advaita Kala can conceive of such an idea and weave a thriller on it is worthy of kudos indeed.

Without giving much away, the film is essentially about a pregnant woman, Vidya Bagchi, or Bidya as she is called, who has come down from London to this city for the first time, in search of her missing husband. And sees Kolkata, a different and mysterious city which even to its too critical and familiar audience is becoming these days, a tad defamiliarizing. The film is about this search and what this search leads to. In this search Kahaani encapsulates and explores the dingy and the underbelly of Kolkata, not the city of high rises and shopping malls, but the lanes and by-lanes of an ancient labyrinthine mystery. It explores the peripheral lives that unfold in the darkness of the city. Its people and places suddenly reverberate into a visual cacophony and becomes that all important character in whose matrix all the characters are trapped.

Kolkata is a cinematographer’s nightmare as well as paradise as is most Indian cities with a colonial background. The unplanned roads and the dingy lanes act as exciting and vibrant backdrops for a camera and the capturing of it is a challenge for anyone with the instrument. It is this city that we have seen in The City of Joy and very recently in Srijit Mukherjee’s 22shey Srabon, which incidentally was a thriller too. Kahaani in this aspect was a brilliant attempt, but one feels at one level, where the film could have shot off, the cinematographer as well as the director has reverberated certain clichéd images that has been used to saturation. The use of the steadycam, personal perspectives and series of close up shots take you directly to the action, and puts you in the midst of it, and it is in this sense the importance of Kolkata as a character is essential and is highlighted.

Coming to the actual plot, the storyline, as I said earlier, the fact that the director conceived of the idea is commendable indeed and the plot really had the potential to blur the lines between fact and fiction, reality and surreality. Srijit’s 22shey Srabon title track ‘ashole sottie bole sottie kichhu nei’ kind of reverberates in your mind as you hear the opening credit rolls, and to it ‘ami shotti bolchhi.’ Kahaani tells us a tale and tells us almost brilliantly, yes, almost. The plot which might have been the film’s greatest weapon, kind of lets it a bit down also. The opening sequence of the metro attack and the sequence with the child holding the bag, and in a separate case, where the milk bottle containing the poison chemical comes from in the bag are questions that are left unanswered. The sequence itself felt out of place. The film could have done brilliantly well, I say almost flawlessly well had it concentrated on a personal story line and focused on the microscopic rather that to forcefully increase the ‘seriousness’ by childlike intervention of the Intelligence Bureau, its workings, the entire hacking scenario, and a ludicrous terrorist angle. If the IB really functions as lackadaisically as portrayed, really, God help this country. But again if the terrorist is as ludicrous as it is portrayed, we need not worry. It feels disappointing to say the least that a film which had so much potential to be a cerebral masterpiece, and once in a time film, kind of leads some of that potential down the drain.

Shooting on real locations are done to give a film a realist touch. However the director should note that it has to be backed by realism on all accounts. The very sequence when Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee) first attempts to push Vidya Balan and eventually pulls her back, as a metro train is approaching, is something that thankfully is in reality impossible with the posting of patrolling guards, a detail which might have been missed. Also ‘Satyaki’ was not the ‘Sarathi’ of Arjun, he was his friend as Arjun’s ‘Sarathi’ was Krishna.

The entire ‘mother-motif’ that the film uses with the Durga Puja, at the backdrop is pertinent to the plot, yes, but Kolkata is much more than Durga Puja, Howrah Bridge and Victoria Memorial, which somehow remains the only images of the city to its expatriates. The whole morality angle and the mythological archetypes, the mother angle do make for good box-office but take something out of the cerebral intensity of a thriller, the character study of a thriller, it takes out from a film’s multidimensionality. You feel pleasure at the end of the film, and not tired at all, as you are not stretched. The audience is left relaxing at the end as actions happen as expected, almost too forcefully true. I refrain from analyzing it thoroughly as it would give the plot away.

Though not entirely critical, the film does have some aspects which act eventually as its strongholds. At moments the film is brilliantly clever, amazingly shot but fails to sustain it. The true strength of the film lies in its cast whose performance can be summed up in one word, ‘brilliant’. The film is riding on a refreshing wave of ‘women’ centric movies to have recently come out from the Bollywood industry and it is a good sign that the industry is looking to break conventions here. The film was about Vidya Balan and much of the success of the film critically would also be because of her as she is the prime focus and she has stood up on all accounts. She has evolved into a truly brilliant actress and provides another stellar performance. Parambrata Chattopadhyay, as the cop ‘Rana’ also excels in his demure fashion and does the character full justice. Nawazuddin Siddique as Khan, Shantilaal Mukhopadhyay, Kharaj Mukherjee, Dhritiman Chattopadhyay all essay their roles to perfection. But a very very special mention, to Saswata Chatterjee as Bob Biswas who really makes this film reach its highest echelons. Small screen space did not deter this brilliantly portrayed character who is brought to life in a remarkable fashion and Saswata Chatterjee deserves thanks for doing it. With his vulnerabilities and Cold-bloodedness, the audience will fear the “nomoshkar” ever again. He has to be one of the most fearful characters of modern Indian cinema. Thanks Saswata Chatterjee and Sujoy Ghosh for giving life to it. Amongst the considerable number of reasons that would make the film a must watch or a re-watch, Bob Biswas and Saswata Chatterjee would be prime.

Kahaani is a film with potential and a huge one at that. The film does have some flaws, like the music which mostly seemed out of place, so I won’t use many words for it, but the flaws it has can be mostly overlooked on the account of the step the film has taken. Sujoy Ghosh has trodden an almost untrodden path in Bollywood with this film and deserves accolades for that. Solely judging with the critical eye, Kahaani is a good watch and within the constraints that Bollywood places on filmmakers, it is a considerable attempt. It is a huge sigh of relief from seeing the so called biggest film industry in the world can at least attempt to make standard good films these days. What is that standard? Well, that is for another day, but Kahaani verges very close to that.

Image courtesy. http://images.outlookindia.com

IMAGERY

They say Pictures say a thousand words, a photography enthusiast, i guess this is one way of writing a blog.The words, I leave it to the readers.

Sthaniya Sambad...ki bolchhe

Well,a small trip to Nandan II on a cloudy december day to watch Sthaniya Sambad was filled with apprehension and excitement at the same time.Moinak Biswas is a well known name to the film afficionados of the city and Arjun Gourisaria is also known from his Patalghar  days.I must admit the apprehension was fuelled by a prejudice or sort of prejudice,that a scholar of films might not necessarily have the requisite creative competence of making a film.HOWEVER I HAPPILY STAND REBUTTED.

Sthaniya Sambad is a sort of vignette of various characters and images.Deshbandhu Colony opens up as a kaleidoscopic vista in front of us.We as the audience see our city ,our roads like never before.The narrative of the film carries on for 24 hours from a day to the next dawn and within that we see a tapestry of characters all part of a flowing society and all of whom have their own place.The dreaming poet and protagonist Atin introspective and nerdy,the two old men at the shop who are part of the flowing history themselves,brooding on life,philosophy and even desires(sexual ones even),the group of singers rehearsing for the "Basanta Utsav" detached and removed from the banal reality of this existence and locked up in their pseudo-cultural ivory tower.The detached intellectual played remarkably by Suman Mukhyopadhyay(He should consider coming in front of the camera more often) and also the common mass who protest and also ironically support their homes being uprooted and also the two "bizarre" thieves,the landshark Mr.Paul(a common entity of the city these days),the five unemplyed youth located on a bamboo perch on the side of the road acting much like a Greek chorus offering visions and comments on the passers by and about the city; and most importantly,the city itself.

These characters of the refugee colony of the southern fringes of the city now stand at the doorsteps of being doubly uprooted.First by the separation of Bengal,an act of history and next by the spade of modern Development in the form of Real Estate boom that is gripping the city.A fate much like the modern individual of the city.We see ourselves in all these characters who stand uprooted from their past.The history, the flow of existence is halted drastically and we are on the verge on a new order being established on values more lusty than compassionate.The constant presence of the drone of the yellow bulldozer acts as the leitmotif that binds all these modes of thoughts together.

Sthaniya Sambaad shows how the city is changing along with its inhabitants.The camera that perches on top swoops down to take us into the land of the prey.We see the world of the colony the world that we soon will leave behind.The destruction of the colony we see is not vehemently and unitedly opposed as two of the residents aspiring to urban middleclass existence from the humbler shacks of the colony promotes the idea of the destruction on the name of a well used noun “development”.The actual destruction of the colony and the preceeding visuals and sequence on the fringes of modern Eastern Kolkata,where a new world order is rising is brilliantly executed.A surreal hallucinatory sequence charactarised by blinding lights,fogs and vast open spaces and the haunting skyscraper building sites blurrs the line between imaginary and real.Suman’s line to Atin a few minutes before and the Chinese riddle that he pronounces becomes profound.The scene is almost Beckettian in its absurdity and the question of whether we are living the dream or dreaming the life is a question to be asked and is done so.The silent destruction scene is well executed,the silence on screen mixes with those of the audience inside the theatre to produce the fact of our own scattering,our own disposition and owr ownselves being irreparibly lost.

Against the backdrop stand the story of the protagonist Atin,whose search for his ladylove Ananya almost is a sort of searching for the city.Ananya’s plait is cut and stolen by two thieves and after a spell of momentary sorrow she visits a swanky Park Street parlour to change her hairstyle to suit her new shortened hair.Ananya's  

episode and Dipankar and Atin’s failed search for her is metaphorical.The plait of the city too has been cut and stolen by thieves and she now must accomodate and legitimize her new position and new looks.Dipankar and Atin as the introspective modern intellectuals with heart fail to locate her as they fail to locate the changing city.We see Atin as he finds the blinding neons of Park Street too glaring and too different.Atin meeting the landshark Mr.Paul and giving him his poetry book stands surreal and absurd.

However poetry and art are useless in front of social and political forces at work.In this postmodern age of slippages and distortion where the order is controlled by faceless powers like Mr Paul who is devoid of  existence in realty,that very reality is questioned as we can only see them in dreamy surreal visions and hence art fails to express as expression is also victimised.The episodic and chapter like structures of the film is in tune with the incompleteness that the film portrays.

Sthaniya Sambad fulfills all promises and all it tries to express.Backed by a fantastic script and excellent cinematogrpahy and quite a masterful narrative structure this film is certainly a fresh trend in bengali cinema.Powerfully expressive and with an undertone of wry humour(we remember the shot where the loud playing of the rock band is followed by an old almost octogenarian lady in the next room in one single shot) the film beautifully and with a touch of warmth portrays a panorama of modern urban existence;from danger to game to comic situations to the banality of existence and the ironic unreality of the situations.

Its appaling:Bhopal tragedy

Few days back,the court and the media and the government were gunning to prove the fairness and effective ness of the Indian judiciary system by handing a death penalty to terrorist Ajmal Kasab.Well,he was handed the penalty and kudos to the judiciary,good on them.Now yesterday,the court handed a joking 2year jail sentence,for the offenders in Bhopal Gas tragedy,that to 25+years later. 2years in jail is what they get for facilitating 25000 innocent deaths and millions of toxic affected genetically mutated children who were not even born then.On top of that Warren Anderson,the main perpetrator of the "negligence" has not been extradited.The US national is still scot-free.WHY??? Now,i am all for the fact that a terrorist like Kasab should be hanged but is it not because Pakistan was related that the Government tried to make an example of him?I am not pro terrorism,and i am not pro any foreign nationality,but should we not look into ourselves also?Our own people and should not the Government of India meet exemplary punishment for the criminal negligence that caused this horrific tragedy?

Poetry and Motion…Poetry in Motion

·                               A Review of Aparna Sen’s  The Japanese Wife

               The poster of the film says it to be love poem by Aparna Sen and the film itself certainly validates the claim. This adaptation of Kunal Basu’s short story by the same name is almost epistoleric in its rendition as we see the nerdy schoolmaster Snehamoy(Rahul Bose),sending letters to his pen-friend, the Japanese girl Miyage(Chigusa Takaku),and through it bridging the vast sociological, geographical and cultural boundaries that lie between the  Sundarbans and Yokohama, Japan. Why, where and how did they become friends is not known and possibly because it is not needed to be known. The only thing essential for the audience is to see how this Japanese friend becomes the Japanese wife.

               The two lead characters actually never meet but through the letters, the broken voices from ISD calls and various emotional bonds that manifest within this vast landscape creates an absurdity of sorts. Yes, they are absurd and so is there love that transcends such a vast geographical barrier and resides in a mythical landscape of their imagination. In time both consider themselves man and wife sustaining it for two decades and Snehamoy’s domineering pishi played so charismatically by Mousumi Chatterjee also learns to live with her virtual daughter-in-law. Raima Sen as the demure Sandhya is the other jigsaw that makes this wonderful kaleidoscopic puzzle complete,so simple yet so profound. Sandhya plays the physical presence of Miyage’s absence in this long-distance almost platonic non-physical relationship and does it very silently and subtly. Sandhya remains a remarkably etched character as a woman who cares for the person she loves without ever having the scope of actually being his---as a wife. But the performance of a lifetime comes from Rahul Bose who is shaken out of his comfort zone and portrays this nerdy schoolmaster with elan. Anay Goswami’s cinematography captures this poetic absurdity quite masterfully on celluloid through the myriad minded River Matla, making it appear quite like an omnipresent character that plays such a huge part as the letters from Snehamoy pass through the ferry across the river and the only way of Miyage’s letters reaching him is by the same path.

            However the actual notion of the film’s magic lies in the plot and how it is rendered, through its absurdity and sheer depth of poetic emotion. Both Snehamoy and Miyage wait that one day the “’twain shall meet”. They wait and in simplistic terms like absurd tramps of Beckett, the wait is unfulfilled, but the failure is not in desolation as we see the tramps, but in triumph. Triumph of the very fact of human emotion that sets us apart from all animals and keeps us nearer to God. In our disintegrated lives burdened by the vagaries of individuality, the film is a dream. A reality where we fail to be alive to the emotions of those under the same roof, this relationship, boundless in time and space is a dream which we all must see live and celebrate this celebration called life.   

Should films be pure entertainment or be a window to various topical issues:A casual look through

The scenario of cinema in India is vastly changing today which prompts us to ask questions like this one. Cinema originated as a medium of expression in the winter of Paris in 1896 and since then in a 114 years have covered an artistic journey which other art forms have taken over 500.Primarily because, cinema has uniquely a mass appeal. Lots of people can experience cinema at the same time, where as only one person can read a novel at a time. Cinema can thus be very powerful as a medium and precisely for this reason we need to see cinema as a window of handling topical social issues rather than mindless entertainment churners. Or better if they can do both. One of the reasons to support this is the mass appeal of cinema. People follow see and read films with more intensity than any other forms of art. Scientifically film is a medium where we need to use our visual as well as our auditory senses, which is absent in other arts. Literature as well as painting use only visuals, music… primarily auditory. Cinema uses both, hence it is the most impressionistic on the human mind. It can cause a bigger impact than any forms of address. Also the way the silver screen is idolized it is very easy to depict a social ill if that ideal is used to depict that. The mass following a film or a film star has would be able to generate an awareness which is impossible in other forms of art. All the more to induce into production films which are tackling topical issues. Critics may argue does it actually make a difference in reality? Isn’t this assumption an idealization? Well, yes it is. Then again all assumptions are an attempt at reaching the better, chasing the ideal. It is in the follow up to Taare Zameen Par that we saw the film being shown to teachers in Bihar to help them deal with mentally backward children. How many of us actually did know of something called progeria before Paa? In Hollywood examples are rife. The collective amnesia in the US regarding the Vietnam war was shaken by Apocalypse Now. Very recently we had Ranchhoddas Shayamaldas Chhanchad talking of overhauling the education system. Whether we actually do it or not is the question of the government, but the path breaking success of 3idiots shows we are hearing. And after all it is “we the people” who make the government. We as humans can make all well… and it is films that can make us believe we too can make “Aal izz well”.

Knighthood for our beloved Sir Chinmoy Guha: a salutation

My sojourn away from prestigious JU was followed by my apprehensions about  Master's life at University of Calcutta.It was in a way diminished by the thought of classes from the man.When I actually got to see him,his particularly inspirational lecture about the process we were in.The rooms,the classes and even the benches made us feel the legacy we were inheriting.We felt "not only the pastness of the past,but of its presence". Through the Coleridge classes,he shifted the focus to the plethora of mystifying delusions that was Samuel Taylor.A panoramic view unfolded..and I saw before me how the man behind the camera...looks in front of it.The man who directed those class lectures was beheld...in inspiration.We peeped from behind the giant oak to witness Christabel's destiny and perhaps mankind's too...only to be purged of the sins by Thomas Becket.Canterbury Cathedral through Eliot was opened up like a vista in the rooms of Calcutta University.As sir would later say teaching Dryden,"the camera tilted down" and we came to see 20th century's void,the life of slippages was in front of us.We saw within all of us Didi and Gogo.All within this life of futile labour...the bondage of SISYPHIAN connotations culminating in mankind's utmost truth..the absence of everything.This final year of my CU days, we saw through Eliot,the man the poet and the life...the essence of Sidney's Apology and understood that Dryden is not a Dry-den.To go with all is the man behind the camera...the man we see outside the class rooms..beyond the lenses of class lectures...beyond the celluloid of the course...the MAN in the real drama,of university life...a friend...philosopher...and a POLE STAR to us wandering barks,and congratulating on being honoured with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes académiques. SIR...with all my heart..Je vous salue.