Genesis (India, Hindi, 1986)

When it comes to depiction of the exploitation of man on his own kind ‘brilliantly’ on celluloid, there are few peers in World Cinema who can match up to Mrinal Sen. From Calcutta 71, Chorus to Kharij, Mrigaya to Parashuram, Orie Katha Katha to Genesis, the list is long and penetrating where MS has exposed the hypocrisy and brazen exploits of humans sitting in a position of power towards the less privileged and the downtrodden of the society.

Having watched ‘Genesis’ (1986) recently, I find a continuity of thought expressed in some of his earlier works like ‘Oka Orie Katha.’ In OOK the main characters are shown as indolent primarily because they didn’t want to widen the social stratification. In Genesis, they revolt against the enslavement perpetuated by the employer class and decide to leave their job and strike out on their own. Freedom is dear to them. They are a duo who forsake their earlier menial jobs and head towards a nowhere land, one takes to farming and the other to weaving to eke out a livelihood.

Can people who value their independence remain immune to external forces and lead their lives with dignity on their own terms? The arrival of a middleman in the midst of the duo who took their product at a nominal rate to sell it in the market thereby profiting from it bring up issues of exploitation as an inevitable reality. Their peaceful existence is further complicated by the arrival of a woman in their lives.

In his film career, MS delved into the following two categories prominently in the two distinct phases in his career. The earlier phase (Calcutta trilogy, Chorus) pointed the finger of accusation at the enemy outside. In his later contemplative phase (Ek Din Pratidin, Kharij, Khandahar, Genesis), MS focused on the enemy within. The concluding sequence of ‘Genesis ‘, where bombs and detonators were used to raze the dilapidated structures, is uncannily reminiscent to the finale of Antonioni’s ‘Zabriskie Point’. The ending of the film seem to suggest that if we are unable to control the enemy inside (the duo in the film succumb to it), the enemy outside (the middleman) would become the cause of their annihilation.

The title ‘Genesis’ is intriguing. Could it possibly mean that MS is trying to tell us that the genesis of our baser instincts like ‘desire’ and ‘greed’ are the bane of freedom and human civilization. In that sense, the director seems to be reiterating the teachings of the Buddha.

The film was based on a story by Samaresh Basu. If I am not mistaken, the renowned Buddhadeb Dasgupta also made a film based on the same story (Uttara) but gave it an entirely different twist. The principal cast includes Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, and M. K. Raina.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Aarakshan (Hindi, 2011)

Yesterday I saw this film on TV several years after its release. The title of the film and the stellar cast intrigued me. And a film that speaks of a controversial subject like reservation certainly carries an attractive pull on the audience. Satyajit Ray once told his filmmaker son Sandip Ray that a film is made on the editing table. However, filmmakers like Prakash Jha, the director of the film who had once made the award winning film Damul, doesn’t seem to believe it to be so. That’s why even with a strong subject the film meanders with unnecessary dramatic elements and song and dances in this tale of a pro-poor upright popular Principal who becomes the target of evil politicians and a section of his fraternity married to commerce. There’s also another big problem with the film. When you make a political film such as this, the director ought to make a directorial statement. For example, filmmaker like Mrinal Sen who made political films like Padatik (1974) questioned the direction the left political movement was taking. But Prakash Jha doesn’t make any assertion in his work about the pros and cons of reservation, the subject of his film. He presents the hardship the dalits face to get decent education, but is silent about the other side – the meritorious from the not so well off general category who face discrimination and injustices because of reservation. The cast includes Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Manoj Bajpayee, Saurabh Shukla and others.
Rating: 2.8 out of 5

Bhuvan Shome (Hindi, 1969)

This 1969 film is regarded as having sparked off the New Wave cinema movement in India and rightfully so. It is also quite possible that a film as wondrous as this one has never been made in India ever. Watching this film during the pandemic is such a pleasure and stress buster. The countryside beauty as our protagonist goes on a hunting expedition to relieve himself of the monotony of his job as a senior officer in the Railways is mesmerizing at the least. The film shows that Mrinal Sen, the director, is as adept as Fellini and Antonioni in using location speak in an exquisite cinematic language.
Based on a short story by Banaphool, a well known Bengali writer, the director deviated from the original narrative to suit his perspective and cinema. Much has been written about the stupendous performance by Utpal Dutt and that of Suhasini Mulay in her debut role. I also found Shekar Chaterjee brilliant in the role of the bullock cart driver who speaks Gujrati with a degree of finesse. As an actor of mostly Bengali films, fitting into the groove of a Gujrati cart-puller requires skill and perseverance and he comes up trumps. Sadhu Meher acts in a cameo.
Rating: 4.7 out of 5

Mrigaya (Hindi, 1976)

• There’s something about the films of Mrinal Sen. Apart from the novel experimentation that characterised his film making, his unique perceptive view on a range of societal issues makes him a class apart. Hardly any Indian director has brought out so subtly the monstrosity that was colonialism the way Mrinal has done in his films like ‘ Mrigaya’ and ‘ Interview,’ two films that have very different storyline, different period setting (pre & post independence) yet interconnected through their thematic sameness. These films doesn’t possess the rabble rousing quality of a ‘Lagaan’ but linger because of the power of the narrative and their mode of expression. 
  Mrigaya is based on a story of an Oriya writer Bhagirathi Charan Panigrahi. The film featured Mithun Chakraborty in his award winning debut along with Mamata Shankar, 
  Jnanesh Mukherjee, Samit Bhanja, Sadhu Meher, Anoop Kumar and others. The film touches upon issues of nationalism, the muddled perception of justice, exploitation of the tribals, racial prejudices against the contrasting backdrop of verdant greenery and rocky terrian. I wouldn’t divulge the storyline and would encourage everyone to see this moving film by Mrinal Sen, his second Hindi film after the trend setter ‘Bhuvan Shome’
  Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Saransh (Hindi, 1984)

• Watching Saransh(1984) in 2021 makes one feel sad for a filmmaker like Mahesh Bhatt. The promise which he showed through his early films like this one petered out as his career progressed in commercial Bollywood. The agony of an elderly couple battling the loss of their only son in a world gone berserk was filmed with great elan by Mahesh Bhatt. I found certain similarities in the sequences where the main characters are being terrorized by miscreants in this film with an identical scenario depicted in Tapan Sinha’s ATANKA (1986). I don’t know whether Sinha was inspired by Saransh in any way.
  Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangady are brilliant as the elderly couple. Their lives acquires a meaning when a tenant (Soni Razdan), an actress comes to live with them. She is in a relationship with the son (Madhu Jain) of a politician (Nilu Phule). What transpires in the film is a vignette of unfolding social trends. Watch the film to experience the high of a filmmaker who was never able to recreate this magic in his subsequent works. This is also one of the few Indian films to focus on loneliness, depression and tendencies to commit suicide.
  Rating: 4.1 out of 5

Ardh Satya (Hindi, 1983)

• I can’t think of any Indian film before ARDH SATYA (1983) to have depicted urban angst so tellingly like the ones that was seen in Seventies American cinema with films like Scorcese’s Taxi Driver and Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon. In the film Om Puri plays a hot headed cop, in the role of a lifetime inspired by the Pacino starrer Serpico, prone to excesses while dealing with criminals and law breakers. The inheritance of anger is suggestively hereditary, as his father (Amrish Puri) was prone to similar outbursts and which Om witnessed in the treatment meted out to his mother by her husband during his early days. Smita Patil plays the love interest of the angry cop who gets reprimanded regularly and even suspension on crossing limits. The film raises several pertinent questions such as the dehumanization of the police personnel, the deep penetration of nefarious politicians and their influence in the working of the police force.
  The film hinges on three main threads – 1. The father-son relationship offering an opportunity of psychological study through inheritance
  2. The uneasy relationship between the violent cop and his paramour showing the schism that exists between civilians and the law enforcement personnel.
  3.The deep nexus between the police and the politicians
  The supporting cast includes Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Shafi Inamdar, Naseeruddin Shah and others.
  Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Paar (Hindi, 1984)

PAAR is a tale of arduous struggle for survival. It narrates the story of a harijan couple (Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi) who flee from their native village in Bihar to escape from the wrath of the upper caste tyrannical landlord (Utpal Dutt) & his men. The landlord’s brother (Mohan Agashe) was killed to avenge the death of the Gandhian school teacher (played by Anil Chaterjee) who worked tirelessly for upliftment of the oppressed villagers.
The initial part of the film, especially the character of the school teacher, invokes the spirit of the Gandhi-Ambedkarite struggle of dalit upliftment. The second half of the film portrays the hardship the couple faces in the city of Kolkata romantically bestowed with an epithet – The City of Joy. The couple finds no such joy in the city but an odd job to drive a herd of pigs across a river with a lure for earning money to finance their travel back home.
Exquisitely filmed, backed by terrific performances, this is one of the greatest films ever in Indian cinema. Om puri does a cameo as a village sarpanch.
Rating; 4.5 out of 5

Party (1984, Hindi)

Nihalani estabhlished himself as a distinguished filmmaker early in his career with films like ‘Akrosh’ and ‘Ardh Satya.’ But speaking personally, I find his third film PARTY to be more stylistically orchestrated, brimming with social commentaryand successful in exposing the dubiousness of the rich and the famous from the Cultural fraternity.
Under the guise of celebrating a recent honor bestowed on one Dr. Barve (Manohar Singh) a party is thrown by one of the female friends (Vijaya Mehta) of the feted writer. Several people arrive in this party and gradually their personal lives get unfolded before the viewer. Wannabe writers, actors from the theatre, social climbers and social activists & gate crashers mingle freely in the midst of free-flowing snacks and drinks. The discussions ranges from whether Political commitment contribute towards a writer’s greatness or the atrocities committed by the State on tribals in the name of development, and the fate that befalls those who speak as voice for the marginalized. In this respect one does find similarity of Gobind Nihalani with filmmakers like Mrinal Sen and Gautam Ghose who seek to address such topical issues in their works. Fine ensemble acting by Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Shafi Inamdar, K. K. Raina, Rohini Hattangady, Deepa Sahi, Pearl Padamsee, Mohan Bhandari, Soni Radzan & Jayant Kripalani add to the strength of the film.
Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Teacher’s day and Ek Din Achanak

Happy Teacher’s day to fellow teachers!!!

Remembering the 1989 Hindi film EK DIN ACHANAK based on a story by Ramapada Chowdhury. No film in Indian cinema or probably in World cinema have depicted so beautifully the frustration of an academically inclined Professor the way this film has done. A Mrinal Sen masterpiece that need an attentive viewing to capture the depth of the feeling expressed in this work. Dr. Sreeram Lagoo acted brilliantly as the Professor …

Pyaasa (1957)