Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa

I did not come away thinking that the director wanted to preach Marxism (like some comments indicated), but told a story about some that strongly believed in it. He told the story of those that embrace a movement and by doing so, they have involved their entire family one way or other. The shadows of their sacrifices are long; character Nandini talks about it. The survivors deal with differently -- here the mother is running around her sons memories. She is reaching out to the places that he ever touched. This kind of intelligent film making, simple story lines, characters with depth are not everybody's cup of tea.

I'm not going to say I agree with the story premise but I loved the film, characterization. No actor went for a grandiose performance; dialogues were simple, no punch lines. Hence a very simple film. I would suggest people watch the DVD; the film does a wake some emotions in you.

Performances: What can I say? I have not seen one actor that performed better or worse. Every one lived in their roles, hence the credit goes to the Director. But, I just have to say this... I loved Jaya Bhaduri in Guddi, Uphar, Kora Kagaj ... the lady is natural. She never acts - Amitabh acts -- Jaya just lives in her roles (even in KKKG in few scenes that were not artificial).

The film not only portrays the dark days in the history of Bengal when human rights were strangled under the boots of power, it also essays the journey of a middle aged lady that led her to discover her dignity as a human being and reassess her own goals in life as she delves deeper into the life and ideology of her deceased son.

A beautiful story of struggle, realization and hope.

Corpse number 1084 is lying in the govt. mortuary, a life-less body which is reduced to a mere four digit number by the authorities and the mainstream. Nobody wants to claim the body, or accept his association with it, except his mother. But why is he so neglected, why do people want to forget him, why was he killed and what sort of a man was he, when alive? The film is the journey of his mother to give, and find answers to these questions and through this, the film tries to capture the story of those thousands youth of Naxalite Movement who dared to dream, and fight for a better alternative, and who were butchered by the the nexus of state, right wing parties, and betrayers and saboteurs present in the left movement itself.

Based on a novel with the same title by eminent Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi, this film tries to capture the Kolkata of Stormy-seventies, when Naxalite Movement was penetrating among the urban, educated middle-class youth.

Sujata(Jaya Bachchan) is the mother of Brati(Joy Sengupta), a brilliant and honest-to-self upper-middle class student, who chooses to dedicate his life to the cause of proletarian revolution and is murdered by state supported goons. Sujata goes through an epistemological journey in search of the reasons for this, and finally, realizing the relationship between her own oppression(in the household) and that of the poor (outside), she decides to resist, alike her son. In the end, the mother feels that each time she offers a resistance to injustice, she gives re-birth to her deceased son again, and gets more closer to him as a mother, a friend, and a comrade.

The film captures everything, and that too perfectly, be it the decadence of Bengali well-off society and artists, the tortures inflicted by police on the naxalites, the ideological deviations of the movement, the betrayals by insiders, the beauty and honesty of the dreams of the naxal youth, and the brutality and ugliness of their cold-blooded genocide by the state,the weaknesses of the movement at that time and its capacity to learn from mistakes; and all this added by masterly performances by Nandita Das(Nandini),Seema Biswas(Somu's mother), Jaya Bachchan, Joy and other actors. Govind Nihlani's direction is excellent and the film surely is one of his Masterpieces.

Above all, it shows that Naxalism is not about some splashes of blood or some crime oriented or mindless killings, but it is about a dream nurtured by a whole generation of 16 to 40, which sacrificed itself for the same and whose dream carries audience and relevance till now. Best Hindi film on Naxalism. 8 out of 10.

This movie and the original story on which it is based seem to paint a rosy and glamoros picture of the Naxalite movement and the Marxism on which the movement was based.

How can one ignore and forget that the countries like China and USSR have been the biggest oppressor of human freedom and democratic rights.

The film and the story portrays Marxism and Naxalite movement as the ultimate saviors and revolutionary for the society. Alas! such hollow slogans and empty dreams could not be implemented even in the birth-place of those, viz., USSR and China, which are turning to capitalism themselves.

Apart from this heavy ideological bias, the movie is well-made with powerful performances by Jaya Bachchan and Nandita Das.

->The movie appears to be slightly sympathetic to the Left-wing extremists(then known as the 'Naxalites'). Nevertheless, an outstanding one ! ->In a country like India where the truth dies a horrible and a silent death,such movies ought to add to the confusion of the 'stupid' common man but at the same time make him realize the extent of his ignorance. ->The best part of the movie is undoubtedly it's direction - a gist of the idealistic,dreaming,competent and willing but certainly with-wrong-basics youth of the 60-70's who were the core of the Naxalbari movement;the muscle flexing,brutality and cunning(well-inherited from the English)of the Government;the always-ignorant,hypocrite upper and middle class;the parasitic and infectious thug-clan in India and many more subtle aspects of a national peril manifest well in the movie. ->All actors have done their sweep well.Especially,Jaya Bhaduri(a rueful mother),Seema Biswas(a persevering lady of lower economic strata),Nandita Das(a dynamic,dreamer-turned-astute extremist) take most of the credit. ->The climax of the movie seems apparently off-track but is not - it relates to all the threads spawned in the first half of the movie.