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Charachar (1993) : Brief Review -

Love for birds interwoven like never before with the inner salvation of a man. Charachar is a beautifully shot film with colourful cinematography that is impossible to overlook. Moreover, its subject is both heartwarming and intellectual. Let me elaborate. Lakha, a bird catcher, finds joy in catching birds, playing with them, touching them, and then setting them free-exactly the opposite of what his profession demands. His wife is constantly angry at his careless attitude, and to secure both money and affection, she is also involved with another man. Lakha is fully aware of this, yet he continues with family life, which, to me, felt a little hard to digest. How can a man so calmly accept his wife's affair and still plead for her to stay? Why doesn't he reflect on his own flaws and attempt to become a better family man? That is one perspective where the film falters. To counter this flaw, Lakha's character is depicted as an obsessed man-not negatively, but positively obsessed-with birds. He devotes more time to them than to his wife and remains indifferent to livelihood, debts, and social image. When his wife finally abandons him, he becomes traumatized. This, again, feels like a weakness in the narrative. A man capable of such profound thoughts about life and salvation seems oddly childish when it comes to his wife. Adding to this complexity, another girl admires and loves him for who he is, yet he remains unmoved. As he says, "If I have my wife, I can't have birds, and if I have birds, I can't have my wife. I must sacrifice one of them." That is his conflict. He must resolve it, but the dramatic finale doesn't fully justify his thoughtful mindset or way of living. Had this part been better handled, the film might have stood as a complete classic. Nevertheless, Charachar remains a very good film with powerful performances, striking cinematography, vibrant locations, a smooth background score, and convincing direction by Buddhadev Dasgupta. Watch it-you'll definitely take away more than a few thoughts with you.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Buddhadeb Dasgupta's CHARACHAR is based on a story by Prafulla Roy. The film deals with the life of a bird-catcher Lokha played by Rajat Kapur. The film is an exploration of existence caught between 'reality and a dream.' The bird catcher's wife Sari (Laboni Sarkar) leaves him for another man Natobor (Sankar Chakraborty) when his love for birds became overpowering. The growing affinity for the feathered kind was fuelled by the sensitivity with which his dead son cared for them when he was alive. He gradually detaches himself from the 'reality' of modern existence and eventually merges himself at one with his 'dream' – becomes exactly like a bird without any worries of the world.

Bhusan Kaka ( Sadhu Meher ), a fellow bird catcher and his daughter Gauri ( Indrani Halder ) attempts to provide some comfort in his tumultous existence. Disenchanted with the way people became rich in his trade Lokha resolved that henceforth he would put a full stop to all of his bird catching activities. He says optimistically that the jungle would be able to provide sufficient food for his needs. The director makes recurring use of dream sequences and this film, more than any of his other works, have a poetical quality in the treatment. Apart from the thematic novelty, a genre hitherto unexplored by serious Indian filmmakers even though we have had such wonderful films like 'Born Free' and 'Hatari' made in the West aeon's ago, the film effectively captures the agony of a man caught in the wrong profession. The film soars above the standards set by most Indian filmmakers and highlights the distinctiveness of Dasgupta as a filmmaker. Succinctly, the film is an essay of possibly a dream that the director cherishes and not a hard- hitting statement about the ground reality facing a bird catcher's life. The ending sequence has a dream like quality about it. Embellished by strong performances from the entire cast the film is shot beautifully adding to its strength. Memorable stuff.