jayans

It is almost three decades since i saw the unforgettable film "Jukti Tako Aar Gappo". i saw it with subtitles since i do not know Bengali. It was being screened in a city that i lived and studied at that time. i saw the film four times, and i even knew many of the lines of the characters! The film is a journey. It is a journey of discovery for Neelkanta, the poet and two others who join him in his journey. The young man and woman. Together they traverse the countryside in Bengal.

The character Neelkanta is played by Ghatak himself. And how unforgettable is the man as "himself" in the film! And he does not forget to shoot down his great rival Satyajit Ray by presenting "Shatrujit Basu" (Utpal Dutt)whom he carefully presents almost in appearance, as Ray himself! Neelkanta accuses Shatrujit of short- changing the "cause" for fame and recognition.

The most interesting relationship is between the young lady whom Neelkanta calls "Bangabala" (girl- child of Bengal)and the young man who joins the journey. They perhaps a younger generation. Ghatak's films carry the separation theme. The river (Subarnarekha) that is symbolic of that separation; the agony of partition. The indescribable pain of a little boy whose parents happened to be on the wrong side of the river.

The river flows. Like Neelkanta's journey of discovery. He finally discovers the emerging spirit of Bengal in the forest surrounding his home in the village. He is at peace in the company of those youth who are waging a losing war against the status quo. He enters into arguments with all these characters. He goes to the forest to meet the youth fighting the police. Before going, he tells his wife to send his little son to see him the next morning early, at sunrise. "I want to see your face in against the rising sun," he says.

And he emerges from the forest in the morning, only to be shot down by the police.

i call this the most poignant film from an Indian film maker. The poetry of Death Vision. That is what it is.

And it has the intense, painful signature of Ghatak films: personal touch.

As i watched the film, i wept for Ghatak. Even today, after thirty years, i still weep. It is a pity that India never understood a genius.

Everything about this film is special: even the characters' names. Neelkanta is a synonym for God Siva. He is called Neelkanta because he has a blue patch on his neck (throat, actually). That was caused by the poison he volunteered to drink in order to save the universe from destruction (during the mythical churning of the "Ocean of Milk").

See the connection now? Neelkanta says, lifting the bottle to his lips, "This is nectar!"

Is it?

I read 'Pather Panchali' before I was ten years old when it was being published in a magazine in translation. There were many things I never really understood at that time in the novel. I read it again after growing up, as a young man. I first saw the film in 1973 at a film festival in India. In 2004, I bought the trilogy on a visit to India and watched all the three films more than three times.

It is an indescribable experience. Words fail me to express the intensity of the film in its visual beauty, thematic power, splendid acting, unbelievable camera-work and haunting music by Ravi Shankar. I do not know the names of all the actors, actresses and technicians, but I have never gone through such an experience except when watching movies by Ingmar Bergman.

Satyajit Ray took Indian cinema to the world stage, not through the hollow men and women at Hollywood, but through the Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, etc. The sensitivity of his films makes watching them the best cinematic experience. I have unabashedly awarded it 100%.

Watch all the three films, if you watch this one.

I really don't know why I am writing this because the Malayalam film industry appears to have fallen into an Age of Darkness. An Age in which really good films have no relevance; the film industry that operates within a limited geographical and linguistic terrain has produced film makers of unbelievable talent, knowledge, and mastery of the medium. It is all lost, anyway. The junk that is being churned out of Kerala currently will make any real cineaste ... hold your breath.. commit suicide!

K.P Kumaran happens to be the First Among Equals in the list of real film makers; the real creator, Kubla Khan of cellulloid!

Having seen K.P evolve (from playwright, co-script writer and Assistant Director to Adoor Gopalakrishnan when the latter made the watershed Malayalam film 'Swayamvaram',)into a film maker of incredible talent and mind-blowing understanding of the film medium, I can stand up and say in any crowd that 'Rukmini' is one of the best five films ever made in Malayalam.

Rukmini deals with the theme (something we, Keralites like to hide) of child molestation, trauma and dispossession. The film is mostly shot in a brothel in which Rukmini, the child prostitute (already molested by her stepfather) learns the trade. There are interesting characters. The 'Madam', the police inspector who is a frequent visitor to her brothel, but becomes a father when he sees the innocence of Rukmini, still asking for a doll! As in every Kumaran film, the end in this film is soaked in surrealism where we find the Madam and the rest of her 'charges' wait at a roadside after being evicted from the brothel.

in another country, another cinematic tradition 'Rukmini' would have been framed in gold and preserved in the warmth of the love of the people. Unfortunately, it is not so in Kerala (and India). We drool over a nonexistent 'Bollywood' which in actuality is a 'Follywood'.

Whatever they say, if anyone ever looking at K.P's work in future comes across my jottings on his films must contact me, please!