It is often said that one should not change their areas of expertise—as skill in one cannot be transferred to another so easily. Bratya Basu is a brilliant theatre director. He is not that in his films.
He is the Director, Scriptwriter, Screenplay writer, and Lyricist in this film “TARA”. So when the film stutters and loses way, he has to take responsibility.This film has obvious political statements—a reflection of the director’s point of view.In a state where cultural matters were controlled with a rigid hand by the leftists, the release of such a film with the villains now as Leftist Party members (as contrasted with the Congress Gandhi caps of yesteryear) is a novelty. However the characters are larger than life, jatra-styled, and lifted straight from the theatre stage to the front of an unforgiving camera.There are traces of the masala Hindi film of the nineties.
The story is too idealistic and romanticised. Prosenjit(Indra Bosu) used to live next to Paoli ( Madhuja), and fell in love with her but could not convey the same to the girl!!!! Prosenjit becomes a murdering Maoist and continues to paint pictures of Paoli in his jungle hideout!!!!! This idealised view of the terrorist is quite unbelievable. Madhuja’s father is picked up as a suspected Maoist and tortured in jail. Madhuja’s friends, servant etc are scared away by the red goons, and she finds herself seeking the help of maverick police officer Tota Roychoudhury (Jahangir Khan), whose life story resembles that of Nazrul Islam , the blacklisted police officer of the Left Front Government. The Cops are as usual corrupt, in league with party leader Subir Sen and the Chief Cop is also seen to be in the same league.Prosenjit tries to issue a statement that Paoli’s father is not a Maoist. This is opposed by his leader Bratya Basu (Naidu) who wants to keep him in jail and garner further popular support.
Now there are two groups trying to capture Paoli—the State and Party machinery and the South Maoist machinery. Jahangir Khan and Prosenjit are trying to save her. Prosenjit wipes out the baddies, gifts Paoli a drawing of her and hands Paoli over to Jahangir.The corrupt police officers under threat of a change of government, confesses to their mistake and Paoli’s father is released by the Court. Bratya tells Jahangir that he behaves like them (the Maoists). Finally Prosenjit and Bratya make a temporary truce and go the jungle as Tota takes Paoli with him—with all and sundry giving us,(the poor audience) the V-sign!!!!!
The script is very empirical and seems to be driven by a purpose of showing the current government and its policemen to be the source of all evil. The dialogues are acceptable in theatre where some amount of hyperbole and stylisation is rampant to drive home some message. The acting has to be a bit unreal, specially in jatra. The gestures and movements have to be exaggerated. Situations have to be contrived to make them sentimental and emotional.The net result however has been to have a film which is recording theatre by a camera!!! In the process however, the common man who is exploited in the villages of the Jangalmahal have not been fleshed out properly.
Prosenjit again in consonance with his new found desire of being an Actor primarily has performed brilliantly in a badly contrived role. Paoli is too busy trying to look beautiful. Tota performs his he-man stuff convincingly but the cake is taken by the other side actors who performs to a T as to what the Director wants.
The editing is poor in parts with no attention being made to match colour and light. The Cinematography is patchy with camera shakes and very poor framing in parts.
The music (by Tapan Sinha) is interesting with the modified “We shall Overcome” (Rupankar) and intelligent use of a Rabindrasangeet (Srikanta Acharya and Lopamudra versions). Rashid Khan sang an impressive song (Megh Jome Aache) which is great for a rainy day.Click on the links below to hear the songs.
http://www.box.net/shared/5umz6zf433
http://www.box.net/shared/0ixt4ifqhv
http://www.box.net/shared/31v9z95pu9
Bratya however deserves kudos for his direct protest and message in a state where cultural dissent was pounced upon and wiped out quickly and mercilessly. He highlights the dichotomy of a Party who came to power on the promises of being a common man’s party, being transformed into an ordinary corrupt party like any other. He boldly brings out the prediction that this government will change and then the sycophants and vindictive policemen will get their due.
If this film is meant to romanticise the Maoists , then it succeeds. If it is meant as a Pre-Election method to swing voters around—then it succeeds.If it means to say that the Left parties and its Police department are totally corrupt and debauched, then also it succeeds partially. But if it is meant to be a film of significance—then it fails. Perhaps Bratya deliberately made it a propaganda film, sacrificing filmic sensibility and targeted the rural audience.This was never a film for the multiplexes. It was meant for a hall like Chabighar, where the ticket prices are Rs.30 and Rs. 40, where the seats are fixed, there is no airconditioning—only overhead slow-whirling fans, where projection and sound systems leave a lot to be desired, where a bell indicates that the show is beginning and where at the intervals ,vendors sell chips for Rs. 10 and Popcorn for Rs.5.
Are films now getting segmented and targetted? Are we going to get a new classification—good films , bad films and targetted films?
But the conclusion is inevitable. Bratya Basu is a far better director of theatre than that of a film.
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