Dharti Ke Lal [1946] : K.A. Abbas
When I have started searching archival data and literary & artistic data on the Great Bengal famine to write a novel on pre-independence age, Japanese invasion of Burma [present Myanmar], American military base on Calcutta [present Kolkata], the Bengal famine, communal riot and partition in a greater scale back in 2018. I did not find much in Bengali initially significant except sketches of Chittaprosad Bhattacharya and Zoynul Abedin; in 2021 I came to know that Satyajit Ray’s Ashani Sanket [1973] is based on Bengal Famine which was adapted from Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s eponymous novel [1959]. I read this novel in 2023.
Source: https://indigenousweb.com/blog/chittaprosad-bhattacharya-political-art/
Khwaja Ahmed Abbas’ Dharti Ke Lal [1946] shares some common features and outline of the narrative loosely both Mehmood Khan’s Mother India [1957] made almost one decade later and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Ashani Sanket [1959]. In both Dharti Ke Lal & Mother India has a major turning point of flood that split the whole story into two different narrative streams. DKL swipes to the mass exit from hungry Bengal to Calcutta walking 177/km whereas slides to village reformation. Even the dramatic nuance of a newly married life and naming the protagonist Ramu & Radha also shared the common space in the films.
Like Mother India, Bubhutibhushan’s Ashani Sanket also shares some common threads in DKL. The way Chutki prostituted in AK, Radhika also prostituted herself in exchange of buying milk for her child. And I just cannot stand the mass humming of aurat lao [bring me women].
The price hike through local syndicating the rice storage and the evil process of land grabbing by the local landlord are the common things in DKL, MI & AS.
The sequence using the montage of hungry march with the song “Bhukha Hain Bengal'' [Hungry Bengal] and using Bengali lyrics āĻāĻāĻু āĻĢ্āĻ¯াāĻ¨ āĻĻাāĻ āĻŽা [Give me some rice gruel, mother!] are just classics scenes in the cinema history. I can’t believe how this movie did not get world wide recognition in that period.
Dharti Ke Lal-1946
Another thing that left DKL behind in world recognition is communism, I think. In the denouement, the movie transcendence to the encouragement of communism in village gatherings through communal agriculture & distribution & school teachings through “Hindustan Mere Desh Hain” [India is my country] and we are all on one instead of capitalist individualism just like Sergei Eisenstein’s General Line [1929]. The ending with communist passivity in the new world is so striking that it can not attract the capitalist west. But in my view, capitalism has so many pitfalls but communism is so unrealistic and if it was not then why did it not work well around the world and made the situation worse. In essence it is not about the system but the person who controls is the main concern.
Dharti Ke Lal [1946]
K.A. Abbas
Hindi, India
Comments
Post a Comment