PM Review

                               “Neech jati ki ladaki aur naam rakha diya Sujata”                                                                -Charu, foster mother of Sujata   As soon as I heard this dialogue from Bimal Roy’s cult-classic film Sujata [1959], I felt a butterfly has just whirling around my throat in the midst of dark night. It is one of the overstated punchlines we used to say during any gossips, debates and chatting but this one echoed a supple tone and mood that I can’t just deny but pause the laptop screen and thinking an analogous temperament in Rabindranath’s novel Gora written in 1910 on the backbiting caste rituals in Hinduism. The spiteful sequence of Sujata after the revelation of her identity as a Dalit [the untouchable...

  Another great & classic cinema on the Bengal fight against British Raj in the golden era of Indian cinema. Another embodiment of Bengal narrative stream in the Bombay film industry. Another solid & unforgettable artistic stature of Bengal neo-realism in neo-liberated India. Another illustration of East Bengal cultural and intellectual tradition in South Asia. Putting aside the legends and cults, I found Bimal Roy’s Bandini [1963] exclusive and rich with artistic and intellectual touches. There are visibly three-act narrative densely packed with social and national consciousness under the oppression of European colonialism, the balanced and liberal idea of reformative punishment at the backdrop of romantics and finally the sky-high suspense of Kalyani’s [ Nutan Behl ] resolution to stay with a uncertainty and despondency of Bikash, the revolutionist starred  Ashok Kumar  and to go with the luxury and certain happiness of Devendra, a prison doctor played by  ...