Rituparno's Bonolata...!!

I love films that aesthetically merges the conscious and semi conscious trance of the human psyche..very seldom film makers have explored the terrain of the surreal world..Film maker Rituparno Ghosh has somewhat successfully explored this side with subtlety in his tale of a bored spinster Bonolata in Bariwali (Lady of the house),where the lady's day to day events merges with her dreams,creating a beautiful collage of human emotions,for instance the sequence where she dreams of her wedding day colliding with the rituals(being performed by women folk,along with Prosonno decked up as a lady) following the death of her would be husband bitten by a snake,with the monosha mongol (traditional religious narrative of the goddess of the snakes) playing in the background! After years of living a monotonous life accompanied by a maid servant Malati and an effeminate retainer Prosonno ,she goes through an emotional turmoil with the arrival of a director with his film unit to shoot a film at her spacious ancestral house,she gets emotionally attached to the man,and in her dreams she attains for that physical desire of a married woman,she has been deprived of all these years.In one such dream sequence,she comes to his bedroom decked up as his wife with a glass of milk,asking him the arrival of the month of falgun,in the very next shot,he takes out a tagore's novel and slashes out the glued pages of the book with a knife..stains of blood sprinkles onto her face..the first sign of marital bliss!

In her surreal world,she visualizes the maid 'malati' as a bride specially after she watches her kissing her boyfriend on a storm stuck afternoon which also coincides with the news of malati living the her job as her maid due to her upcoming marriage

Exclusively for you.....thammi !! ( in bangla )

Manasha Panchali has stayed with me forever,courtesy - my granny! Today, she is no more..i dedicate this to her..
( Excerpts from Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali... )

hoilo modhu maash e biya, baashor shaajai modhu kolosh diya.                        

holud chondon diya,Chaand er nondon boron kori giya,                            
Dhonopoti'r koinna je shundor! Chaand er nondon jamai Lokkhindhor!
chokher jol'e bhaashay baap'e maay'e..poti'r shathe Chaand er puri jaay

modhu maash e biya, baashor shajai modhu kolosh diya.
modhu maash e, modhur o milon! kolosh kolosh modhur aayojon,
holud diya shonar boron gaa,koinna re mor shob'e deikkhha jaa
modhu maash e biya,jaage paara ulluddhoni diya!

ranga cheli..shonar olonkaare,chokher jol'e shaajailo koinnare
shohag shaaje chhili ghor'er kon'e
porer ghore pathaimu kemon'e


modhu maash e biya, baashor shaajai modhu kolosh diya.
holud chondon diya,Chand er nondon boron kori giya,
joto e modhu deo na kolosh bhoira...
kopaaler likhon khondai kemon koira!

chompok o nogori dekhe roop er 'o tulona                                                          
sadager er beti koinna,onek olonkar
konoko konkono golaay gojomotir haar

Chaand er puri chhaaira jaailo shonge Lokhinndhor
sontali porbot e koinna'r lohar bashorghor

lohaar baashor ghor'e,
shonar shohaag uthaal paathal kor'e..
baashor ghor'e shotin'o naagini
Lokkhindhor re dongshaailo omoni......
shonar boron bisher jaalay bhaashe
baashor boibo kola'ar o maandaash 'e

kisher biya hoilo modhu maashe!!
bashor boibhab kolar'o maandash 'e
modhu mashe biya, kola tolaay ulluddhoni diya

biyar uluddhoni,kola tolaay jotek 'o romoni,                                                    
shopto (7) bodhu modhu kolosh kaandh'e
sheel er por'e maatir bhaando raakhe...
naaraay sheel 'e paayer paara diya
nijer kopaal nijei bhaange maaiyya

hoilo modhu maash e biya, baashor shaajai modhu kolosh diya.
baaper shohag maayer aador baare,
bhaanga kopaal kemne juri tobe!!

'TOMAR THOT AAMAR THOT CHULO...'

 

  tomar thot aamar thot chulo

  jodio ei prothombar noi                                                            

  chumbon to ageo bohubar...

  eibar thothe mileche ashroi

  jemon shob bhoyer golpe

  doitto danob rakkosh r khoi

  tile tile shukhoi rajkumari

  ontomile rajputrer joy

  tobuo khub bhitore badhahin

  lorai chole shumbo nishumbher

  prothom bole, phool ti chire khabo

  ditio bole, hath pate shekh

  ashole tumi dirgho shalmoli 

  shobar matha chariye torbor

  tomar thoth amar thoth chulo

  r ja kichu okinchitkor

               --- sugato gangopadhyay

Ebong......Ritu da and Nabo di !!

Its one of those rare occasions,that comes once in a while when you get to witness two of your most beloved 'iconic' personalities on stage,together..hand in hand..This happened recently at the Washington Bangla Radio awards.I remember the last time i got to catch up with the two of them together in Etv Bangla's chat show EBONG RITUPARNO, a show hosted by the film maker himself..Here's a poetess and a novelist (pardon me,i must refer to her as a legend !) whom i have loved since ages.I remember going through her short children stories during my school days (summer vacation days to be precise!), and later, her collection of stories which were published in the annual Nabakallol subscriptions.
Much later, maybe 3,4 yrs back i read her first novel 'Sita theke Shuru' and was completely bowled over by her writing that combined high intellect along with incredible wit and humour ! Since then my passion towards her writings grew day by day..Nati Nabanita, Monsieur Hulor holiday, travelogues like Karuna Tomar kon path diye, Truck bahone Mcmohan, novels like Nattorombho, Swabhumi etc..and the columns that i always keep myself updated with, from her exclusive,evergreen Bhalo bashar baaranda.

Now coming to the other one,he's undoubtedly my most cherished film maker of all time. The countless times i have seen all his films, i could well write a thesis on his celluloid work ! ( Oh! exaggerated heights of my over confidence!) I have been extremely biased towards his films,have watched them repeatedly on my dvd player,rewinding scenes after scenes,the dialogues almost engraved within my grey matter!sometimes even overlooking the flaws in flicks like Khela, Shob Charitro kalponik and The last lear. Ghosh is not just a great story teller, for me,he's a painter who has sketched out some impeccable women protagonists over these years that i have fallen in love with..Be it Bonolata, Boro bou (of Antarmahal), Titli, Kaberi, Rohini, Vandana, Shikha, Padmini Chowdhury, Ranga pishima or my most favourite Sarojini Gupta !

TITLI - The First Monsoon Day

Way back in the early ninties,Rituparno Ghosh depicted the embittered relationship between a mother-daughter splendidly in his second film UNISHE APRIL,in 2002 he teamed up with the real life mother-daughter duo (Aparna Sen and Konkona Sen Sharma) and gave us a film with the same theme but in a different view altogether.

What really makes this film a million time watch (atleast for me) is the sheer innocence of the subject just as the title of the film itself..The innocence of a teenage girl,the first crush(for a bollywood matinee idol), the sensitivity of handling a relationship,the twist in the mother daughter relationship as well as the beauty of The first monsoon & the beauty of nature has been projected brilliantly by the director.
It essays the story of a teenage girl Titli (played by Konkona) who is infatuated (or as she says,in love) with a silver screen idol Rohit Roy (played by Mithun).Her bedroom is filled with his cutouts & posters & she is so obssessd with him that the idea of marrying him doesnt seem unusual to her at all,much to the surprise of her mother Urmila (played by Aparna Sen).But it is just not a film about an adolescent swooning over a film star.A chance,unexpected incident of meeting the film star while heading on her way to receive her father from the airport along with her mother & a twist in a personal relationship which brings her face to face with a harsh reality,transforms her into a girl-woman.

This is Rituparno's first outdoor film & hence nature plays a big catalyst with the going ons in the film..The dense morning fog,the lush green mountains of Darjeeling,the toy trains traversing its way through the zig zag paths,the first monsoon day (Asharasya prathama divasa),the Buddhist monastries,poetry & music churns out a world of innocence & romance blending together with the right essence.
Its hard to find another film which has presented a real life parent-child duo so brilliantly & effectively on celluloid (i dont find the same between Amitabh Bacchan & Abhishek!)..Their bonding,their interaction,their closeness,the talks..like their conversation at the dining table regarding Titli's wish to marry a film star,their conversation in the jeep while on their way to the airport (which starts from Titli asking her mother to keep her hair open instead of bunning it,to the choice of songs,Aparna capturing a nostalgic moment talking about her crush Rajesh Khanna coinciding with the song which Titli asks the driver to play,Aparna reminiscing an almost ghostly incident!, to Titli's concern for her grand daughter which might look like an ape!)...all such conversations had been dealt so effectively that i wonder wheather it was Rituparno's script or he simply asked the duo to talk on their own while he just captured their moments on camera!

As previously mentioned,the director has brilliantly used poetry & music to capture the innocence as well as the romance between the characters.Aparna quotes from the lines of Shakti  Chattopadhyay's famous poem Abani Baari Aacho?,quoting a line from Kalidas's Meghdootam,Aparna & Mithun wandering along the greenery amidst the fog & the former sings a Rabindra sangeet.But one of my best moment in the film is where Aparna recites an entire poem from Tagore's SANCHAITA......

Aamra dujon ekti gaaye thaki,

shei aamader ekti matro shukh.

taader gaache gaaye je doyel paakhi,

taahar gaane aamar naache buk.

taahar duti paalon kora bhera,

chore beraay moder botomule,

jodi bhaange aamar kheter bera,

koler pore niy taahare tule.

                        aamader ei graamer naam ti khonjona,

             aamader ei nodir naam ti anjona,

                          aamar naam to jaane gaayer paanch jone,

                         aamader shei taahar naam ti ronjona.......

The USP of  Rituparno's films are the small small intricate moments that he captures & Titli is filled with such beautiful moments that nowhere seems out of place or over the top...for example Titli hugging her mother tightly feeling her essence, telling her mother how beautiful she looks when she dresses up,..or the scene where Aparna's  reciting a poem for her husband (played by Dipankar) while the husband is already fast asleep,snoring at that!...she turns around,looks into a framed phorograph of her marital life and heaves out a sigh while at the same time the sweet & simple bonding she shares with the same person!

One more aspect of the film which i feel has been shown so wonderfully is the relationship between Aparna Sen & Mithun.It feels strange for anyone for sure,to come face to face with an ex-boyfriend after 17-18 yrs! But the maturity and the sensitivity with which Aparna handles the entire pace with Mithun with such dignity,grace and a poise,without any hard feelings,without any disappointments,feeling the same concern for him but not as a lover,but as a friend,as someone she had known many years ago.

Konkona epitomizes the word 'Titli' with her spunkiness  in the first half & with her silence in the latter part when she becomes aware of the hidden truth,slowly turning her from a moth to a butterfly! 

The Aparna Sen of Unishe april is poles apart from the Aparna Sen in Titli..While in Unishe april she was a proffesional Bharatnatyam dancer who's dedication to her art,her field, formed the basic core of her life besides anything else...in Titli,she plays a girl in love who had to silently bear the pain of marrying someone her parents had chosen,a dotted (pullover sewing) housewife,and a mother who's more a friend,a confidant to her daughter,someone who could relate to her child's pain with her own.

Nature has'nt been so effectively used in any other film (during the time when this film got released) and the final laudatory words must be in favour of the excellent cinematography by Abhik Mukherjee...

The Changing moods of Monsoon accentuates the Changing moods of Human minds!!!