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Home , 1970s in Bangladesh, Anthony Mascarenhas, Aparajito, Ballygunge Court, Bengali Hindus, Calcutta 71

Bengali : Protest and Social Transformation

by

Naadir Junaid

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

School of the Arts and Media

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

April 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements і

Dedication v

Introduction Political Cinema, and Bengali Cinema of Liberation 1

Chapter One Bengali Politically-Committed Cinema: A Historiography 44

Chapter Two Speaking Out against Social Injustice through Cinema: Mrinal ’s (1972) 89

Chapter Three Preference for Personal Protest in Political Cinema: ’s (The Adversary, 1970) 138

Chapter Four Cinema of under Military Rule: ’s Jiban Theke Neya (Glimpses from Life, 1970) 180

Chapter Five Cultural Resistance and Political Protest through Allegory: ’s (The Clay Bird, 2002) 224

Conclusion 265

Bibliography 274

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to the Government of for awarding me an

Endeavour Scholarship. This scholarship enabled me to do a PhD in Australia. My deepest thanks are due to all individuals who helped me when I was completing my thesis. A number of individuals deserve special mention for the tremendous support they gave me during my journey towards the successful completion of my thesis.

First and foremost, I would like to express my grateful and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor,

Professor George Kouvaros. I strongly believe getting the opportunity to work under his supervision was the best thing that happened during my PhD candidature. His intellectual guidance, insightful comments and constructive criticisms profoundly influenced my own intellectual development and helped me gain greater understanding of research. He thoroughly read and painstakingly edited my chapters. His generosity always provided me with huge mental support. I owe him a deep debt of gratitude.

I am immensely grateful to my co-supervisor, Dr. Michelle Langford for providing me with a lot of support during my candidature. She read several chapters of my thesis and gave me very important feedback. My thesis benefited greatly from her valuable suggestions. Her encouraging comments on my work always motivated me to work harder on my thesis. I would also like to thank Associate

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Professor Dorottya Fabian, Postgraduate Research Coordinator of the School of the Arts and

Media for always providing me with encouragements by her kind words.

I wish to express my earnest gratitude to Associate Professor Paul Brown, former Head of the

School of History and Philosophy. He was always extremely supportive of my work. When I was going through a time of anxiety, he gave me tremendous mental support. He also helped me obtain funds for conducting field trips in and . His kind and encouraging words always helped me feel more confident. I would also like to thank Dr. Ruth Balint, my former supervisor and Dr. Kama Maclean, my former co-supervisor at the School of History and Philosophy. They provided me with important academic guidance.

My sincerest thanks go to Professor A A M S Arefin Siddique, Vice-Chancellor of the University of

Dhaka. During my years in Sydney as a PhD candidate, whenever I came to Dhaka and met him or

I phoned him from Sydney he wanted to know about the progress of my work. Through his kind and caring words, he always provided immense support and inspiration. I am fortunate that I have been receiving such great mental support and help from Professor Siddique since my undergraduate days when he was my direct teacher at the . My teacher

Professor Shamsul Majid Haroon has also been a constant source of encouragement. When I was working on my thesis, he often wrote to me from and always sent me his best wishes for the successful completion of my work. I wish to express my deep gratitude to him.

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I would like to express my warmest and special thanks to the following friends of mine who always inspired and encouraged me, helped me in many ways, and made me feel bright and cheerful when

I was completing my thesis: Brett Addison, Arman Mehrsa, Josie Škufca, Chelsea Entzel, Cecelia

White, Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury, Imran Mazid, Tan Yik Hui, Jeffrey Noro, Andrew Everingham,

Kulbhushan Ugemuge, Sania Wadud, Kanyarat Sanoran, Vivian Chan, Anisa Anwar and Francesco

Bortolucci. Their encouragements and emotional support were infinitely precious to me. The company of these friends enlivened my days in past few years. Some of these friends regularly called me from overseas, and wrote encouraging letters to me. Their lovely letters and phone calls always made me feel so happy and helped me gain new energy and strength to continue working hard on my thesis. I thank Kajalie Shehreen Islam for providing me with encouragement when I was applying for an Endeavour Scholarship. My thanks go to Gay Juhl for all those productive meetings in the UNSW library when she patiently showed me how to use the university database.

Numerous individuals helped me during my field trips in Dhaka and Kolkata. I would like to thank

Professor Deb Narayan Bandyopadhyay and Professor Arindam Chattopadhyay for their help when I visited Kolkata. Professor Bandyopadhyay took me to different film archives and helped me meet film scholars and filmmakers in Kolkata. I am grateful to him for his help. My mind is gripped by a feeling of sadness when I remember the support provided by filmmaker Tareque Masud during my research trip in Dhaka. He was so kind as to organize a screening of his newly-made film at his house only for me on a January evening in 2011. I felt extremely sad when Tareque Masud died in a car crash in August 2011. I will never forget that winter evening when after watching his new film at his residence, I had a long discussion with him about socially-critical made in

Bangladesh.

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My thanks go to Dr. Mohammad Jahangir Hossain, former Director General of Bangladesh Film

Archives for arranging screenings of rare films for me in the archive. He was most helpful when I visited the film archive for collecting important research materials. Thanks are due to filmmakers

Tanvir Mokammel, Manjare Hasin Murad, Abu Sayeed and Golam Rabbani Biplob for discussing their films with me and for providing me with DVDs of rare films. I also thank Dr. Sajed-ul-Awwal for his help during my research trips in Dhaka.

And finally, I would like to express my profoundest gratitude and thanks to my parents who were the most important source of emotional support, encouragement and mental strength when I was pursuing my dream of completing a PhD. Words cannot express how deeply I am indebted to them for their unconditional love and care throughout my life. I dedicate this thesis to my parents, with lots of love.

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DEDICATION

To my parents,

Professor Kamrun Nahar and Professor Mohammad Junaid, with lots of love.

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INTRODUCTION

Political Cinema, Third Cinema and Bengali Cinema of Liberation

This study examines how socially-conscious Bengali filmmakers came to grips with urgent social and political issues in films made between 1970 and 2002. Bengali films are only produced in Bangladesh and in the state of West in . Bangla or Bengali is the principal language of Bangladesh and . Inhabitants of these places are also referred to as . They share the same cultural heritage, social customs and a common history despite their religious differences. and are the majority in Bangladesh and West Bengal respectively. These places constituted the British Indian province of Bengal and became parts of different countries in 1947 when the British finally left India after dividing it into the two nations of India and . Bengal was cut in two by this partition on communal lines and nearly two-thirds of the territory of Bengal formed the province of or where Muslims were the majority.

The remaining third of Bengal, with a predominantly Hindu population, became the

Indian state of West Bengal.

Muslims in East and West Pakistan did not have much in common except for religion.

These two Muslim-majority areas were separated by about 1,500 km of Indian territory.

Geographical and historical conditions have created huge cultural and linguistic

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differences between East and West Pakistan. The cultural traditions of East Pakistan, however, were very similar to those of West Bengal. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the prominent Muslim political leader of the Indian independence movement and an opponent of the country‘s partition along religious lines, said: ―It is one of the greatest frauds on the people to suggest that religious affinity can unite areas which are geographically, economically, linguistically and culturally different.‖1 From its creation, conflicts and contradictions arose between two parts of Pakistan. In Pakistan‘s national election of 1970, the , a political party led by Bengali politicians, won a landslide victory. The Awami League thus claimed the constitutional right to form the government of Pakistan, but ―both the military-bureaucratic elite and West Pakistan politicians found this unpalatable.‖2 The unwillingness of West Pakistani-dominated central government and West Pakistani political leaders to allow the Awami League to come to power created huge dissatisfaction among the Bengalis. Angry demonstrations and a non-cooperation movement took place in East Pakistan. Instead of trying to find a peaceful solution to this situation, the central government decided to take coercive measures to suppress the protests of the Bengalis. On 25 March 1971, the Pakistani army launched a brutal attack on Bengali civilians, the police and paramilitary forces. The military attack sparked off a full-scale Liberation that resulted in the secession of East

Pakistan to become, on 16 December 1971, the sovereign state of Bangladesh.

1 Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India Wins Freedom: An Autobiographical Narrative (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1959), 227.

2 Willem Van Schendel, A (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 125.

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Since the , both Bangladesh and West Bengal witnessed tumultuous political circumstances in different decades. Within a few years of the country‘s independence, military rule returned in Bangladesh. In 1990 though, the autocratic rule of

General Ershad was toppled by a spontaneous mass movement and parliamentary democracy was restored. But the restoration of a long-awaited democracy did not solve the country‘s political problems. The following years witnessed conflicts between the major political parties and the rise of Islamist extremists. Still today there are deep divisions in the country between pro-Liberation and anti-Liberation forces. Pro-Liberation forces are composed of progressive political parties and the people upholding the spirit of the Liberation War of 1971 and secularist principles. On the other hand, the anti-

Liberation forces mainly comprise the far-right and extremist Islamist parties. Jamaat-e-

Islami, the largest Islamist political party in the country, collaborated with the Pakistani army during the country‘s War of Independence. For the past two years, the Bangladesh

Government has been prosecuting leading Jamaat-e-Islami figures, along with a few other political leaders accused of committing war crimes during the Liberation War. In February

2013, a huge mass movement erupted in Bangladesh, demanding the death penalty for these war criminals. The people also stepped up their demands for the ban of Jamaat-e-

Islami and religion-based politics throughout the country. Jamaat-e-Islami activists resorted to violent means to show their protest against the prosecution of their leaders; they vandalized and torched vehicles in the street and attacked the police.3

3 See http://eprothomalo.com/index.php?opt=view&page=1&date=2013-02-09, accessed on 14 February 2013; http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/asia/politics-in-bangladesh-jolted-by-huge- protests.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1& accessed on 14 February 2013; http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC- 922072 accessed on 14 February 2013; http://eprothomalo.com/index.php?opt=view&page=1&date=2013-02-14 accessed on 14 February 2013; 3

Although West Bengal did not experience military dictatorships, its history is characterized by politically turbulent circumstances. In the 1950s and 1960s, West Bengal experienced a food crisis followed by widespread public discontent. In the late 1960s, far-left

Communists began an armed insurrection against the . West Bengal was the birth place of this revolt, known as the Movement. The armed rocked West Bengal and its capital Calcutta. From the beginning of the 1970s,

Calcutta became a hotbed of Naxalite urban violence. Chidananda writes:

―Every street corner carried menace. Murders in broad daylight, bomb explosions took place everywhere with impunity and erupted with a suddenness that instilled fear in every heart.‖4 The government ultimately crushed the uprising, using means of police and military suppression which included gross violations of the ‘ human rights.5

Socially-conscious filmmakers, both in West Bengal and Bangladesh, have attempted to grapple with these turbulent political circumstances. Their films are referred to as ―artistic,‖

―off-beat,‖ ―alternative,‖ ―parallel,‖ or ―other‖ cinema. These films stand in sharp contrast to Bengali mainstream films, which are generally modelled on the commercially-motivated productions of . With a view to appealing to the broadest possible audience,

Bengali entertainment-driven mainstream films employ various audience-pleasing ingredients: star-studded casts, action-packed storylines, glitzy dances, dazzling songs and attractive locations. Although these mainstream films sometimes address contemporary http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/14/bangladesh-protest-death-penalty accessed on 15 February 2013.

4 , The Cinema of Satyajit Ray (New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 1994), 101.

5 See Sankar , The Naxalite Movement: A Maoist Experiment (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1974), 157-174. 4

problems, their emphasis on showiness serves to trivialize any comment about social injustice. By making the masses happy, they are apt to maintain the status-quo. Instead of providing the audience with escapist entertainment, however, the makers of alternative or parallel films seek to confront urgent social and political issues, analyze their underlying causes, and indict social injustice and political oppression. These alternative films often employ innovative cinematic techniques to convey their political criticism. In my study, I will analyze films which fall into the category of ―alternative‖ or ―other‖ cinema because these films exhibit reaction and resistance against social problems and the ideology of the dominant sections of the society, as well as the formulaic norms of conventional, profit- driven cinema. These Bengali films marked by formal experimentation and political commitment are recognized as politically critical in form and content.

This study specifically asks the following questions: how do these serious filmmakers in

Bangladesh and West Bengal use cinema as a means of political action? How do their films intervene in a crisis situation? The study also explores a key follow-up question: Do these films deal with the actual causes of social injustice, or merely show the effects of social problems? Through the detailed analysis of four specific films, my dissertation seeks to discuss and analyze the above questions in order to gain an understanding of Bengali politically-critical films. The study also examines how these filmmakers make overt political statements and use cinema language to indict contemporary problems. In seeking answers to my study questions, I will look at the films made by alternative directors in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

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Three filmmakers from West Bengal, Satyajit Ray, Ghatak and , belong to the pantheon of art cinema in India. Their work has achieved critical acclaim both at home and abroad. These eminent Bengali directors are also considered as major in the history of world cinema. With his groundbreaking maiden feature (Song of the Little Road, 1955), Satyajit Ray revolutionized realist filmmaking practices in India. The film‘s imaginative use of film language and the stark depiction of poverty deeply rooted in

Indian reality set it apart from earlier Indian films. In his subsequent films, Ray criticized corruption and exploitation, moral degeneration, religious superstition, unpatriotic attitudes and patriarchal domination. The plight of partition-affected people is a persistent theme in

Ghtak‘s films, which are also critical of political depravity. Sen‘s politically-charged films savagely attack the system and the callousness of the privileged class; he avers: ―The filmmaker has to be an agent-provocateur – one who disturbs the spectator and moves him to action.‖6 The films of Ray, Ghatak and Sen have influenced succeeding generations of directors in West Bengal and also in other regions of India to make socially-purposive films.

Filmmakers in Bangladesh have found inspiration in the important films made by these three important Bengali filmmakers, but faced difficulty in making explicitly political films themselves because of the country‘s military rule and strict censorship. However, some

Bangladeshi filmmakers attempted to provide political criticisms in indirect or allegorical ways. Zahir Raihan, Kabir, and Tareque Masud are the most prominent Bangladeshi directors who came to terms with significant political issues in their films.

6 Cited in Bibekananda Ray, Conscience of the Race: India’s Offbeat Cinema (New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 2005), 43.

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This study will examine two films from West Bengal, Calcutta 71 (1972) by Mrinal Sen, and

Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970) by Satyajit Ray, and two from Bangladesh, Jiban Theke

Neya (Glimpses from Life, 1970) by Zahir Raihan, and Matir Moina (The Clay Bird. 2002) by Tareque Masud. In making this selection, I have deliberately chosen three films made at the beginning of the 1970s because these films stand out as important examples of overtly political Bengali films produced at a time of tumultuous political circumstances. The volatile political milieu that affected West Bengal and Bangladesh from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s need to be seen in the context of social and political movements occurring in , Africa and Asia throughout the 1960s. In 1959, a new revolutionary government was formed in through an armed socialist revolution under the leadership of Fidel Castro. In 1961, the Cuban socialist troops were also successful in repelling the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. In addition, many African nations achieved independence in the 1960s. In 1962, after eight years of armed struggle the Algerians won their independence from the French colonial rule, while, in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh‘s

National Liberation Front took the world by surprise by putting up a valiant resistance against the US military power. All these political events created, as Gérard Chaliand says, ―a sort of Third World euphoria.‖7 The revolutionary ideas of Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara,

Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh inspired many politically-conscious artists and radical students throughout the world. The possibility of tri-continental revolution inspired many socially-conscious artists in Third World countries. The radical mood of the 1960s was reflected in the work produced between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s by many Third

World filmmakers. During this period, as Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell said,

7 Cited in Roy Armes, Third World Film Making and the West (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 88. 7

―filmmaking and film viewing became political acts to a degree not seen since World War

II.‖8 Films made by Bengali socially-conscious directors at the beginning of the 1970s were crucially informed by the rebellious mood of the period. These directors made use of politically-motivated filmic forms in order to reflect the troubles and tensions of contemporary society. These films are an exemplar of politically-committed filmmaking in the realm of Bengali cinema.

A number of Bengali political films made in the 1970s demonstrate the influence of Third

Cinema. In the 1960s, Latin American filmmakers wrote a number of radical film essays and manifestos, notably Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino‘s ―Towards a Third

Cinema‖ (1969), ‘s ―An Esthetic of Hunger‖ (1965), Julio Garcia Espinosa‘s

―For an Imperfect Cinema‖ (1969), Fernando Birri‘s ―Cinema and Underdevelopment‖

(1962). In these polemical essays, Latin American filmmakers called for a politically- committed cinema. The term ―Third Cinema‖ was coined by Argentinian filmmakers

Solanas and Getino in their classic manifesto on revolutionary cinema entitled ―Towards a

Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World.‖ The manifesto ardently advocates a militant, politically-critical cinema that would stand totally opposed to the system and the aesthetic principles of profit-driven films. So, another question that is germane to my dissertation is: how do these Bengali filmmakers employ strategies of Third Cinema in their politically-oriented films? In my thesis, I will use Third Cinema theory as the main conceptual framework within which to examine Bengali political films. I will also analyze these Bengali films in the light of various

8 Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction Third Edition (New York: McGraw Hill, 2010), 495. 8

theoretical concepts of political cinema. The term ―political cinema‖ has gained wide currency within the scholarship of Film Studies, but it is not easy to define. There is no consistent line of reasoning of what makes a political film political. On the contrary, as

Michael Chanan says, ―there are so many different ways of being political and so many different types of political film as to defy definition.‖9 The contesting positions and viewpoints of film scholars and directors on political cinema will be of considerable importance in providing a critical understanding of politically-oriented films. In the following section, I will set out the theoretical perspectives and debates concerning political cinema. My study will draw on some of these concepts in order to analyze the work of

Bengali political filmmakers. The section will be followed by a survey of the principles and methods of Third Cinema which is an important category of political cinema and the main theoretical framework for this study.

Towards a Definition of Political or Revolutionary Cinema

For V. Rajakrishnan, the danger of defining political cinema as a definite movement is that it automatically limits the perspectives and concerns that constitute political films.10 Janina

Falkowska argues that the reason why it is difficult to describe the formal elements that comprise a political film is because ―as a group these [political] films lack internal consistency. Although many films centre on politics or social problems, the forms of these

9 Michael Chanan, ―Outsiders: The Battle of and Political Cinema,‖ Sight and Sound 17, no. 6 (June 2007): 38.

10 V. Rajakrishnan, ―Is There An Indian Political Cinema?‖ Cinema in India 11, no. 4 (October-December 1988): 32. 9

pictures vary widely, from comedy to .‖11 The term political cinema is often used interchangeably with terms such as ―revolutionary cinema,‖ ―counter-cinema,‖

―ideological cinema,‖ ―confrontation cinema,‖ ―activist cinema,‖ ―militant cinema,‖

―subversive cinema,‖ ―experimental cinema,‖ ―social problem films,‖ ―cinema of resistance,‖ ―cinema of liberation‖ and so on. Film scholars and directors also draw distinctions between a political film and a revolutionary film, between the political cinema and counter-cinema. In his PhD thesis entitled ―Radical Form, Political Intent:

Delineating Countercinemas Beyond Godard,‖ Robert Patrick Kinsman notes that the term counter-cinema was first used in the late 1960s to describe the politically and formally radical films made by Jean-Luc Godard. Kinsman identifies political intent, radical form and historical specificity as the key ingredients for a counter-cinema. For him, if a film lacks these three elements, it cannot be regarded as a counter-cinema. But the same film can fall into the category of either subversive cinema, experimental cinema or simply political cinema.12 The films of Stan Brakhage are marked by formal innovations.

But Kinsman mentions that Brakhage‘s films are not counter-cinematic because they do not possess political aspirations. For him, the formal intervention made by the films of

Brakhage differs from the Godardian intervention because the radical films of Godard do not only celebrate the aesthetic strategies of cinema. They are also deeply rooted within a political and historical context.13

11 Janina Falkowska, The Political Films of Andrzej Wajda: Dialogism in Man of Marble, , and Danton (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996), 6.

12 Robert Patrick Kinsman, ―Radical Form, Political Intent: Delineating Countercinemas Beyond Godard,‖ PhD Dissertation, Indiana University (2007), 358.

13 Ibid., 359. 10

Similarly, Kinsman regards ‘s influential anti-colonial film The Battle of

Algiers (1966) as a political film, but he does not consider it as counter-cinema because, for him, the film is not artistically innovative. was criticized by leftist directors and scholars for its failure to break away from the conventions of the dominant cinema.14 In their analysis of the formal strategies employed in The Battle of Algiers, Ella

Shohat and Robert Stam seek to counter this criticism. They argue that ―a crucial innovation of The Battle of Algiers was to invert the Eurocentric focalizations typical of the and the imperial . Instead, Pontecorvo deploys identificatory mechanisms on behalf of the colonized, presenting the Algerian struggle as an inspirational exemplum for other colonized peoples.‖15 In most European films set in

North Africa, is heard only ―as a background murmur, in incomprehensible babble.‖16 But the main characters in Pontecorvo‘s film speak in Arabic. Although the film has a central character, the Algerian people appear as the collective protagonist. The

Algerians are seen in the film encircled and terrorized by French soldiers. Thus, it shows colonial oppression from the perspectives of the colonized. The film‘s positioning of its characters enables the spectator to identify with the oppressed Algerians. For Shohat and

Stam, these techniques ensure the film‘s political and aesthetic departure from the traditional films and the Western paradigm. The sequences of the film in which three

Algerian women are seen planting bombs in the European areas of the town are

―particularly subversive in controverting traditional patterns of identification.‖17 These

14 See Mike Wayne, Political Film: The Dialectics of Third Cinema (London: Pluto Press, 2001), 9.

15 Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (London/New York: Routledge, 1995), 251-52.

16 Ibid., 252.

17 Ibid., 253. 11

women belong to the National Liberation Front (FLN), the guerrilla organization fighting for the independence of . The women disguise themselves as Europeans in order to pass the military check posts. Shohat and Stam describe the politically motivated use of the formal strategies in these sequences:

Many critics were impressed with the filmmaker‘s honesty in showing FLN terrorist

acts against civilians, and lauded this sequence for its ―objectivity.‖ But that the film

shows such acts is ultimately less important than how it shows them; the signified of

the diegesis (terrorist actions) is less important than the mode of address and the

positioning of the spectator. The film makes us want the women to complete their

task, if not out of conscious political sympathy then through the specific mechanisms

of cinematic identification: scale (close-up shots individualize the women); off-screen

sound (we hear the sexist comments of the French soldiers as if from the women‘s

aural perspective); and especially point-of-view editing. By the time the women plant

the bombs, spectatorial identification is so complete that the audience is not shocked

even by a series of close shots of one of the bombers‘ potential victims… The film

has already prepared the spectator to feel ―at home‖ within the bomber‘s perspective,

to sense the reasons for such a mission.‖18

In assessing the political nature of the approach adopted in The Battle of Algiers, it is important to remember that Peter Wollen and Claire Johnston, two of the main theorists of counter-cinema, warned against attaching to this term a set of prescriptive aesthetic principles. They emphasized the importance of incorporating cinematic strategies

18 Ibid. 12

―designed to explore what dominant regimes of signification were unable to deal with.‖19

According to their view, The Battle of Algiers should be considered not only as a political film, but also as an example of counter-cinema because, through the conscious use of specific cinematic techniques, the film manages to subvert the traditional portrayals provided by the dominant cinema.

Distinctions are also drawn between a political cinema and a revolutionary cinema, making it difficult to understand the unique characteristics of the former. Cuban filmmaker

Humberto Solás claims that while all films are political, very few can be considered revolutionary. A revolutionary film, according to Solás, must begin with a Marxist conception of reality whether it is ―conscious or intuitive.‖20 Such a film must express its messages in a combative manner with a view to transforming an existing situation. As

Solás puts it, ―I believe that the revolutionary is unable simply to bear witness in a passive way; he or she is always trying to find a solution to difficulties, to transform reality.‖21

Mauritanian filmmaker Med Hondo asserts that if a film attempts to deal with people‘s aspirations and confront realities it is regarded as a political film. But these attempts do not automatically grant the film the status of a revolutionary film. For Hondo, the concept of revolutionary cinema is unclear. As he puts it:

19 Cited in Paul Willemen, ―The Third Cinema Question: Notes and Reflections,‖ in Questions of Third Cinema, eds. Jim Pines and Paul Willemen (London: BFI Publishing, 1991), 7.

20 Humberto Solás, ―Every Point of Arrival Is a Point of Departure,‖ in Cinema and Social Change in Latin America: Conversations with Filmmakers, ed. Julianne Burton (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986), 156.

21 Ibid. 13

When people talk about political cinema, the drama is that confusion is already being

compounded. It is not pointless to repeat that a political film is not by necessity,

purely, a film which deals with subjects defined as political. What is more, a political

film is not necessarily a ―revolutionary‖ film. What is a revolutionary film? A film

unlike those already seen? A film calling for insurrection? Which incites revolution? I

have never heard of people running to look for rifles at the cinema exit, to overthrow

the government or to chase out the village mayor. Revolutionary cinema without

revolution: I do not understand what that means.22

For Hondo, a revolutionary cinema without an actual revolution connotes an unrealistic concept. But Gabriel disagrees with this notion. For him, it would be wrong to assume that a repressive system must be overthrown or the traditional mode of production must be changed in order to create revolutionary films. He points out that some of the influential revolutionary films such as Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino‘s La Hora de

Los Hornos (Hour of the Furnaces, 1968), Yawar Mallku (Blood of the Condor, 1969) by the Bolivian director Jorge Sanjinés and Senegalese Ousmane Sembene‘s Emitai (1971) have not emerged from any revolutionary situation.23 The vital ingredient of a revolutionary film, according to Gabriel, ―is a revolutionary outlook in a situation of crisis which creates and fosters inspiration and a greater awareness of the forces that work against it.‖24 Yawar Mallku, the best-known film of the Bolivian director Jorge Sanjinés,

22 Abid Med Hondo, ―The Cinema of Exile,‖ in Film and Politics in the Third World, ed. John D. H. Downing (New York: Praeger, 1987), 71-72.

23 Teshome H. Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1982), 37.

24 Ibid. 14

can be cited as an example of a film that makes a conscious attempt to intervene in a crisis situation. The film exposes and denounces the sterilization of Bolivian Indian women without their knowledge and consent by American doctors in a US Peace-Corps-operated maternity centre in Bolivia in the 1960s. The film also implicates the Bolivian government and the white ruling elite of the country as complicit for their reluctance to stop the sterilization. The film ends by showing the Indians raising their rifles in a symbolic gesture of defiance and rebellion. The Bolivian government banned the film. But the ban was overturned after a storm of violent protests around the country.25 The demand for a proper investigation of US Peace Corps activities in the country from students, intellectuals and professionals increased. In 1971, due to serious public pressure, the

Bolivian government expelled the US Peace Corps from the country. Thus, the film qualifies as a revolutionary cinema because of its call for direct action against social injustice. Revolutionary cinema, as Sanjinés says, ―must not limit itself to denouncing, or to the appeal for reflection; it must be a summons for action. It must appeal to our people‘s capacity for tears and anger, enthusiasm and faith.‖26 Thus, Sanjinés advocates the direct intervention of a film in the political realm of the society in order to create a revolutionary consciousness for liberation and protest against social oppression.

For the Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin, a film cannot be revolutionary in itself.‖27 Littin states that a film becomes revolutionary ―through the contract that it establishes with its

25 Leon G. Campbell and Carlos E. Cortés, ―Film as a Revolutionary Weapon: A Jorge Sanjinés Retrospective,‖ The History Teacher 12, no. 3 (May 1979): 388.

26 Jorge Sanjines, ―Cinema and Revolution,‖ Cineaste (Winter 1970/71), 13-14.

27 Cited in Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World, 21. 15

public and principally through its influence as a mobilizing agent for revolutionary action.‖28 Thus, Sanjinés and Littin offer subtly different views about the concept of revolutionary cinema: while Sanjinés emphasizes the need for promoting direct action in revolutionary cinema, Littin asserts that a film can be considered revolutionary only if the spectators are influenced by the radical messages provided by the film. Littin‘s influential film El Chacal de Nahueltoro (The Jackal of Nahueltoro, 1969) critically examines social injustice through the real story of an illiterate peasant who brutally murdered six people and was later executed. The film made a huge impression on the Chileans. For Littin, his film is revolutionary because ―it gripped the masses and because it became a topic for national debate.‖29 Ousmane Sembene, Africa‘s most prominent filmmaker, defines cinema more in political terms than in a revolutionary manner. He does not see any direct connection between cinema and revolution. For him, a film can be revolutionary without creating a real revolution.30 Although Sembene‘s films always address social and political problems with a view to instilling awareness among the masses, they do not end with any direct call for political action. On the contrary, his films provide what Gabriel describes as,

―a call for reflection or a forewarning of what may follow unless radical social change takes place.‖31

The oft-cited notion ―all films are political‖ also makes it difficult to understand political cinema. For Michael Chanan, the notion that all films are political because they express

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid., 22.

30 Ibid.

31 Gabriel, 22. 16

one ideology or another fails to take into account the fact that films can be political in very different ways.32 Mike Wayne states that if we consider all films to be political ―then the definition of a political film extends all the way from Sergei Eisenstein‘s Strike (1924) to Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000).‖33 Like Chanan, Wayne also indicates that the idea that films are political in different ways provides us with a ―more specific sense of what constitutes a political film.‖34 By distinguishing between films which uphold the dominant ideology and those which do not, French film scholars Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean

Narboni elucidate the notion of political cinema. In 1969, they wrote an important editorial entitled ―Cinema/Ideology/Criticism‖ in the seminal French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma. In the article they assert that the reality portrayed in cinema ―is nothing but an expression of the prevailing ideology… What the camera in fact registers is the vague, unformulated, untheorized, unthought-out world of the dominant ideology.‖35 According to them, ―because every film is part of the economic system it is also a part of the ideological system, for ‗cinema‘ and ‗art‘ are branches of ideology.‖36 Analysing the cinema‘s so-called ―depiction of reality,‖ these scholars point out that, from the very first shot of a film, filmmakers are not representing things as they really are but rather providing depictions shaped by a specific ideology. Thus, Comolli and Narboni state that every film is political, ―inasmuch as it is determined by the ideology which produces it (or

32 Chanan, 39.

33 Wayne, 1.

34 Ibid.

35 Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni, ―Cinema/Ideology/Criticism,‖ in Movies and Methods: An Anthology, ed. Bill Nichols (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976), 25.

36 Ibid., 24. 17

within which it is produced, which stems from the same thing).‖37 For them, in order for a film to be considered politically effective it is necessary to intercept and subvert the dominant ideology through the film form as well as content. They illustrate the crucial task of a political film:

Once we realize that it is the nature of the system to turn the cinema into an

instrument of ideology, we can see that the film-maker‘s first task is to show up the

cinema‘s so-called ‗depiction of reality‘. If he can do so there is a chance that we will

be able to disrupt or possibly even sever the connection between the cinema and its

ideological function.38

According to this view, a politically-critical film stands totally opposed to the dominant ideology. A political film directly challenges the prevailing ideology through its subject matter and also departs from the conventional way of depicting reality through the use of formal devices that are able to reflect on their own operations. Comolli and Narboni repeatedly stress the importance of radical film style (signifiers) in political cinema. For them, ―the signified (political subject matter) is always weakened, rendered harmless, by the absence of technical/theoretical work on the signifiers.‖39 Upholding the preference of

Cahiers du Cinéma for a radical film form, Comolli and Narboni indicates that radical formal strategies serve to differentiate a politically motivated cinema from the traditional, status- quoist cinema. In their editorial, they identified seven categories of film. Categories B and

37 Ibid., 24-25.

38 Ibid., 25.

39 Ibid., 28. 18

C correspond to the idea of political film, hence the importance of these two categories for my study.

Category B films attempt to disrupt the sway of dominant ideology both on the levels of style and content. These films set out to direct political action by coming to terms with an explicitly political subject matter, and they also negate the conventions of the traditional cinema: ―[these films] do not just discuss an issue, reiterate it, paraphrase it, but use it to attack the ideology (this presupposes a theoretical activity which is the direct opposite of the ideological one). This act only becomes politically effective if it is linked with a breaking down of the traditional way of depicting reality.‖40 Comolli and Narboni stress that a film must be radical both in style and content if it aspires to invalidate the prevailing ideology.

Politically-charged films made by Godard in the late sixties such as Weekend (1967), La

Chinoise (The Chinese, 1967), Le Gai Savoir (Joy of Learning, 1969), and the revolutionary documentary titled La Hora de los Hornos (Hour of the Furnaces, 1968) by Argentinian directors Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino; politically-committed features titled

Interview (1970) and Calcutta 71 (1972) by Mrinal Sen, Xala (1974) by Ousmane Sembene, and W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) by Dušan Makavejev fit into this category. Radical form is evident in category C where ―the content is not explicitly political, but in some way becomes so through the criticism practiced on it through its form.‖41 Ingmar Bergman‘s

Persona (1966) is cited as an example of category C film.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid. 19

Formal experimentation in politically-oriented cinema is best represented by the films of

Godard. In his political films, Godard constantly foregrounds the operation of filmic forms. Godard‘s preoccupation with transforming the traditional relationship between image and sound, and also the traditional relationship between the film and the spectator seems analogous to the emphasis placed by Comolli and Narboni on challenging the traditional depiction of reality. In 1968, Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin founded a film collective named le groupe Dziga Vertov with a view to making ―political films politically.‖42

The collective aimed to radically transform the language of cinema. In the films of the

Dziga Vertov group, Godard attacks the ―bourgeois concept of representation‖ by fully discarding the conventional cinematic forms.43 As James Roy McBean informs:

Godard and Gorin purposely have made it difficult for any carry-overs from the old

audience to relate to the new militant films in the old idealist way, for they want,

above all, to use art in a new and revolutionary way that will no longer cover up the

class divisions of society and the struggle between the classes but instead will call

attention to and aggravate class contradictions by sharpening the line of demarcation

between classes and between those willing to involve themselves actively in class

struggle and, on the other hand, those not willing to do so. Toward this end, the

Dziga Vertov Group‘s films throw out a challenge to each spectator to confront the

reality of class struggle and to take a stand in it.44

42 Yosefa Loshitzky, The Radical Faces of Godard and Bertolucci (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 29.

43 James Roy MacBean, Film and Revolution (Bloomington/London: Indiana University Press, 1975), 122.

44 James Roy MacBean, ―Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group: Film and Dialectics,‖ Film Quarterly 26, no. 1 (Autumn 1972): 33. 20

Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea acknowledges the importance of Godard‘s work in counteracting the models of bourgeois cinema. But at the same time he also indicates important differences between Godard‘s films and the political cinema made in a Third

World post-revolutionary society. Alea points out that Godard‘s intention was clearly to make the revolution in the realm of cinema before making the actual political revolution in real life. As a Cuban director, Alea sees his role as deeply connected with the actual revolutionary process of his country. Thus, for him, the language of Cuban political cinema

―has to evolve parallel with the revolution.‖45 For Alea, Godard‘s work is important for

Third World revolutionary filmmakers in that it has shown the importance of embracing change within the realm of cinematic language. But the ―incommunicability‖ of Godard‘s stylistic approaches does not make his films suited for a mass audience, especially in a

Third World setting.46 Responding to the criticisms levelled at him for making his films too complicated and cerebral, Godard says that he makes films for himself.47 But for Alea, if a film ―doesn‘t reach the people, it is of no use.‖48 He goes on to add: ―For us, genuine communication is absolutely fundamental, so we must avoid falling into this syndrome at all costs.‖49

45 Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, ―Beyond the Reflection of Reality,‖ in Cinema and Social Change in Latin America: Conversations with Filmmakers, ed. Julianne Burton (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986), 125.

46 Ibid.

47 John J. Michalczyk, Costa-Gavras: The Political Fiction Film (London/Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1984), 18.

48 Alea, 125.

49 Ibid. 21

Alea also highlights the importance of ensuring the spectator‘s critical engagement with films. In his important essay ―The Viewer‘s Dialectic,‖ Alea emphasizes that a film should force people to stop being mere observers of reality. Rather, a film should incite the spectators to attain a deeper understanding of reality. ―To do this,‖ Alea states, ―film ought to appeal not only to emotion and feeling but also to reason and intellect.‖50 Alea‘s emphasis on challenging the spectator‘s intellect shows that the director approves the use of innovative cinematic techniques. In his influential film Memories of Underdevelopment

(1968), Alea uses documentary footage, voice-over narration and a fragmented narrative which necessitate the viewer‘s active intellectual involvement with the film. The film met with a very good response from the Cuban audience. Alea notes:

Many people went to see Memories more than once, and some returned as many as four

or five times. That makes me think that the film hit its mark, which was, first and

foremost, to communicate with the Cuban public. It achieved its goal in the sense that

it disturbed and unsettled its audience; it forced people to think. As far as I‘m

concerned, this is the most important thing.51

Thus, Alea makes use of complicated filmic forms with a view to disturbing the audience and presenting a more profound understanding of reality. The commercial and critical success of Memories in Underdevelopment in Cuba demonstrates that a film using formal strategies akin to was able to make an impression on people in a post-

50 Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, ―The Viewer‘s Dialectic,‖ in New : Theory, Practices and Transcontinental Articulations, Volume One, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 120.

51 Alea, ―Beyond the Reflection of Reality,‖ 117. 22

revolutionary Third World society. Glauber Rocha, the leading director of ‘s alternative movement, asserts that an aspiring to make a revolutionary cinema must ―posit a militant vision of reality on all areas of his filmic creation.‖52 Thus, such a militant cinema would resemble the category B films described by Comolli and

Narboni because these films attack the prevailing ideology on both the levels of signified and signifiers. Rocha emphasizes that a new, radical style is required in order to provide a revolutionary portrayal of reality. But he is critical of the over-emphasis on aesthetic innovation. For him, the radical form is only one ingredient in the revolutionary film.

Formal experimentation must also take place in the context of radical political commitment.53 According to him, ―formal research without political thrust is impotent, while political messages wrapped in bourgeois forms communicate only alienation.‖54 In his

1967-manifesto entitled ―The Tricontinental Filmmaker: That Is Called the Dawn,‖ Rocha criticizes formal research that is not combined with political ambition:

All other discourses that is not politically committed is beautiful but inoffensive;

rational, but somehow fatigued; reflexive, but impotent; ‗cinematic,‘ but useless.

Lyricism is born with simple speech that flies in the wind; however, it gets

immediately structured into passive form in a sterile conspiracy. As Regis Debray has

commented, it is verbs, not nouns that give things substance.55

52 Cited in Burnes Saint Patrick Hollyman, Glauber Rocha and The Cinema Nôvo: A Study of His Critical Writings and Films (New York/London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1983), 67.

53 Ibid., 88.

54 Cited in Randal Johnson and Robert Stam, eds. Brazilian Cinema (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 76.

55 Ibid., 182. 23

These competing viewpoints on political cinema shed light on the myriad issues and debates inspired by this term. Differences of opinion remain regarding the appropriate form of political cinema and the particular qualities that mark a film as revolutionary. But film theorists are in agreement that a politically-critical or a revolutionary film must intercept the dominant ideology through the conscious deconstruction of the dominant forms of representation. There is a marked consistency in the way that film theorists and directors stress that any consideration of political cinema must involve a scrutiny of, not only filmic content, but also filmic form. Their viewpoints also indicate that a political film should contain political thrust and seek to promote a critical consciousness of the underlying causes of social and political problems. Such notions of a political cinema are in line with the concept of Third Cinema which exemplifies overtly political, anti- establishment filmmaking critical of all forms of oppression. Third Cinema theory is the only major theory and filmmaking practice that did not originate within a Euro-American context. Mike Wayne considers Third Cinema as ―the most advanced and sophisticated body of political films which the medium has produced to date.‖56 Anthony Guneratne notes: ―No other theory of cinema is so imbued with historical specificities, none so specific in its ideological orientation, and yet none so universal in its claims to represent the highest aspirations of a post-colonial world in the throes of resisting Neocolonialism.‖57

What Third Cinema adds to these contesting notions concerning political cinema is an emphasis on historical and cultural specificities. Bengali politically-oriented films are deeply rooted in their socio-historical contexts. Therefore, Third Cinema theory is of considerable

56 Wayne, 1.

57 Anthony R. Guneratne, ―Introduction: Rethinking Third Cinema,‖ in Rethinking Third Cinema, eds. Anthony R. Guneratne and Wimal Dissanayake (New York/London: Routledge, 2003), 7. 24

relevance to a study of Bengali political films. The following section provides a survey of

Third Cinema theory, which is used as the main theoretical basis for my study.

Third Cinema Theory: A Conceptual Framework

The term ―Third Cinema‖ was first used by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino in their critical ruminations on their revolutionary documentary La Hora de Los Hornos. Solanas and

Getino made this semi-clandestine, subversive documentary in 1968. The film was made in the wake of the 1966 military coup. Criticizing the neo-colonialist ideology, political repression and the media‘s conformity to the status quo, the directors in their ―ideological- political film‖ put forward the idea of a revolutionary struggle ―on class terms against the

Argentine bourgeois ruling class and the capitalist system and ideology.‖58 In the four-hour documentary, the Argentine directors synthesized diverse styles and conventions of avant- garde, direct cinema, fiction and documentary and made use of photographs, newsreel, real footage and film clips for conveying their revolutionary messages. At various stages during the film‘s production, the directors showed some of the film‘s footage to the militant groups actively involved in the revolutionary activities. This generated discussions between different revolutionary groups. In the words of James Roy MacBean, the film thus,

―inserted itself in the revolutionary praxis, and the revolutionary praxis inserted itself in the

58 Fernando Solanas, ―Cinema as a Gun: An Interview with Fernando Solanas,‖ Cineaste 3, no. 2 (Fall 1969), 20; Macbean, 188. 25

film, causing the film-makers to rethink again and again their conception of the film and their conception of the revolution.‖59

The successful completion of La Hora de los Hornos under hostile circumstances prompted the directors to write their militant manifesto ―Towards a Third Cinema.‖ In the manifesto, they stressed the need for a politicized, decolonizing cinema that would be antithetical to the aesthetics of both Hollywood cinema and European filmmaking. They define Third

Cinema as a ―cinema that recognizes in the [anti-imperialist] struggle the most gigantic cultural, scientific, and artistic manifestation of our time, the great possibility of constructing a liberated personality with each people as the starting point – in a word, the decolonization of culture.‖60 They equate Third Cinema with a gun. For them, in Third Cinema

―the camera is the inexhaustible expropriator of image-weapons; the projector, a gun that can shoot

24 frames per second.‖61 This aspiration marked a complete break from the traditional ways of conceiving the role of cinematic representation. This radical cinema is also fully committed to making a stand against all forms of oppression and inequality. Thus, Third Cinema was considered as an instrument for political action and social transformation.

59 Macbean, 184.

60 Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, ―Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World,‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices and Transcontinental Articulations, Volume One, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 37, original emphasis.

61 Cited in Martin, 50, original emphasis. 26

In their manifesto, distinctions are also drawn between Third Cinema and First and Second

Cinemas. First Cinema is equated with industrial cinema of Hollywood and all other international films mimicking conventions of Hollywood spectacle. For them, First Cinema is surplus value cinema which only satisfies the ideological and economic interests of the owners of the . They describe the audience for First Cinema as passive, complacent consumers of the ideology and values disseminated by the dominant sections of the society.62 For Solanas and Getino, the first viable alternative to Hollywood-type commercial cinema was auteur cinema which is defined as Second Cinema. European Art

Cinema and other new cinemas fall within the rubric of Second cinema where the filmmaker ―is free to express himself in non-standard language and inasmuch as it is an attempt at cultural decolonization.‖63 But the Argentinian directors claim that Second

Cinema is unable to subvert the system because it does not mobilize the audience for direct political action. Echoing the words of Godard, Solanas and Getino said that the auteurs remain ―trapped inside the fortress,‖ and, at best, Second Cinema is ―the progressive wing of establishment cinema.‖64 Second Cinema‘s emphasis on nihilistic and mystifying film language serves to cut the spectator off from reality and the processes of cultural and political decolonization.

For Solanas and Getino, real alternatives to the politically innocuous films offered by the system are only possible if one of two basic requirements is fulfilled: ―making films that the

62 Ibid., 42.

63 Ibid.

64 Ibid., 34, 42. 27

System cannot assimilate and which are foreign to its needs, or making films that directly and explicitly set out to fight the System.‖65 Third Cinema attempts to subvert and disturb the status-quo by exposing the truth suppressed by the system. Through the unveiling of the repressed truth and the negation of industrial cinema‘s attempt to create unquestioning spectators, Third

Cinema attempts to stimulate discussion about urgent political problems, and to awaken the critical consciousness of the spectator by countering ―the neocolonial misinformation with one of information.‖66 In their manifesto, the Argentinian proponents of Third

Cinema contend that whereas commercial films focus on characters, Third Cinema underscores themes; whereas the commercial industry highlights individuals, Third Cinema draws attention to the masses; whereas the industry stresses the author, Third Cinema emphasizes the operative group; whereas the industry provides escapist entertainment and encourages passivity, Third Cinema appeals to intellect and ensures engagement; whereas the industry produces big-budget spectacles, Third Cinema makes low-budget films. Third

Cinema, thus, makes a conscious attempt to negate the principles of profit-driven cinema.67

In their formulation of a cinema of liberation, Solanas and Getino were greatly influenced by the anti-colonial writings of Frantz Fanon.68 In his 1961 work The Wretched of the Earth

Fanon argues that decolonization does not only refer to the breaking down of the political, social, cultural and economic structure of the colonial system. Decolonization also denotes a change in man‘s consciousness and world view. In his own words:

65 Ibid., 42, original emphasis.

66 Ibid., 56,

67 Ibid.

68 Solanas, ―Cinema as a Gun: An Interview with Fernando Solanas,‖ 20. 28

Decolonization is quite simply the replacing of a certain ―species‖ of men by another

―species‖ of men. Decolonization influences individuals and modifies them

fundamentally. It transforms spectators crushed with their inessentiality into privileged

actors, with the grandiose glare of history‘s floodlights upon them. It brings a natural

rhythm into existence, introduced by new men, and with it a new language and a new

humanity. Decolonization is the veritable creation of new men. But this creation owes

nothing of its legitimacy to any supernatural power; the ―thing‖ which has been

colonized becomes man during the same process by which it frees itself.69

For Fanon, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. It occurs after a decisive confrontation between the oppressor and the oppressed. Fanon avers that violence acts as a cleansing force for the oppressed: ―It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.‖70

Similarly, Solanas and Getino state that the cinema of revolution should entail both destruction and construction: ―Destruction of the image that neocolonialism has created of itself and of us, and construction of a throbbing, living reality which recaptures truth in any of its expressions.‖71 Third Cinema contributes to the destruction of what the authors refer to as ―the ideas and models of the enemy to be found inside each one of us.‖72 Thus, whereas the industry aims at the old kind of human being, Third Cinema offers, as Solanas and Getino state, ―a cinema fit for a new kind of human being, for what each one of us has

69 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1966), 29-30.

70 Ibid., 73.

71 Cited in Martin, 46.

72 Ibid., 56. 29

the possibility of becoming.‖73 Echoing the ideas of Fanon, Glauber Rocha asserts in his

1965 manifesto ―An Esthetic of Hunger‖ that violence is a cultural manifestation of hunger. He stresses that Brazilian new films should embrace concepts of violence both on the levels of style and content. The expression of violence in Brazilian Cinema Novo films, according to Rocha, is revolutionary because it ensures ―action and transformation‖ rather than ―complacency or contemplation.‖74

In Third Cinema, the rejection of the artistic quality or technique is also understood as having political implications. In his seminal essay ―For an Imperfect Cinema,‖ Julio García

Espinosa argues that technically and artistically perfect cinema is almost always a reactionary cinema. He advocates an imperfect cinema which ―can be created equally well with a Mitchell or with an 8mm camera.‖75 For Espinosa, an imperfect cinema would highlight folk art and it would find its themes in the problems of the people who struggle.

He argues that if American cinema was ―born to entertain,‖ and if European cinema was

―born to make art,‖ Latin American cinema ―was born for political activism.‖76 Criticizing the self-sufficient, contemplative cinema Espinosa avers that an imperfect cinema would

―show the process which generates the problems.‖77 By this statement, he is referring to the importance of exposing the underlying causes of social problems. In order to do this, it is

73 Ibid.

74 Glauber Rocha, ―An Esthetic of Hunger,‖ in Brazilian Cinema, eds. Randal Johnson and Robert Stam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 70.

75 Julio García Espinosa, ―For an Imperfect Cinema,‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices and Transcontinental Articulations, Volume One, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 82.

76 Robert Stam, Film Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), 97.

77 Julio García Espinosa, 81, emphasis added. 30

necessary to display commitment and to take a firm stand. Thus, this cinema is a partisan cinema. As Espinosa notes: ―A new poetics for the cinema will, above all, be a ‗partisan‘ and ‗committed‘ poetics, a ‗committed‘ art, a consciously and resolutely ‗committed‘ cinema

– that is to say, an ‗imperfect‘ cinema.‖78 Third Cinema thus underscores a resolute commitment to a position or a cause. Third Cinema‘s emphasis on appealing to the emotion as well as intellect shows that this commitment does not correspond to propaganda. ―Commitment to a cause, even unequivocal commitment,‖ Wayne says, ―is not the same as suspending your critical faculties; it is not the same as dogma.‖79 Third cinema rejects unquestioning and passive spectatorship. Instead of encouraging the spectator‘s complacency, it poses critical questions about reality‘s problems. In doing that,

Third Cinema seeks to provide an opportunity for dialogue and thus aims to foster intellectual and active engagement of the audience. Third Cinema attempts to strengthen the spectator‘s revolutionary consciousness through dialogues and questions, not by resorting to dogmatic means.

It is necessary not to mistake Third Cinema for films produced only in Third World countries. First, Second and Third Cinemas do not signify geographical areas, but

―institutional structures/working practices, associated aesthetic strategies and their attendant cultural politics.‖80 Commercial films that imitate the operations of established or

First Cinema are produced in many Third World nations, whereas politically-subversive

78 Ibid., 79.

79 Ibid.

80 Wayne, 6. 31

films are made in the First World. In their manifesto, Solanas and Getino mention as examples of militant cinema films made by Chris Marker and Joris Ivens, works produced by British student movements and film collectives such as Newsreel in the US, the cinegiornali in Italy, Etats Généraux du Cinéma Français in France. According to Gabriel: ―the principal characteristic of Third Cinema is really not so much where it is made, or even who makes it, but, rather, the ideology it espouses and the consciousness it displays.‖81 There is also a tendency to equate Third Cinema with militant, clandestine cinema because Solanas and

Getino placed emphasis on in their original manifesto. However, in their subsequent writings, Solanas and Getino revised their original concept of Third

Cinema. They defined the term more clearly, pointing out its difference from the militant or guerrilla cinema. As Jonathan Buchsbaum says, Solanas and Getino did not let the manifesto rest as a final document.82 In their later elaborations, militant cinema is referred to as an internal category of Third Cinema. It is considered to be the most advanced category of Third Cinema. According to Getino, militant cinema is used to complement or support of a specific politics, and of the organizations that endorse it.83 From the late

1970s, the term Third Cinema was used more loosely and broadly by the film theorists.84 In

1978, Solanas said in a discussion published in the French journal CinémAction:

What determines Third Cinema is the conception of the world, and not the or

an explicitly political approach. Any story, any subject can be taken up by Third

81 Gabriel, 2.

82 Jonathan Buchsbaum, ―A Closer Look at Third Cinema,‖ Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 21, no. 2 (2001): 156.

83 Cited in Buchsbaum, ―One, Two… Third Cinemas,‖ Third Text 25, no. 1 (2011): 27.

84 Scott Cooper, ―Complexities and Contradictions of Political Filmmaking in the South,… and of Writing on the Subject in the North,‖ Quarterly Review of Film and Video 13, no.1 (1991): 275. 32

Cinema. In the dependent countries Third Cinema is a cinema of decolonization,

which expresses the will to national liberation, anti-mythic, anti-racist, anti-bourgeois

and popular.85

In spite of their emphasis on cinematic decolonization, this definition of Third Cinema does not restrict the term only to militant or guerrilla filmmaking. As Martin Stollery points out, ―in certain circumstances militant filmmaking is called for; in other circumstances a more expansive conception of Third Cinema is appropriate.‖86 In his important book on

Third Cinema entitled ―Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation‖ published in 1979, film scholar Teshome H. Gabriel also does not relate Third Cinema to clandestine, guerrilla filmmaking. He considers films ―with social relevance and innovative style and, above all, with political and ideological overtones‖ as the products of Third

Cinema. For him, films which are not explicitly ideological but document the oppression and suffering of the masses are also integral to Third Cinema.87 Thus, films made with a political intent but not in a militant vein are also considered as Third Cinema films.

The Style of Third Cinema

My study will examine if Bengali political films are informed by the formal strategies used in Third Cinema, so I intend to briefly discuss the style of Third Cinema. Film Scholars

85 Cited in Martin Stollery, ―Another Look at Third Cinema,‖ Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 22, no. 2 (2002): 205.

86 Ibid.

87 Gabriel, 3. 33

indicate Third Cinema‘s preference for a new film style and experimental language in order to convey their ideological messages.88 Sanjinés notes: ―Since ours was a cinema which wanted to develop parallel to historical evolution, but which sought also to influence the historical process and to extract its constitutive elements, it could no longer confine itself to conventional forms and structures. Such content demanded a complementary form which would break with traditional molds.‖89 In an interview, Solanas states that a film cannot be decolonized if it does not decolonize its language.90 Their manifesto also emphasizes the need for formal experimentation in Third Cinema:

The existence of a revolutionary cinema is inconceivable without the constant and

methodical exercise of practice, search, and experimentation. It even means

committing the new filmmaker to take chances on the unknown, to leap into space at

times, exposing himself to failure as does the guerrilla who travels along paths that he

himself opens up with machete blows. The possibility of discovering and inventing

film forms and structures that serve a more profound vision of our reality resides in

the ability to place oneself on the outside limits of the familiar, to make one‘s way

amid constant dangers.91

88 See Cynthia Ramsey, ―Third Cinema in Latin America: Critical Theory in Recent Works,‖ Latin American Research Review 23, no. 1 (1988): 266; Michael Chanan, ―The Changing Geography of Third Cinema,‖ Screen 38, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 372.

89 Cited in Julianne Burton, ―The Camera as ‗Gun‘: Two Decades of Culture and Resistance in Latin America,‖ Latin American Perspectives: Issue 16, vol. 5 no. 1 (Winter 1978): 63.

90 Solanas, ―Cinema as a Gun,‖ 21.

91 Cited in Martin, 48. 34

Despite this emphasis on formal innovation, Latin American filmmakers do not restrict

Third Cinema to any normative revolutionary form.92 Solanas states that there are 36 different types of Third Cinema.93 For Espinosa, Imperfect cinema includes both documentary and fictional modes: ―It can use whatever genre, or all .‖94 Gabriel asserts that ―Third Cinema includes an infinite variety of subjects and styles, as varied as the lives of the people it portrays.‖95 Third Cinema filmmakers often draw on various modernist techniques such as fragmented narrative, verbal commentaries, the use of documentary footage, episodic structure, the disruption of emotional identification with the characters, and the use of fantasy and open-ended narratives. Third Cinema places a special emphasis on using film language based on indigenous artistic elements. Rocha states that revolutionary ideas have to be communicated through the use of ―popular cultural imagery assembled in new but immediately recognizable forms.‖96 In his well-known film Black God,

White Devil (1964), Rocha utilizes complicated cinematic techniques such as elliptical editing, fractured narrative and alienation method. The film also highlights Brazilian mythic figures, folk music, popular memory and oral history. Yet another important stylistic trait of Third Cinema is its emphasis on collective protagonists. ―When a central character is used,‖ Gabriel writes, ―the viewpoint goes beyond that of the individual to develop a sense of the relationship between the individual and the community, of the collective, and of history.‖97 Gabriel points out that Third Cinema cannot be seen simply as a ―collection of

92 Cited in Buchsbaum, ―One, Two… Three Cinemas,‖ 24-25.

93 Cited in Willemen, 9.

94 Cited in Martin, 81.

95 Gabriel, 3.

96 Cited in Hollyman, 91.

97 Ibid., 24. 35

imagery.‖98 Meanwhile, Littin‘s remark about the features of his own films indicates the preferred style of Third Cinema: ―I don‘t make an individualist and psychological cinema. I relate a collective fight in which the individual keeps his importance but in function of the collective fight. Everyone involved in the film participates politically in its creation.‖99

Santiago Alvarez, Cuba‘s most prominent documentary filmmaker, endorses the use of traditional narrative techniques in revolutionary films:

A good example is a recent film, El Hombre de Maisinicu, which has been a big success.

It is a film which tells the story of people from the Ministry of the Interior who

infiltrate behind the lines of the counter-revolutionaries and it is a film which has, let

us say, a conventional structure. But the success of this film tells us that we don‘t

always have to use new forms to express revolutionary values, we can use traditional

techniques to do it. Traditional cultural elements have a value at a certain point; we

don‘t have to catalog or label and say that the conventional can never be used.

Innovation results from making traditional forms valuable, by revitalizing them.100

Alvarez‘s comment about revitalizing the traditional cinematic forms in the service of revolutionary cinema draws attention to the fact that it is possible to use First and Second

Cinema languages in Third Cinema by sufficiently transforming them. Gabriel asserts that

98 Ibid., 38.

99 Ibid., 39.

100 Gary Crowdus, ―5 Frames Are 5 Frames, Not 6, But 5: An Interview with Santiago Alvarez,‖ Cineaste 6, no. 4 (Spring 1975): 20. 36

―grey areas‖ exist between different types of films. According to him, ―the importance of the grey areas cannot be over-emphasised, for not only do they concretely demonstrate the process of becoming but they also attest to the multi-faceted nature of Third World cinema and the need for the development of new critical canons.‖101 Mike Wayne asserts that Third

Cinema should also be understood in terms of its dialectical relationship with first and second cinemas:

The great advantage of Third Cinema is that while it is politically oppositional to

dominant cinema (and Second Cinema), it does not seek, at the level of form and

cinematic language, to reinvent cinema from scratch (it is too interested in history for

that); nor does it adopt a position of pure opposition on the question of form (it is too

interested in communication for that); instead, its relation to First and Second Cinema

is dialectical: i.e. it seeks to transform rather than simply reject these cinemas.102

The Battle of Algiers straddles three cinemas in that it includes the format of (a first cinema device), the director‘s worldview (a second cinema approach) and a depiction of an armed struggle (a major Third Cinema theme). However, Wayne also says that, despite a film‘s use of the conventions associated with all three cinemas, the film may finally be considered as primarily a First, Second or a Third Cinema film. A Third Cinema film or a revolutionary film is produced with an intention of making an intervention into a crisis situation to awaken a revolutionary consciousness. The explicit political outlook of Third

Cinema makes it different from films belonging to the two other strands. Although the

101 Teshome H. Gabriel, ―Towards a Critical Theory of Third World Films,‖ in Questions of Third Cinema, eds., Jim Pines and Paul Willemen (London: British Film Institue, 1989), 35, original emphasis.

102 Wayne, 10. 37

proponents of Third Cinema stress the need for innovative style, they do not prescribe a particular set of aesthetic work norms. These authors, Willemen points out, ―broadly agree about which aesthetic forms are not appropriate or are even damaging, but they also refuse to identify a particular formal strategy as the only way to achieve the activation of a revolutionary consciousness.‖103 Solanas and Getino also assert: ―What defines the revolutionary act in fact is not the form in which it is expressed, but the transformative role that it reaches in a specific circumstances in a strategy of liberation.‖104

My study holds the view that no particular stylistic approach can be identified as the most suitable form for a politically-critical film aiming to stimulate people for social change and political liberation. It defines politically-critical or revolutionary cinema in the light of the following statement by Solanas and Getino: ―Revolutionary cinema is not fundamentally one which illustrates, documents, or passively establishes a situation; rather it attempts to intervene in the situation as an element providing thrust or rectification. It [revolutionary cinema] is not just testimonial cinema or communication cinema, but above all action cinema.‖105 I will consider those films as politically-critical which counteract conventions of commercially-motivated cinema, which are aesthetically-innovative, thematically-radical, grapple with contemporary reality, appear as stinging indictments of social injustice and political oppression, and attempt to awaken a political or revolutionary consciousness. It is with this understanding of a politically-critical film that this study examines how socially-

103 Willemen, 6-7.

104 Cited in Buchsbaum, ―A Closer Look at Third Cinema,‖ 160.

105 Cited in Buchsbaum, ―One, Two… Third Cinemas,‖ 26. 38

conscious Bengali directors use cinema as an instrument of political action. Through the case studies of four politically-oriented Bengali films, this thesis investigates how those films adhere to, or differ from, the models of political or revolutionary cinema. The study also aims to create a deeper understanding of how Bengali politically-committed films are in conversation with Third Cinema.

The first chapter of the thesis provides a historiography of politically-committed filmmaking in West Bengal and Bangladesh. The chapter introduces the themes and forms of Bengali politically-oriented films made by native filmmakers in different decades.

Chapter two examines Mrinal Sen‘s Calcutta 71, made in the aftermath of the Naxalite rebellion. Sen is widely acknowledged as the pioneer of left-wing political cinema in India.

The chapter analyses how he takes a position in this film and provides his messages from a partisan perspective in order to denunciate existing social and political problems. Through the analysis of various filmic devices used in the film, I will examine how the director attempts to arouse the spectator‘s anger at unjust social circumstances. Chapter three studies Satyajit Ray‘s Pratidwandi, which the director considers his first political film. Ray often came under critical assault for not coming to terms with contemporary problems.

The chapter examines how he attempts to grapple with contemporary reality in his politically-critical film, which stands in marked contrast to Calcutta 71 because the director highlights the personal protest of his protagonist against the prevailing injustices rather than showing the collective protest of the people. My examination of Pratidwandi is intended to show that there are different types of political film. The analysis of this film will also demonstrate that it is possible to powerfully critique social injustices without using

39

any overt ideological comment. Chapter four examines Zahir Raihan‘s Jiban Theke Neya, one of the most provocative political films in the history of Bangladeshi cinema. Made against the backdrop of tremendous public discontent in East Pakistan against the authoritarian rule of Pakistan, it provides trenchant criticisms of the government through a metaphorical story. The Government tried to ban the film in its production stage but, at length, it was released. The chapter explores how this film, made under military rule, sets out to fight the system and thus retain traits of militant cinema. In marked contrast to the two films analysed in chapters two and three, Jiban Theke Neya uses various techniques common in commercial cinema. I will examine how the director transforms these first cinema elements in the service of his politically-critical cinema, and also how some of these popular cinema devices appear as revolutionary instruments to inspire people in their struggle for political liberation.

Chapter five looks at Tareque Masud‘s Matir Moina, a Bangladeshi film critical of religious . Islamist extremism became a major problem in Bangladesh from the middle of the 1990s onwards. It is therefore difficult to make a film in Bangladesh addressing religious dogmatism because religion has always been a sensitive issue there.

This film was initially banned by the Government on the grounds that it might hurt people‘s religious sentiments. The chapter analyses the director‘s attempt to raise public awareness of an urgent problem through the use of allegory, and aims to show how a film made in the age of globalization and transnational capitalism are in creative dialogue with

Third Cinema. The radical mood evident in Third World countries in the 1960s started to wane from the mid-1970s, following the death of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967, the

40

failure to spread socialist revolution outside Cuba, the state of emergency declared in India in 1975, and the establishment of the right-wing military regimes in a number of Third

World countries such as , Bangladesh and Chile. The decline of the revolutionary zeal is also reflected in politically-critical filmmaking in Third World countries. Bengali socially-critical films made from the middle of the 1970s did not have the angry tone that characterized those made earlier in the decade.

In 1996, at a British Film Institute-sponsored conference on African cinema, the British filmmaker John Akomfrah declared that Third Cinema was dead.106 No disagreement was voiced at the time. The question arises as to whether or not the Third Cinema can remain useful as a critical filmmaking practice to awaken a political consciousness of the oppressed people in this age of neo-liberalism, corporate capitalism and virtual reality. Since the

1990s, only three influential books have been published on Third Cinema: Mike Wayne‘s

Political Film: The Dialectics of Third Cinema (2001), Anthony R. Guneratne and Wimal

Dissanayake‘s Rethinking Third Cinema (2003) and Frieda Ekotto and Adeline Koh‘s

Rethinking Third Cinema: The Role of Anti-Colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity (2009).

In his book, Wayne refutes Akomfrah‘s assertion that Third Cinema is dead. Contemporary situations marked by increasing globalization and consumerism barely resemble the

―revolutionary conjunctures from which Third Cinema emerges.‖107 But for Wayne,

―inspiration, political tradition and memory are the umbilical cord that nourishes Third

106 Wayne, 2.

107 Ibid., 8. 41

Cinema in a time of reaction and barbarism.‖108 In two other books, film scholars also put forward the idea that Third Cinema continues to be produced throughout the world in different forms. This thesis concurs with these claims. Therefore, the final case study of this dissertation examines Matir Moina, a political film made in 2002 in order to show the legacy of politically-committed filmmaking in the realm of Bengali cinema. The analysis of this film will also demonstrate the attributes of a Bengali Third-Cinema inspired film, in the words of Mike Wayne, ―made in conditions which are temporally and spatially distant from revolutionary conjunctures.‖109 Using these case studies from West Bengal and Bangladesh,

I examine how these Bengali films fall within the rubric of politically-critical cinema. These films are grounded in their historical contexts. Therefore, the case study chapters provide socio-political contexts of these Bengali films.

Third Cinema and Third World films were ignored for a long time by Western film theory.

Robert Stam notes: ―When not ignored, Third World cinema was treated with condescension, as if it were merely the subaltern shadow of the real cinema of North

America and Europe.‖110 In the 1980s and 1990s, Third World films and theory began to attract scholarly inquiry and several books were published on films produced in different

Third World countries. However, Politically-committed cinema produced in West Bengal and Bangladesh has not received much critical attention by film scholars. Only a handful of

English books have emerged so far on Indian new cinema, which exemplifies politically-

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid.

110 Stam, Film Theory: An Introduction, 281. 42

committed filmmaking, and remains neglected by both Indian and Western film scholars, despite several books having been penned on Indian commercial cinema. Anthony

Guneratne writes:

The Indian films which pertained most to Third Cinema grew out of the New Indian

Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. It is one of the important cinemas neglected by

Western criticism – this even though the films produced by these radical filmmakers

outnumber those of the Nouvelle Vague and the combined; the

New Indian Cinema also constitutes a superb illustration all the difficulties and

contradictions that filmmakers and film critics encountered and continue to encounter

wherever Third Cinema has come into being.111

There is no work in English on the films of Zahir Raihan and Tareque Masud, or the other alternative filmmakers in Bangladesh. Even in Bangladesh, only a handful of Bengali books have been written thus far on these directors‘ canons. I suspect Jiban Theke Neya, a film that can be held up as an important example of the cinema of decolonization outlined by Third

Cinema proponents, is still unknown outside Bangladesh. A number of books exist on the films by Ray, Sen and Ghatak. But in these, politically-charged films made by the auteurs are not thoroughly analysed within the theoretical framework of political cinema or Third

Cinema. Therefore, there is no comprehensive study to critically examine the characteristics of politically-critical Bengali films made in Bangladesh and West Bengal. My study will attempt to fill this gap.

111 Anthony R. Guneratne, ―Introduction: Rethinking Third Cinema,‖ 20. 43

CHAPTER ONE

Bengali Politically-Committed Cinema: A Historiography

This chapter will trace the development of politically-committed cinema in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Bengali commercial films sometimes present social problems such as poverty, corruption and exploitation. But films that appear to be strong indictments of social and political injustices are produced by Bengali filmmakers working outside the commercial film industry. Instead of emphasizing entertainment, the makers of these alternative, politically-aware films attempt to engage with urgent social and political issues in order to use cinema as a medium of social and political comment. Part Two of this thesis will examine four politically-oriented Bengali films made by Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray,

Zahir Raihan and Tareque Masud. Apart from these directors, a good number of Bengali filmmakers, both in West Bengal and Bangladesh, have also used cinema as an instrument for denouncing social injustice and making overt political statements. The purpose of this chapter is to situate the films that are analysed in my case studies as part of this larger context. Through the historical overview of the socially-purposive cinema in West Bengal and Bangladesh, the chapter will provide an understanding of the key thematic and formal characteristics of Bengali politically-oriented films.

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Although the masses are the main target-audience of Indian commercial films, these films do not attempt to develop a critical consciousness of the social and political problems faced by the public. On the contrary, they prioritize entertainment and financial profit. The emphasis on various lighthearted and entertaining elements serves to trivialize any comments incorporated in these films about social injustice. Middle cinema is another genre that has become popular in India. In her PhD dissertation entitled ―The Rhetoric of

Postcolonialism: Indian Middle Cinema and the Middle Class in the 1990s,‖ Radharani Ray describes Middle Cinema as ―middle of the road films that bridged the gap between the esoteric artistry of the offbeat cinema and the vulgar extravagance of the mainstream.‖112

Middle Cinema confronts contemporary social and political issues. But certain attributes of commercial cinema such as alluring song sequences, popular actors and actresses, lavish locations, melodramatic style of acting are also used, albeit moderately, in Middle Cinema.

Films made by Indian filmmaker can be regarded as Middle Cinema films.

Mani Ratnam tried to tackle issues of and communalism in three of his features titled Roja (1992), Bombay (1995) and Dil Se (1998). While the director deals with political themes, these films mainly revolve around personal drama and draw on stylistic devices of commercial cinema such as song and dance sequences, popular stars and melodramatic depictions. The depictions of stark realities in these films have mellowed due to the deployment of showy stylistic devices. When asked why he did not examine the political issues more deeply in these films, Mani Ratnam said:

I am trying to look at the humanist angle. The political angle is in the background.

What fascinates me is the man who is caught in between, the human plight in these

112 Radharani Ray, ―The Rhetoric of Postcolonialism: Indian Middle Cinema and the Middle Class in the 1990s,‖ PhD dissertation, University of Texas, Austin (2001), 55.

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political journeys. I am not trying to do a political essay on the riots or a case study on

Kashmir terrorism. I would read an editorial for that. Or see a political film or

documentary on these problems. I‘m trying to tell a story. A story about human beings

who get caught in the events around them. I want the viewers to come along with

these characters on their journeys and experience what they went through.113

Because of the lack of formal innovation and dependence on certain showy stylistic devices of commercial cinema to provide entertainment, Middle Cinema films do not fall within the rubric of overtly political and revolutionary films. In my thesis, I will therefore exclude

Middle Cinema films from my discussion of political cinema. In this chapter, I will discuss realistic, formally-innovative, provocative and politically-charged films made in West

Bengal and Bangladesh. Such films are generally made by Bengali filmmakers who work within the realm of artistic, alternative or . Such alternative or new-wave films are regarded by a film scholar as ―India‘s purest forms of Third Cinema.‖114 I consider these films most appropriate for my analysis of Bengali political cinema. This realistic and socially-critical filmmaking was initiated in India by Bengali filmmakers. Mani

Kaul, one of India‘s famous new cinema directors, states that it was Satyajit Ray himself who inspired a Third Cinema in India.115

113 Rashmi Doraiswamy, ―Interview Mani Ratnam: The Way I Tell Stories,‖ Cinemaya, no. 56-57 (2002): 77.

114 Anthony R. Guneratne, ―Introduction: Rethinking Third Cinema,‖ 21.

115 Ibid., 24. 46

The Antecedents of Socially-Conscious Cinema in India

During the 1930s, films produced by the major Indian studios such as New Theatres in

Calcutta, Bombay Talkies in Bombay and Prabhat Studios in Pune contained social messages. Despite their use of alluring audience-attracting devices, these films attempted to deal with contemporary social and moral issues. New Theatres was established by B. N.

Sircar, a civil engineering graduate from the University of London. The productions of the

New Theatres displayed a penchant toward ―aestheticism and cultured self- consciousness.‖116 The studio achieved an all-India box-office success with their 1935 film

Devdas, based on a famous Bengali novel. The majority of Indian films made until that period made extensive use of songs and dances, but Devdas was literary and understated, and thus it became different from contemporary Indian films.117 Bombay Talkies was started by Himansu Rai who was educated in England. Political consciousness was blended with melodrama, glamour and music in the commercial films produced by Bombay Talkies.

Five men from lower middle class backgrounds and having little formal education established the Prabhat Studios and it ultimately became one of the leading studios in the country. Their productions were not marked by the aestheticism seen in the productions of

New Theatres and Bombay Talkies, but they displayed ―an earthiness, a basic-camera-sense and native intelligence‖ which ensured their success all over India.118

116 Film India: Looking Back 1896-1960, ed. Rani Burra (New Delhi: The Directorate of Film Festivals, 1981), 55.

117 Ibid.

118 Ibid., 57. 47

In the 1940s, people in India witnessed traumatic and turbulent political circumstances. In

August 1942, The began when demanded immediate independence from British Government and urged Indians to follow non- violent civil disobedience. The British administration tried to suppress the movement.

Gandhi and many Congress leaders were imprisoned and cut off from the rest of the world for more than three years. Hundreds of protesters and innocent people were killed in police and army shootings.119 In 1943, Bengal suffered a terrible due to the implementation of a scorched earth policy in this region by the British administration in order to prevent a possible Japanese offensive through Burma. The administration stockpiled and exported for British troops. The British army confiscated many boats and other vehicles in East Bengal to prevent the Japanese army from using them to invade

India. Bengali villagers had used these boats for fishing and now also found it difficult to buy rice because the sudden shortage of food had driven up prices – something the civil administration took no effective steps to control. As a result, over five million people died in Bengal during this man-made famine.120 In 1946, both East and West Bengal experienced large-scale Hindu-Muslim riots. Thousands of people were killed by rioters in Calcutta and

Noakhali. In 1947, India became independent and the Partition of Bengal uprooted many

Bengalis, both Hindus and Muslims, from their birthplaces.

119 See Francis G. Hutchins, India’s Revolution: Gandhi and the Quit India Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973); Trevor Royle, The Last Days of the Raj (London: Coronet, 1990); Bipan Chandra, Amlesh Tripathi and Barun De, eds. Freedom Struggle (New Delhi: National Book Trust of India, 1972).

120 See Paul R. Greenough, Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: The Famine of 1943-1944 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1982).

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In 1942, The Indian People‘s Theatre Association (IPTA) was formed in India against the backdrop of the continuing struggle against imperial rule and harsh repression enforced by the British colonial Government. The IPTA was a non-profit, voluntary organization that sought to protest against the social injustices and repression of colonial rule through politically-conscious plays, songs, poetry, ballets and films.121 The organization was left- oriented and widely regarded as the cultural wing of the . The

IPTA‘s first newsletter, entitled ―People‘s Theatre Stars the People,‖ included a draft resolution underlining ―the urgency of organizing a people‘s theatre movement throughout the whole of India as the means of revitalizing the stage and the traditional arts and making them at once the expression and organizer of our people‘s struggle for freedom, cultural progress and economic justice.‖122 The IPTA was the first organized national theatre movement in India, the first collaborative effort of the Indian theatre artists to promote an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist theatre. Erin O‘Donnel notes that the IPTA became ―the first significant reaction to the ‗cheap commercial glamour,‘ ‗pseudo-aesthetic posturing,‘ and

‗sobstuff‘ of the contemporary Indian theater.‖123 Cultural works produced by the IPTA displayed patriotism, sympathy for the oppressed and class-consciousness.124 In 1936, the

Progressive Writers‘ Association (PWA) was also formed in India. Both the PWA and the

IPTA were instrumental in promoting socially-conscious and revolutionary arts in India.

121 Zohra Segal, ―Theatre and Activism in the 1940s,‖ India International Centre Quarterly 24, no. 2/3 (1997): 31.

122 Quoted in Erin Elizabeth O‘Donnel, History, Trauma and Remembering: The Construction of a Postcolonial Bengali Cultural Identity in ’s Films, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago (2009), 33.

123 Ibid.

124 Sarojmohan Mitra, ―Progressive Cultural Movement in Bengal,‖Social Scientist 8, no. 5/6 [ and Aesthetics] (December 1979-January 1980): 118. 49

The artists who belonged to these organizations emphasized radical ideas and new methods to create their artistic works.

Despite the revolutionary enthusiasm in India in the 1940s, Indian films did not make any revolutionary departure from the old forms and old contents. As Moinak Biswas observes:

―Intervention in film was rare: film could not be brought into the project of non- commercial artistic practice so easily, and the structure of the popular film in India has strongly resisted the impulse of such ‗modernization‘.‖125 India also witnessed massive industrialization, beginning after the Second World War. A new group of commercial investors entered the Indian film industry: mainly businessmen who had made money during the war through illegal means. The Journal of the Film Industry described this period:

―With black markets and corruption abounding in the country, businessmen began to think in terms of easy money and quick returns.‖126 These men did not form any studios. Instead, they hired stars, musicians, script-writers and paid them attractive wages. By 1946, many of

India‘s film studios fell into decline. Films with glamorous stars, song-and-dance and formulaic stories began to flood the market. The new producers and distributors only sought commercial benefits, targeting the broadest possible audience. Industrial workers and other migrants to the big city, and the rising propertied class became the main consumers of these commercially-motivated entertainment films. This profit-driven cinema, as Udayan Gupta describes, ―can hardly be oriented towards radical social and

125 Moinak Biswas, ―The City and the Real: Chhinnamul and the Left Cultural Movement in the 1940s,‖ in City Flicks: Indian Cinema and the Urban Experience, ed. Preben Kaarsholm (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2007), 43.

126 Quoted in Raghunath Raina, ―The Context: A Social Cultural Anatomy‖ in Indian Cinema Superbazaar, eds. Aruna Vasudev and Philippe Lenglet (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1983), 11.

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political change. It is, by its very composition, anti-revolutionary and an instrument of stability and order. Its aim is to suppress popular awakening and it works towards reinforcing the capitalist ethic.‖127

In the 1940s, however, a handful of politically-motivated films were made in India. In

1946, two nationalist features were made in Calcutta – Ardhendu Mukherji‘s Sangram (The

Struggle) and S.B. Banerji‘s Vande Mataram (Salute to the Mother). In March 1947, just five months before India gained its independence, Pather Dabi (Demand for a Way) – a radical, anti-British novel by famous Bengali novelist Sharat Chandra Chatterjee – was filmed and shown in Calcutta. India won its independence from British rule on 15 August, 1947. To celebrate the occasion another nationalist film, Swapno-O-Sadhana (Dream and

Commitment), was shown in Calcutta at midnight on 15 August. However, these films enjoyed little success.128 Two other 1946 films with political overtones: Dharti Ke

(Children of the Earth) by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and (Low Life) by Chetan

Anand, achieved greater recognition as socially-conscious films. was produced in Mumbai by the IPTA and based on a famous IPTA play about the Bengal Famine of

1943. The film provided criticisms of the causes of this man-made dearth. It became the first Indian film to be released in theatres in the USSR. Neecha Nagar was also made in

Mumbai with the support of the IPTA. Both of these films, according to Chidananda Das

Gupta, ―were worthy attempts somewhat flawed by a penchant for operatic and theatrical

127 Ibid.

128 Bibekananda Ray, ―India‘s Political Cinema,‖ Cinema India-International 4, no. 1 (1987): 10.

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stylization, which prevented the cinematic realism their directors sought, from emerging fully.‖129

Nemai Ghosh‘s first feature Chhinnamul (The Uprooted, 1951) was another attempt to deal with contemporary social circumstances. Several artists belonging to the IPTA were involved with the production of this film. Some of the well-known members of the IPTA also acted in this film. Two of them are Bijan Bhattacharya and Ritwik Ghatak. Bijan

Bhattacharya‘s famous play (Harvest, 1944) heralded ―the era of in

Indian theatre and signalled off the IPTA.‖130 Ghatak also found in Chhinnamul inspiration for his attempts in following years to make films addressing social and political problems.

Chhinnamul depicted the plight of people who came to West Bengal from East Pakistan as

Partition refugees. The film depicted their deep pain over being uprooted from their homeland and their struggle for a miserable existence in a new place. Russian filmmaker V.

I. Pudovkin watched this film during his visit in Calcutta and commented afterward, ―here

I see your country, your people.‖131

In October 1947, Satyajit Ray, Chidananda Das Gupta and a group of film buffs founded the Calcutta Film Society with a view to disseminating serious film culture. According to

Das Gupta, ―in no time it turned into a movement that was to spread all over the country,

129 Chidananda Das Gupta, Seeing is Believing: Selected Writings on Cinema (New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008), 78.

130 Moinak Biswas, 41.

131 Quoted in Bibekananda Ray, Conscience of the Race, 9. 52

providing a new impetus to film viewing, film criticism and, eventually, to film-making.‖132

From the late 1940s through to the 1950s, the Calcutta Film Society provided opportunities for many young film enthusiasts to see and develop a critical understanding of important films produced across the world. As Das Gupta observes:

Although it began as a small group and remained so until 1956, the Society made a lot

of noise. Poets and painters came to its shows; its discussion meeting generated heat;

its outspoken criticism of the film industry attracted attention and counterattack. It

exposed a small but vocal and influential audience to examples of world cinema which

had not been seen before, and when seen, created instant impact.133

In 1948, the Calcutta Film Society managed to obtain a copy of Sergei Eisenstein‘s Battleship

Potemkin (1925) – one of the most influential political films of all time. The screening of the film left a profound impression on its viewers.134 The famous French filmmaker Jean

Renoir came to Calcutta in 1949 for the shooting of his film The River, and many members of the Film Society, including Satyajit Ray, took the opportunity to interact closely with

Renoir. Two years later, a Russian delegation of filmmakers led by V. I. Pudovkin and

Nikolai Cherkassov visited India and Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak met them.

Influence of Soviet cinema was later seen in Ghatak‘s films from the 1950s onwards.

132 Das Gupta, Seeing is Believing, 84.

133 Chidananda Das Gupta, Talking About Films (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1981), 97.

134 Das Gupta, Seeing is Believing, 85.

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In 1952, an international film festival was held for the first time in India. It started in

Mumbai and later in the same year travelled to Chennai, Delhi and Calcutta. Indian audiences were able to watch some of the famous Italian, French and Japanese films. Akira

Kurosawa‘s (1950) and important Italian neo-realist films such as Roberto

Rossellini‘s Rome, Open City (1945) and Vittorio De Sica‘s Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Miracle in

Milan (1951) were shown in the festival. The influence of the Italian neo-realist style was later evident in the works of Indian art filmmakers. Bimal Roy, a filmmaker who had migrated to Mumbai from Calcutta and introduced a Bengali style of filmmaking there through his slow and meditative films, relied heavily on Italian neo-realistic aesthetics in his

1953 feature entitled Do Bigha Zamin (Two Acres of Land).135 The film tells the story of a

Bengali peasant who visits Calcutta to earn money in order to retrieve his two acres of land from a powerful money-lending landlord. There he becomes a rickshaw-puller and undergoes severe hardship. Still, he is unable to repay the loan and later a factory is built on his land. Through its rejection of showiness and song-and-dance sequences, Do Bigha Zamin stylistically made a departure from the Indian conventional cinema. As Das gupta says:

―The film broke many conventions and heralded the new language of cinema that Satyajit

Ray was to fashion from Pather Panchali onwards.‖136

In addition to those mentioned thus far, some other Indian filmmakers such as Mehboob

Khan, , K. Subrahamanyam, , Guru Dutt, Mohan Saigal, Hrishikesh

Mukherjee, Sunil Dutt, Ramu Kariat and many more also conveyed social messages

135 Ibid., 82.

136 Ibid., 82-83.

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through their films instead of providing only entertainment. But filmmakers attempting to make socially-conscious films before the release of Satyajit Ray‘s groundbreaking first feature Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, 1955) displayed, in the words of film scholar Satish Bahadur, ―an inadequate understanding of the specifics of the film medium resulting in a heavy dependence on the methods of the theatre. For most of them, the cinema was a device of filming what was essentially a stageplay.‖137 He points out that the breakthrough came with Pather Panchali which, as he puts it, ―was completely different from any earlier Indian films in concept, imagery, intensity of feeling and in the use of the medium.‖138 Ray‘s film marked an epoch in the development of artistically-innovative and socially-conscious filmmaking in India. In 1952, Ritwik Ghatak made his debut film

Nagarik (The Citizen), a film that explored the perpetual miseries of a middle-class family in

Calcutta. In later years, the struggles of middle class families against the harsh circumstances of the city became a recurrent theme in many off-beat films produced in

West Bengal and Bangladesh. In his first film, Ghatak provided a pitiless depiction of poverty, frustration and the suffering of the underprivileged struggling for survival in a big city. Ghatak considered his first film a political statement. According to Shoma A.

Chatterji, shows Calcutta as a victimizer of its people. At the same time, Ghatak also presents Calcutta ―as the helpless victim (a) of refugees pouring in by the thousands,

(b) of the galloping poverty, (c) of squalor, which turns the city into a huge drain flowing with human blood, waste and desperation.‖139 Nagarik did not get a distributor when it was

137 Satish Bahadur, ―The Context of Indian Film Culture,‖ in New Indian Cinema, ed. Shampa Banerjee (New Delhi: The Directorate of Film Festivals, 1982), 12.

138 Ibid., 12-13.

139 Shoma A. Chatterji, Ritwik Ghatak: The Celluloid Rebel (New Delhi: Rupa and Co. 2004), 39.

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made. The film was finally released after Ghatak‘s death. In 1977, the film was shown for the first time at the New Empire Theatre in Calcutta. Seeing the film Satyajit Ray remarked that Ghatak would have been considered the pioneer of Indian socially-conscious and neo- realist cinema instead of him if Nagarik had been released in time.140

The Breakthrough by Pather Panchali and the Powerful Presence of Satyajit

Ray‘s Films

In 1948, in an article entitled ―What is wrong with Indian Films‖ published in one of the leading English dailies in Calcutta, Satyajit Ray wrote that, ―the raw material of the cinema is life itself. It is incredible that a country which has inspired so much painting and music and poetry should fail to move the film maker. He has only to keep his eyes open, and his ears. Let him do so.‖141 Although Ray was born and bred in the city, his maiden film reflected his profound awareness of the miserable and poverty-stricken lives of rural poor.

In Pather Panchali, Ray provides a telling portrayal of the joy and sorrow, hope and despair of ordinary human beings. The film also shows the dialectic between the old and the new, between tradition and modernity. The film is the story of a priest‘s family in a village in

Bengal in the 1920s. The impoverished family experiences happiness when a child is born.

The priest travels to different places to earn money in order to support his family. Hope returns amid intense frustration when the priest‘s wife receives a letter from him containing the good news that he has got a new job. But that happiness is short-lived in an

140 Bibekananda Ray, Conscience of the Race, 9.

141 Satyajit Ray, Our Films Their Films (New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited, 1977), 24. 56

impoverished village family in Bengal. From the beginning, the film shows the liveliness of the priest‘s young daughter. But the daughter suddenly becomes ill. On a stormy night her mother struggles to take care of her ailing child. The ramshackle walls of their house cannot protect the poor girl from the cold wind and rain and she dies on her mother‘s lap.

In another poignant scene, we see the priest return home after several months and start showing his wife the presents he has brought for his daughter. Instead of telling him the news of their daughter‘s death, his wife bursts into tears. The priest then realizes the agonizing truth. The end of the film shows their journey toward a new place to change their fortune.

The film provides a stark depiction of poverty deeply rooted in Indian reality. Ray makes the film in a neo-realistic vein by using location-shooting and non-professional actors. The great attention to detail, imaginative use of symbols, and meaningful use of sound and background music serve to distinguish Pather Panchali from the films produced in India until that time. The director emphasizes lyricism, subtlety and understatement. Although the film has a powerful emotional effect, it fully dispenses with the stylistic attributes frequently seen in Indian cinema such as the use of stylized emotions, song and dance formula and popular stars. Instead of using songs performed by professional singers, Ray uses only one song sung ―incomplete in the broken voice of a decrepit old woman.‖142 The old woman is

Chunibala , an 80-year-old former theatre actress. Ray cast her to play the role of Indir

Thakrun, the aunt of the priest‘s children. The background score of the film is composed

142 Chidananda Das Gupta, ―New Indian Cinema – An Analysis of its Separate Identities,‖ in New Indian Cinema, ed. Shampa Banerjee (New Delhi: The Directorate of Film Festivals, 1982), 15.

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by famous Indian musician . The score evokes the serene beauty of rural

Bengal and thus seems completely appropriate for the village setting. Eminent Bengali art filmmaker said: ―Our indebtedness to Ray is such as to be unrepayable. Ever since Pather Panchali was made thirty years ago, generations of filmmakers throughout the land, including my own, have used it as a valuable point of reference and a source of constant inspiration.‖143

Pather Panchali also changed the international perception of Indian cinema. The film was lauded by Western critics, as well as viewers in Europe and in the US. It ran for a record eight months in a Fifth Avenue cinema in New York. In 1955, it won the President‘s Gold

Medal in India and in 1956 it won the prize for ―The Best Human Document‖ at the

Cannes Film Festival. In 1957, Ray‘s second film (The Unvanquished, 1956), a sequel to Pather Panchali, won the prestigious at the .

Ray‘s fifth feature Apur Sansar (, 1959) completed the trilogy. For Stanley

Kauffman, ―(the trilogy) puts him among foremost contemporary directors by reason of a general purity of vision.‖144 Film Quarterly even went as far as to consider Apur Sansar to be

―probably the most important single film made since the introduction of sound.‖145 Ray‘s films thus firmly established the importance of Indian serious cinema on the international film circuit.

143 Buddhadeb Dasgupta, ―Satyajit Ray: Artist of Social Awareness,‖ Splice, no.3 (1987): 31.

144 Quoted in Aruna Vasudev, The New Indian Cinema (New Delhi: Macmillan India Limited, 1986), 14.

145 Quoted in Chandak Sengoopta, ―Satyajit Ray: The Plight of the Third-World Artist,‖ The American Scholar, 62 (Spring 1993): 249. 58

Over a career spanning nearly forty years, Ray made 28 feature films, six documentaries and two shorts. His films explore a variety of themes, but running throughout is his emphasis on modernist values such as education, the family bond, the emancipation of women and the reliance on reason rather than emotion and prejudice. In Aparajito, Apu displays his eagerness to embrace the new. He goes to the big city to take a modern education, leaving his mother alone in the village. In (The Music Room, 1958), Ray shows the decline of feudalism, but he also criticizes the philistinism of the nouveau riche.

Devi (The Goddess, 1960) and (An Enemy of the People, 1989) are strongly critical of religious dogmatism. Kanchanjungha (1962) condemns the unpatriotic and domineering attitude of a wealthy and influential man in Independent India.

(The Holy Man, 1965) and Jai Baba Felunath (The Elephant God, 1978) expose the mischievous motives of some of India‘s so-called holy men. Women appear more confident and unflinching than men in many of his films, such as (The Big City,

1963), (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Nayak (The Hero), (Days and

Nights in the Forest, 1969), and (The Middle Man, 1975). Ray uses satire to provide political critiques. Two of his musicals (The Adventures of

Goopy and Bagha, 1968) and (The Kingdom of Diamonds, 1980) provide trenchant criticisms of the autocratic attitudes of the rulers through the use of satire. Hirak Rajar Deshe is considered as a virulent condemnation of the enforcement of the emergency in India in 1975 by then Prime Minister .146 Two of Ray‘s films – Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977 and (The Deliverance, 1981) – are made in . Shatranj Ke Khilari criticizes the indolence and decadence of Indian

146 Ibid., 248.

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aristocratic classes under British rule. Sadgati is a scathing indictment of India‘s system. Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder, 1973) is set in a Bengali village at the time of the

Bengal famine of 1943 and depicts the suffering of subalterns during the crisis.

Ray‘s films often suggest hopefulness even when he attempts to come to terms with complex social and political issues. During the politically turbulent period in India in the

1960s, Ray‘s liberal-humanist style and his aloofness from burning social and political issues came under fire, mainly from leftist critics, who pointed out that Ray focused more on the problems of individuals and issues of the past, instead of coming to terms with urgent contemporary problems. Marxist critics urged him instead to ―take an ideological stand on the post-Independence, post-Tagorean world and offer a truly contemporary perspective instead of a moralistic nineteenth-century point of view.‖147 From the end of the 1960s, a noticeable shift could be seen in Ray‘s work, possibly in response to his detractors. In

Aranyer Din Ratri, Ray criticizes the moral weakness and arrogance of urban youth in post-

Independence India through the story of four Calcutta young men enjoying a pleasure trip in a tribal area far away from the modern metropolis. But three of Ray‘s subsequent films,

Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970), Sheemabaddha (The Company Limited, 1971) and Jana

Aranya (The Middleman, 1975) are set in Calcutta. In these films, Ray confronts the contemporary problems of Calcutta head on. These films denounce bureaucratic corruption, political hypocrisy, the dehumanizing rat race, moral degeneration and conformism prevalent in contemporary Calcutta. Ray also used different stylistic devices in these films, especially in Pratidwandi, in which Ray used scenes in negative, flashbacks,

147 Ibid., 144.

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freeze shots, fantasy scenes, dream sequences which he had earlier termed as ―gimmicks‖ in a public debate with Mrinal Sen.148

In Jana Aranya, for the first time, one of Ray‘s films does not end optimistically. In the

1970s, West Bengal witnessed unpleasant social situations because of the widespread violence caused by the Naxalite Movement, the police retaliation against the far-left revolutionaries, and the 1971 massive influx of war refugees from Bangladesh. Things were further complicated when a state of emergency was declared in the country in 1975. It was a difficult time in India when ―corruption in education, unemployment and the class divide were all leading to the collapse of the democratic dream.‖149 Jana Aranya addresses all these problems and the film reflects the sense of hopelessness prevailing in contemporary society. Ray notes: ―The only bleak film I have made is The Middleman. There‘s no question about that. I felt corruption, rampant corruption, all around. Everyone talks about it in

Calcutta. The Middleman is a film about that kind of corruption and I don‘t think there is any solution.‖150 But Ray‘s political films remain indirect and oblique. In Jana Aranya, Ray shows a politician sitting under a portrait of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, giving a futile and trivial lecture to two young men. The scene savagely mocks the lack of political wisdom of contemporary politicians. In his political films made in a period of intense social unrest Ray provides critiques of the privileged classes. But he does not overtly state his support for any specific political ideology. The Naxalite revolutionaries always remain in

148 Das Gupta, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray, 104.

149 Sangeeta Datta, (New Delhi: Lotus Collection, Roli Books, 2003), 24.

150 Udayan Gupta, ―The Politics of Humanism,‖ Cineaste 12, no. 1 (1982): 26.

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the background in his films made during the time of that movement. However, through the use of allegory, Ray attempts to emphasize direct political action. In the last scene of his political satire Hirok Rajar Deshe, the masses are seen toppling the huge statue of the authoritarian ruler of the country. Ray provides trenchant criticisms of social injustices in an indirect way, and as Bibekananda Ray says, ―Ray‘s veiled political allegories will perhaps last longer in the public mind.‖151

Anger and Soul-Searching in Mrinal Sen‘s Films

Unlike the early films of Ray, Mrinal Sen‘s early films did not draw much public or critical attention. Sen‘s early films addressed a number of social issues such as poverty, famine, unemployment, and the problems experienced by the working women. His second feature

Neel Akasher Niche (Under the Blue Sky, 1958) provides a sympathetic portrayal of a

Chinese vendor in Calcutta. The film is set in the 1930s and Sen tries to capture the political atmosphere of that period marked by anti-imperialist sentiment. The film was praised by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and also by the Communist Party of

India. But in 1962, when a war began between India and China, the film was banned by

Indian government. The ban was lifted two years later. In the early 1990s, when the film was shown twice in Calcutta, a large number of people liked it. But looking at the film in the 1990s, Sen found the film ―unbearably sentimental and technically, very shoddy.‖152 In

151 Bibekananda Ray, ―India‘s Political Cinema,‖ 13.

152 Quoted in Dipankar Mukhopadhyay, Mrinal Sen: Sixty Years in Search of Cinema (New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers, India, 2009), 27.

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his early films, Sen worked within the framework of commercial cinema, using big stars, conventional narrative patterns, sentimentality and traditional camera techniques. Dipankar

Mukhopadhyay comments: ―In his early days, Mrinal Sen was not a rebel. It was Satyajit

Ray who gave a new dimension to Bengali cinema as he bypassed the star-system and took his camera out of the studio premises.‖153

Most of Sen‘s early films were commercial failures. In 1965, in a private screening held in

Bombay, Sen watched 400 Blows and Jules and Jim, two famous French new-wave films by

Francois Truffaut. Truffaut‘s unconventional style made a profound impression on Sen.

Sen already wanted to discard the traditional methods of storytelling. Truffaut‘s films encouraged Sen to begin experimentation with film forms. Sen‘s 1965 feature Akash

Kushum (Up in the Clouds) marked a shift in his filmmaking style. The film frequently uses freeze shots and jump cuts. Still newspaper photographs are also interspersed with several scenes. The film also provides a critique of the materialistic attitudes of the bourgeoisie. In his earlier films, despite his depictions of social problems, Sen did not provide his messages from an ideological angle. But through his criticisms of the materialist culture and the divide between rich and poor, in Akash Kushum, ―Sen left behind his broad humanism and took the first tentative steps towards a definite ideology.‖154 In 1960, the Indian

Government inaugurated the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) to provide funds for independent filmmakers willing to make socially significant films outside the confines of commercial cinema. Sen‘s next feature (1969) was made in Hindi. It was financed by the FFC. The film was a wry political satire and it broke away from the

153 Ibid., 43.

154 Ibid., 48. 63

traditional storytelling pattern through the use of formal devices such as documentary footage, and voice-over narration. The film became an all-India box office success. The financial and critical triumph of Bhuvan Shome inspired the growth of non- commercial, socially-sensitive and politically-aware cinema outside Bengal. In the 1970s and in the 1980s, many Indian filmmakers in different regions started making socially-purposive films with political overtones following Mrinal Sen‘s lead. These films constituted the New

Indian Cinema. Shyam Benegal, one of the most prominent Indian new cinema directors, remarks: ―As far as Hindi films are concerned, Bhuvan Shome occupies as important a place as Pather Panchali does, vis-à-vis Indian cinema. Bhuvan Shome opened up a new horizon.‖155

In Bhuvan Shome, Sen‘s intention was to show the atonement of an influential Bengali bureaucrat. But Sen realized that many people actually liked the bureaucrat, thinking that he had been transformed into a good man. Thus, the original message of Bhuvan Shome was misunderstood by many as they mistook this film for ―an attempt to humanize an essentially tradition-bound and corruptible bureaucrat.‖156 The political messages of Sen‘s subsequent films, however, were very clear. During the politically-volatile situations of

West Bengal at the beginning of the 1970s, Sen made three explicitly political Bengali films

– Interview (1970), Calcutta 71 (1972) and Padatik (The Guerrilla Fighter, 1973), which formed his Calcutta trilogy. From the end of the 1960s, the political climate of West Bengal became increasingly unstable. The left-wing insurrectionary activities of

155 Ibid., 71.

156 Mrinal Sen, Montage: Life, Politics, Cinema (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2002), 124.

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slowly spread to Calcutta. There was mounting anger amongst people in West Bengal and

Sen‘s Calcutta trilogy films reflect this sentiment. The director‘s overt political statements made in these films seem to be in line with the philosophies of the leftist revolutionaries opposing the establishment. These films are bitter denunciations of political oppression, class divide, the bourgeois system, the callousness of the privileged class and the persistence of colonial mentality in the independent country. In Padatik, the final film of the trilogy, Sen also provides criticisms of the revolutionary parties. For Sen, it was also necessary to critically examine the activities of the anti-establishment front. Thus, the film can be understood as ―soul-searching.‖157 In the film, the young protagonist is a far-left revolutionary on the run from the police. Realizing the growing distance between their party and the common masses, he raises questions about the validity of the party‘s adopted political strategies. But the party authority does not like his criticisms. During that time, it was not easy for any filmmaker to indicate and criticize the authoritarian attitudes of the leaders of the revolutionary left-wing parties. As Dipankar Mukhopadhyay says,

Just because his protagonist asked a few questions about the party and the leadership,

those who sang paeans of praise after Calcutta 71, called Sen a traitor. The allegation

was that by exposing the inner contradictions and squabbles within the party, he was

wrecking the whole movement. One cannot help admiring his tremendous courage,

because by daring to ask those questions, he exposed himself to physical danger.158

157 Shoma A. Chatterji, Mrinal Sen: The Survivor (New Delhi: Rupa and Co., 2003), 56-57.

158 Mukhopadhyay, 107.

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Sen wanted to disturb and provoke the audience at that time in order to move them into direct political action. He was aware that his political films made during the political turbulence seemed like pamphlets, but for him, such pamphleteering was necessary in order to reflect the explosive political reality.159 Calcutta trilogy films are also important because of their stylistic innovations. These films use open-ended, non-linear narratives.

Sen incorporates a variety of complicated techniques into these political films. Drawing on the Soviet agitprop and Brechtian mode of filmmaking, Sen uses direct-audience address, montage, slogans, pamphleteering and fantasy. All these devices serve to agitate the audience. Sen also uses various cinematic devices associated with films.

These devices include freeze frames, jump cuts, documentary footage, contrapuntal music, hand-held camerawork and self-reflexive methods. The use of unconventional and complicated cinematic language serves to make Sen‘s political films completely different than other politically-oriented films made in India.

The commercial success of Calcutta trilogy films indicate the appreciation of the spectators for Sen‘s use of unconventional cinematic means in order to analyze and portray the chaotic political realities. In Chorus, Sen presents the problem of unemployment through the use of allegory, fantasy and symbolism. But this non-narrative film became a box-office failure. Sen‘s subsequent ventures were concerned less with formal experimentation, outrage and ideology. Instead, they started dealing with the complexities of human psychology and relationships. At the end of the 1970s when the Left Front was in power in

West Bengal, there was no political enemy around for Sen to criticize. Still, Sen was not

159 Sen, Montage, 100.

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fully happy with the social conditions. His attempt to understand the real causes of the problems jeopardizing society‘s progress made him identify the real enemy – the enemy within. Mukhopadhyay describes Sen‘s introspection at that time and the resulting transformation of his cinematic style:

It was early 1979 and he went into a prolonged spell of soul-searching like Sumit, the

protagonist of his Padatik. He appreciated some of the good work done by the

government, but was also disturbed by the general feeling of complacency. In that

atmosphere, Sen felt for some time, he must seek silence and be inward-looking to ask

a few questions and to try and identify the enemy within. In this changed mood, the

agitprop style he had developed over the years, the loudness, the banter, the penchant

for a direct hit – all seemed out of sync and he normally became ready to use his

cinematic tools with greater restraint.160

In his attempt to criticize the enemy within, some of Sen‘s subsequent films such as Ak

Din Pratidin (And Quiet Rolls the Dawn, 1979), Aakaler Shandhane (In Search of Famine,

1980) and (The Case is Closed, 1982) became strongly critical of the prejudiced, self- seeking and conservative attitudes of the middle class. His films from Aakaler Shandhane onwards did not have any outright villain. These introspective works examine the complex relationship between individuals and changing social situations and always demonstrate the enemies within the protagonists. In regard to the shift in his attitudes and basic concerns,

Sen says: ―If ever I have shifted, it is because of the shift of focus on time, milieu and reality. Time and reality have been continuously changing and so have I. Time is the

160 Deepankar Mukhopadhyay, The Maverick Maestro: Mrinal Sen (New Delhi: Indus, 1995), 131-32.

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motivating force – time to which I am deeply rooted.‖161 He was highly impressed by a comment made by Italian leftist intellectual Elio Vittorini: ―The problem with fanatics among the members of the communist party is that they feel they have pocketed the truth; but the point is not to pocket the truth but to chase the truth.‖162 Sen‘s later films show the director‘s endeavour to chase the truth.

Dejection of the Dislocated in Ritwik Ghatak‘s Films

Ritwik Ghatak made only eight feature films during his career. They came out at the same time that Satyajit Ray‘s films were receiving huge local and international attention. Ghatak‘s films never won a national or international award, yet he is now considered a ―cult figure, an anti-establishment hero for many film-makers and film buffs in India‖ and also as one of the icons of global art cinema.163 In a Sight and Sound article published in 1982, British film critic Derek Malcolm described the feeling of a group of Western critics after watching

Ghatak‘s films for the first time at a film festival in India held shortly after Ghatak‘s untimely death:

The prints were tattered, the subtitles virtually unreadable when they were there at all,

and the projection was below even Indian standards. But the impact of the films on all

present was considerable. Here, we all felt, was a passionate and intensely national

161 Quoted in Manjula Sen, ―Mrinal Sen,‖ Cinema in India 2, no. 1 (1991): 101.

162 Ibid., 132.

163 Das Gupta, Seeing is Believing, 220. 68

filmmaker who seemed to have found his way without much access to the work of

others but who was most certainly of international calibre.164

Through a blend of realism and melodrama, folk elements and leftist ideology, Indian mythology and Western filmmaking devices in his politically-critical films Ghatak examines the social changes in Bengal caused by controversial political decisions and the wounded psyches of dislocated people. Ghatak makes extensive use of various idioms and symbols of Bengali culture, and so it is possible to observe an unmistakable essence of Bengaliness in his films. All these qualities have made Ghatak‘s films truly different from films made by both his contemporaries and the next generation filmmakers. As Satyajit Ray stated in a memorial lecture after Ghatak‘s death:

Ritwik‘s films have a special character… All of us have been, to some extent,

influenced by Hollywood films. But for some mysterious reason, Ritwik was totally

free from this influence; there is no impression of Hollywood on him. If one talks

about influences, I think one can find some influence of Soviet films on Ritwik‘s

works. But that influence does not mean imitation, because the main virtue of Ritwik

was his distinctiveness, his originality and this he maintained till the end. He had in

him this influence of Soviet films, and of theatre in the dialogue, content and

conclusions of his films. And these two elements were based on what was very much

rooted in the soil of Bengal. Ritwik was a Bengali director in heart and soul, a Bengali

artist – much more of a Bengali than myself.165

164 Derek Malcolm, ―Tiger: The Films of Ritwik Ghatak,‖ Sight and Sound 51, no. 3 (Summer 1982): 184.

165 Ray, Conscience of the Race, 41.

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Ghatak was obsessed with the agonies of the Bengali refugees uprooted from their homeland due to the Partition of Bengal in 1947. The suffering and distress of Bengali refugees pervades most of his films and, unlike many other contemporary artists of India,

Ghatak constantly portrays the plight of the people affected by the partition. Gyan Pandey observes that in Bengali cinema, Bombay cinema, and also the documentary films produced by the Films Division of India, filmmakers paid relatively little attention to the bloodshed and destruction caused by the partition of India166 Kamayani Kaushiva argues that while millions of people bear a mental scar inflicted by the traumatic experiences of dislocation, there is no ―public memory‖ of partition.167 In India, this memory seems to have dissolved into a state of collective amnesia. In the decades following the event, Indian writers and filmmakers showed little interest in grappling with the ―socio-psychological impact of the Partition of India.‖168 Mahey points out:

If nations could suffer trauma, the Partition certainly ignited one in both India and

Pakistan. And, as in some traumata, the victims dissolved into catatonic shock that

displayed itself as silence. For a number of years after the event, no writer of any

renown on either side of the new border rescued an adequate sense of lucidity to

approach the issue. Something had been permanently lost and the inadequacy of mere

words was discerned… [as] an understood code of silent mourning.169

166 O‘Donnell, ―History, Trauma and Remembering,‖ 7.

167 Kamayani Kaushiva, ―Partitioned Memories: The Trauma of Partition in Ghatak‘s Films,‖ in Filming the Line of Control: The Indo-Pak Relationship Through the Cinematic Lens, eds. Meenakshi Bharat and Nirmal Kumar (New Delhi, Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 96.

168 Durgadas Mukhopadhyay, ―The Cinema of Ritwik Ghatak,‖ Cinema India-International 5, no. 3 (1988): 21.

169 Quoted in Kaushiva, 97. 70

Only a handful of Indian films portrayed the suffering of individuals caused by the displacement in the years after it occurred. Nemai Ghosh‘s is an early Indian film depicting the miseries of the Partition-affected people in West Bengal. M. S. Sathyu‘s Hindi film Garam Hawa (Hot Winds, 1973) is another important film that shows the agonizing experiences of a Muslim family after the Partition. But Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and many other Bengali and India socially-conscious filmmakers did not deal in their films with the post-Partition trauma of the refugees. In the realm of Bengali cinema, only the films of

Ghatak recurrently addressed the agony of displacement and rootlessness. Das Gupta says that Ghatak was ―almost alone in continuing to suffer from the wounds of the parting.‖170

Ghatak was born in East Bengal. After the Partition based on communal lines, East Bengal became a part of Muslim-majority Pakistan. Ghatak remained in Hindu-majority West

Bengal. Being a Hindu, it was difficult for him to return or to visit the land of his birth which suddenly became a foreign country. Ghatak was deeply disturbed by this bifurcation and he was forever critical of the way ―Partition struck at the roots of Bengali culture.‖171

As to his preoccupation with the traumatic effects of the Partition on the uprooted people,

Ghatak says:

We were born into a critical age. In our boyhood we have seen a Bengal, whole and

glorious. This was the world that was shattered by the War, the Famine, and when the

Congress and the Muslim League brought disaster to the country and tore it into two

to snatch for it a fragmented independence. Our dreams faded away… I have not

been able to break loose from this theme in all the films that I have made recently.

What I have found most urgent is to present to the public eye the crumbling

170 Das Gupta, Seeing is Believing, 230.

171 Kaushiva, 99.

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appearance of a divided Bengal to awaken the Bengalis to an awareness of their state

and a concern for their past and the future. As an artist I have tried to remain honest,

and it is for the future to decide how far I have succeeded.172

Three features made by Ghatak in the 1960s – (Cloud-Capped Star,

1960), (E Flat, 1961) and Subarnarekha (1962) – came to be known as

Ghatak‘s Partition trilogy. The trilogy explores the complexities of human relationships, contemporary problems and mental sufferings of individuals. The main protagonists of these films are refugees uprooted from East Bengal. Meghe Dhaka Tara shows the financial hardship suffered by a refugee family and the sacrifices made by Neeta, the eldest daughter of the family for her parents and siblings. Ultimately, Neeta becomes seriously ill. She has foregone all her pleasures for the happiness of her family members. But now she herself becomes the burden of the family. Komal Gandhar provides an allegorical depiction of the bifurcation of Bengal through the problems and tensions experienced by a theatre group that also underwent a split. Subarnarekha is a grim portrayal of the sufferings, losses and pains of people uprooted from their homeland. All these films are imbued with an acute sense of despair. But the depictions of heightened emotions of individuals in these films also convey Ghatak‘s intense anger over the disintegration of his homeland due to unjustified political decision. Each of these allegorical films revolves around the character of a young woman. The woman is ―quiet, sensitive, yet strong, resilient, and infinitely patient – who becomes, in these films, a melancholic embodiment of contemporary Bengal

172 Ritwik Ghatak, Rows and Rows of Fences: Ritwik Ghatak on Cinema (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2000), 49.

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and of all that was lost through the Partition.‖173 Ghatak‘s last film, Jukti Takko Ar Gappo

(Argument, Discussion and Story, 1974) also revolves around displacement and includes the character of a young woman from East Bengal with similar personality traits. Jukti

Takko Ar Gappo is set in contemporary West Bengal rocked by far-left revolutionary activities. The film is a road-movie showing the apparently aimless journey of four people searching for what is missing from their lives. It is an angry film protesting the degeneration of moral values in Calcutta in the early 1970s. According to Ghatak: ―Being a

Bengali from East Pakistan I have seen the untold miseries inflicted on my people in the name of independence – which is a fake and a sham. I have reacted violently to this and even in my last film, I have tried to portray different aspects of this.‖174

In his films, Ghatak upholds a Marxist perspective and a revolutionary spirit through his depictions of social injustices, political depravity and the suffering of the underprivileged class.175 Ghatak says: ―The ideological basis of my films is fundamental Marxism. But

Marxism not in the sense of this party or that party. I have used Marxism as a philosophical and psychological concept. Marx, Engels and Lenin have cast their shadow on many of the dialectical relations shown in my films.‖176 Ghatak expresses his intention to use cinema as

173 Manishita Dass, ―The Cloud-Capped Star: Ritwik Ghatak on the Horizon of Global Art Cinema,‖ in Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories, eds. Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 244.

174 Quoted in Sibaditya Dasgupta and Sandipan Bhattacharya, Ritwik Ghatak: Face to Face Conversations with the Master 1962-1977 (Calcutta: Cine Central Calcutta and Manchasha, 2003), 107.

175 Jacob Levich, ―Subcontinental Divide: The Undiscovered Art of Ritwik Ghatak,‖ Film Comment 33, no. 2 (March-April 1997): 30.

176 Quoted in Dasgupta and Bhattacharya, 77.

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a weapon to convey his messages to a larger audience.177 Ghatak came to cinema from theatre, in his own words, ―not for love of the medium, but to rouse and shake the mass through a laconic, suggestive and archetypal idiom, apparently dry, but juicy within.‖178

Ghatak‘s films are also characterized by the frequent use of melodramatic scenes. But his imaginative and political use of melodrama stands in sharp contrast with the trite theatrical melodrama of the commercial films. In Meghe Dhaka Tara, when Neeta‘s father comes to know about Neeta‘s fatal disease, he melodramatically shouts ―I accuse‖ (in English) in a loud voice. He is pointing his finger toward the audience. Neeta‘s older brother turns around toward his father and questions reprovingly, ―Whom?‖ The father cannot say anything boldly in response. His hand comes trembling down. He only mutters, ―No one.‖

Through this histrionic reaction of the father the film puts the blame, as Manishita Dass says, ―not just on the oppressive structures of the family but also on wider networks of exploitation in post-independence, post-Partition Bengal.‖179 Ghatak‘s emphasis on melodrama for conveying his messages was criticized by the politicized audiences of alternative Indian cinema. These viewers with an appreciation for Mrinal Sen‘s left-wing polemical films accuse Ghatak of self-indulgence and decadence. Film Critic George

Sadoul also suggested Ghatak to change a melodramatic sequence of Subarnarekha in order to increase the chance of the film‘s favourable reception in Europe.180 But Ghatak remained adamant that he would use melodrama. He asserts: ―To use melodrama is one‘s

177 Quoted in Dass, 243.

178 Bibekananda Ray, ―The Cinema‘s India: From Ray or Ritwik Ghatak?‖ Cinema India-International 4, no. 4 (1987): 13.

179 Dass, 247.

180 Bhaskar Sarkar, Mourning the Nation: Indian Cinema in the Wake of Partition (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2009), 220.

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birthright. It is a form. I feel I have to use this in order to make my expression loud and clear. To express my views I am prepared to use any suitable form.‖181 Ghatak‘s use of songs also marks the stylistic difference of his films from the other artistic and alternative films of India. In Komal Gandhar, Bengali traditional songs are often used as non- diegetic accompaniment. Through the use of the traditional wedding tune, the film symbolically suggests the hope for the cultural unity of the two parts of Bengal. Thus, the use of this particular tune adds to the political significance of the film.

Second and Third Generation Socially-Conscious Filmmakers in West Bengal

The films of three towering Bengali directors paved the way for artistic and politically- committed filmmaking in India. Many filmmakers in different regions of India started making socially-critical films. In West Bengal, a few filmmakers inspired by the films of

Ray, Sen and Ghatak embarked on alternative, politically-critical filmmaking. Buddhadeb

Dasgupta, Gautam Ghosh and Utpalendu Chakravorti are most prominent amongst second generation politically-committed filmmakers in West Bengal. In spite of facing problems with finance, distribution and exhibition these filmmakers continued to make socially-critical films. Buddhadeb Dasgupta received the Best Director Award at the Venice

Film Festival in 2000 for his Uttara (2000). Dasgupta‘s first film Dooratwa (The

Distance, 1978) also won the President‘s Award for Best Bengali Film. Dasgupta‘s films show the director‘s concern for using cinema as a social comment. For him, ―when

181 Quoted in Dasgupta and Bhattacharya, 77-78.

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distinguishing the good from the bad, I would consider cinema not merely as art, but as a weapon to make people aware.‖182 Dooratwa, set in Calcutta in the aftermath of the Naxalite

Movement, criticizes the conventional values of a former Naxalite revolutionary who rebelled against the system only a few years ago to change the traditional structure of the society. In Grihayuddha (Crossroads, 1982) and Andhi Gali (Blind Alley, 1984) Dasgupta also shows the failure of former Naxalite revolutionaries to ignore the lures of material comfort.

Grihayuddha shows the corruption of bigwigs in contemporary society and the helplessness of individuals who attempt to seek justice. Neem Annapurna (Bitter Morsel, 1979) provides a stark depiction of poverty in India. In Tahader Katha (Their Story, 1992), Dasgupta depicts the mental suffering of a participant in the anti-British movement who cannot cope with the opportunistic environment of post-independence India. Dasgupta‘s films do not use sentimentality or melodrama, moreover they are characterized by a minimalist approach.

John Hood describes the stylistic attributes of Dasgupta‘s work:

Dialogue in his films is very sparse, while the visual as an agent of communication is

elevated much more than is the case with most other filmmakers… But it is the poetic

nature of his films – the cinematic use of such elements of poetry as metaphor and

suggestion and the compression of images – along with the foregrounding of the

seemingly extraneous, paradoxical or absurd, that give his films their distinction from

those of any other Indian filmmaker.183

Goutam Ghosh‘s films portray the oppression of the socially-inferior and their struggles against the unjust treatment of them by members of the dominant class, but his major

182 , ―The Poetry and Politics of Cinema,‖ Splice, no. 1 (January-March 1986): 38.

183 John W. Hood, The Films of Buddhadeb Dasgupta (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2005), xiii-xiv. 76

politically-oriented films are made in Telugu and Hindi. His Bengali feature Dakhal (The

Occupation, 1982) is critical of casteism and the immorality of a local landlord. Aparna

Sen‘s Mr and Mrs Iyer (2003) is set against the background of communal violence in contemporary India and is made in English. In it, a young Hindu girl introduces a Muslim co-passenger as her husband to the armed Hindu fanatics to save his life when they stop the bus on which they are travelling to look for Muslims on a night of a frightening communal riot. Communal violence is not often addressed in Indian films, so Mr and Mrs Iyer attracted significant attention. However, instead of providing a stronger depiction of the brutal face of communalism, the film puts greater emphasis in showing the development of a romantic relationship between the central characters of the film. Utpalendu Chakravorti‘s second feature Chokh (The Eyes, 1982) reveals the corruption of Government bureaucrats and is strongly critical of the callousness of politically-influential people. Chokh shows the protest of the subalterns against social injustice. The last sequence shows a procession of the marginalized people demanding justice. A confrontation is thus imminent between the classes. But their procession faces a police barricade, suggesting that the system would provide protection to the powerful.

In the mid 1990s, a third generation of off-beat filmmakers emerged in West Bengal. These filmmakers also showed interest in making socially-critical films outside the commercial industry. Prominent off-beat members of the third generation include ,

Ashoke Viswanathan, Anjan Das, Saikat Bhattacharya, Shatarupa Sanyal and Satyajit Ray‘s son . However, their films remain overshadowed by the critically-acclaimed political films made by earlier generations of Bengali filmmakers. ‘s debut film Herbert (2005) is an important politically-oriented film made by contemporary 77

Bengali directors. The film won the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in

Bengali. Using the Naxalite Movement as one of its principal themes, Herbert criticizes the ongoing political oppression and the lack of revolutionary spirit in contemporary society.

The film provides a strong critique of the brutal treatment of the Naxalite revolutionaries by the State. The film is also an indictment of contemporary consumerist society. The film is based on a fragmented narrative, shifting back and forth between the past and the present. The film is framed as one shot by the main protagonist‘s dead father who was a filmmaker. Anik Dutta‘s maiden feature Bhooter Bhabishyat (The Future of the Past, 2012) also incorporates techniques of self-reflexivity. Bhooter Bhabishyat uses a comic story based on fantasy, but the film provides political criticisms of the system through the use of satire.

The film also makes reference to the killing of the Naxalite activists by the Police in the

1970s and is strongly critical of contemporary problems such as the growing materialistic concerns and indifference to the well-being of the subalterns. Satyajit Ray‘s Hirak Rajar

Deshe provided scathing criticism of an oppressive government through a fairy-tale story with comic entertainment. Bhooter Bhabishyat shows the direct influence of Hirak Rajar

Deshe. The film also uses specific sounds and dialogues from Ray‘s previous politically- charged, fantasy-based films Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne and Hirok Raajar Deshe.

Off-beat and Socially-Critical Filmmaking in East Pakistan

Since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, an uneasy relationship has existed between the country‘s central government and the Bengalis of East Bengal (East Pakistan). During the

Pakistani period, East Pakistan witnessed angry mass movements and protests by the

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Bengalis against the central government. However, in the 1950s and in the 1960s, the majority of Bengali films produced in East Pakistan did not reflect the turbulent political reality of the country. Only a handful of off-beat films were made in East Pakistan during these decades. In 1958, military rule was introduced in Pakistan, under which it was not easy for Bengali filmmakers in East Pakistan to include explicit political critiques in their films. Bengali films in East Pakistan also did not make use of allegory or allusion to provide strong political critiques. Bengali films made in a realistic vein during the Pakistani rule mainly provided depictions of poverty and the misery of the middle class. The only exceptional film was Zahir Raihan‘s Jiban Theke Neya (Glimpses of Life, 1970) which, as

Bengali art filmmaker Alamgir Kabir says, is the ―country‘s first ever politically committed film.‖184 In this film, through a metaphorical narrative Zahir Raihan addressed the urgent political crisis of East Pakistan and provided scathing criticisms of the autocratic regime of

Pakistan. The film was released just after a mass movement against the Pakistani dictatorial rule. The government‘s attempt to ban the film aroused huge public protest. Eventually the film was released and it became a commercial success. With its overt political content and denunciations of political oppression, the film became an instrument for moving spectators into direct political action in a volatile situation. Alamgir Kabir observes that, ―politically

Jiban Theke Neya played a role that no other film in the history of the cinema had ever played in shaping the destiny of a nation.‖185 The following year, Bengalis fought their War of Independence against Pakistan and Bangladesh emerged as a new nation.

184 Alamgir Kabir, Film in Bangladesh (Dhaka: , 1979), 44.

185 Ibid., 45. 79

Mukh-O-Mukhosh (The Face and the Mask), the first full-length feature film made in East

Pakistan, was released in 1956. The film was made by Abdul Jabbar Khan. In the previous year, Pather Panchali was made in West Bengal. In total contrast to Ray‘s famous first feature, Mukh-O-Mukhosh was based on theatrical melodrama. The film‘s commercial success came as a surprise for those who predicted that a Bengali film could not compete with the Indian and West Pakistani popular films regularly shown in East Pakistan at that time. Kabir notes: ―[Mukh-o-Mukhosh] dispelled successfully the unfounded fear that film- making had no future in East Bengal. It also helped to bring home to the government the indispensable necessity for a studio which could contribute toward creating a worthwhile film industry and end East Bengal‘s costly filmic reliance on Calcutta and Bombay.‖186 In the following years, Bengali directors showed more interest in making films based on rural operetta and mythological themes. These relied on popular ingredients of commercially successful West Pakistani films. Only a few Bengali films made during that period rejected the conventions of commercial cinema. Fateh Lohani‘s Asiya (1960) showed the pastoral beauty of Bengal, exhibiting an influence of Pather Panchali. A. J. Kardar‘s Jago Hua Savera

(Day Shall Dawn, 1959), set in rural East Bengal, shows the lives of East Bengal fishermen.

Sadek Khan‘s Nadi-o-Nari (River and Woman, 1965) showcases rural poverty and Zahir

Raihan‘s Kakhono Asheni (It Never Came, 1961) and Kancher Deyal (The Glass Wall, 1964) portray the financial hardship of the lower middle class in the city are worthy of mention among the handful of attempts to make films within an offbeat genre. Zahir Raihan tried to attract serious audiences with Kancher Deyal, therefore, the film did not use conventional

186 Ibid., 23-24.

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song and dance sequences and exaggerated emotions.187 But in these films, Zahir Raihan was not able to analyze the suffering of the lower middle class from a new perspective, resulting in the film‘s failure to receive the appreciation of urban audiences. The film won nine awards at the 1965 Pakistan Film Festival, although serious viewers did not show much excitement about the film‘s message because, as Kabir says, ‗for them the moral of the theme that money makes all the difference in the world was no new discovery and had been used too often in literature and in the cinema.‖188

Socially-Conscious Filmmaking in Bangladesh in Post-Independence Period

During the Liberation War in 1971, Zahir Raihan, along with other Bengali filmmakers, went into exile in India. The Bangladeshi Government in exile realized the importance of informing people around the world about the brutal mass murder committed by the

Pakistani army in Bangladesh. Zahir Raihan was commissioned by the Bangladeshi

Government to make documentaries about the war. Raihan subsequently made his famous documentary (1971), a moving portrayal of the terrible plight of Bengali civilians fleeing their homeland to save themselves from Pakistani forces. The film includes rare footage of the genocide committed by the Pakistani army in Bangladesh. Three other documentaries were made during the war. Liberation Fighters (1971) by Alamgir Kabir shows the recruitment and training processes of Bangladeshi guerrillas. Zahir Raihan made another documentary A State is Born (1971) depicting several aspects of the War of

187 Ibid., 41.

188 Ibid., 43. 81

Independence. Babul Choudhury‘s Innocent Millions (1971) presents a portrayal of the suffering of Bengali children in the refugee camps located in India. These four documentaries made during the war not only dealt with important issues but also emerged as valuable filmic sources on the Bangladesh Liberation War.

However, this early promise of making quality, socially-purposive cinema in the newly- created country was not fulfilled in post-war independent Bangladesh. Just one month after

Bangladesh was liberated, Zahir Raihan disappeared after he had gone with police and

Bengali army personnel to an area inhabited by Urdu-speaking, pro-Pakistani people in search of his missing brother. The Bengali police and troops came under attack by the armed pro-Pakistani elements in that area. Several died in the attack and Raihan‘s body was never found. The process to nurture serous cinema in Bangladesh suffered a major setback because of the absence of Raihan. Only a few films characterized by cinematic excellence were made in Bangladesh in the first decade after independence, meanwhile plenty of run- off-the-mill commercial films were produced. Many of these were blatant imitations of

Indian entertainment-based films. The rise of mass-appeal, commercial films in Bangladesh just after independence recalled the situation in the Indian film industry post-1947. Kabir describes the arrival of many new producers in the industry in newly-independent

Bangladesh: ―Because of the war and general state of lawlessness prevailing in the country a handful of people had accumulated massive wealth. Film industry was considered by them the most suitable sector to invest their ‗capital‘ as no other sector would offer such easy

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immunity from possible official censure. It also offered a golden opportunity to make

‗black‘ money ‗white‘.‖189

In the first six years after the country‘s independence, 125 films produced in Bangladesh were simply plagiarized from Indian and Pakistani films. In comparison, during this period only eight off-beat films were made, where the filmmakers attempted to emphasize the creative use of cinematic language.190 No effective official measures were taken at this time to control the copying of foreign films. In his book on Bangladeshi cinema, Alamgir Kabir says:

Even though the Bangladesh Board of Film Censors have the reputation of being one

of the strictest (being armed with a series of outmoded censor codes inherited from

British Raj) it has been unusually kind with plagiarized films. Though the Censor codes

specifically forbid plagiarism the Board has so far refrained from enforcing it… after

obtaining de facto carte blanche from the Censor Board the plagiarists have become so

daring that the practice is now open and rampant.191

Bangladeshi filmmaker Tanvir Mokammel also observes:

During the 1960s, though there were some sincere endeavours towards realism in the

feature filmdom, alternative cinema truly began in Bangladesh during our liberation

war when during the 1971 war Zahir Raihan-Alamgir Kabir duo made ―Stop

189 Ibid., 53.

190 Ibid., 57.

191 Ibid., 61-62.

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Genocide‖ and ―Liberation Fighters‖. It is impressive to see that in such an arduous

war situation and with such paucity of funds, the exiled government came forward to

support serious films. It is a pity that successive governments after independence,

though commanding over much more resources, totally discontinued that spirit.192

Democracy lasted for less than five years in Bangladesh after independence. In 1975, military rule returned in the country, to last until 1990. During these years, politically- conscious filmmakers found it difficult to directly criticize repressive political conditions.

Nor did most alternative filmmakers try to use innovative means to critique the political problems of the country following the example set by Zahir Raihan in Jiban Theke Neya. In the 1970s, Alamgir Kabir was the most prominent amongst the serious filmmakers of

Bangladesh. He made six feature films and a few documentaries and shorts. His films were realistic, contained political overtones and included various stylistic devices of artistic cinema. His debut feature Dhirey Bahe Meghna (Quiet Flows the River Meghna, 1973) was a stylistically-innovative film showing the troubles and tensions of individuals in the aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Through an austere and understated style

Kabir depicted in the film the brutality of the war and the trauma caused by the war.

Alamgir Kabir‘s fourth feature, Rupali Shaikote (In the Silvery Beach, 1979) contained explicit political content. However, instead of dealing with contemporary social and political issues, Rupali Shaikote is set in the late 1960s, showing the repressive regime under the

Pakistani military dictatorship and the protests of Bengalis against Pakistani control. The film clearly depicts the coercion, torture and suppression of the freedom of expression

192 Tanvir Mokammel, ―Problematics of Alternative Cinema in Bangladesh: An Introspection‖ in the brochure of 3rd International Festival, Dhaka (21-29 January 1993). 84

enforced by the military administration in East Pakistan in the 1960s. Thus, despite the fact that Rupali Shaikote is set in the past, the film‘s denunciations of the military rule serve to critique the contemporary administration in Bangladesh. Kabir also experimented with form in this film. The film‘s use of a non-linear narrative, documentary footage, still photos and interview scenes show the influence of European modernist cinema. In a sequence showing the events of the government‘s interference in the making of Jiban Theke Neya, the film incorporates original footage taken during the shooting of Jiban Theke Neya. Thus, Rupali

Shaikote displays a spirit of rebellion highlighting Zahir Raihan‘s famous film which was a savage indictment of the military rule. Kabir‘s films exhibited a concern for formal experimentation and political engagement. Unfortunately, like Raihan, Kabir also died a premature death. He was killed in a car crash in 1989.

One of the most critically-acclaimed films made in Bangladesh in the 1970s was Surja

Dighal Bari (The Ominous House, 1979) by Masihuddin Shaker and Shaikh Neeamat Ali.

The filmmakers completely rejected the extravagance and gloss associated with dominant commercial cinema in this film. Drawing on a neo-realistic style, it provides an authentic depiction of rural life in Bangladesh. Set in the 1940s, just before the Partition of India, it shows the struggles of the village poor against adverse conditions. Certain sequences in the film such as the failure of two children to chant properly for Pakistan after the Bengal

Partition, and the conversations of train passengers about the possible consequences of

Partition offer subtle political statements. Shaikh Neeamat Ali‘s Dahan (Anguish, 1985) was another socially-critical film that addressed the bleakness and moral degradation of contemporary society. The film provides strong critiques of contemporary problems such as unemployment, financial crisis of the middle class, political corruption, insensitivity of 85

individuals, the divide between rich and poor, violence in the universities between student groups and the hypocrisy of so-called intellectuals. The film also makes a departure from the stereotypical format of conventional cinema by making good use of innovative cinematic technique such as montage to create symbolic meaning.

In the 1980s, a short film movement also came into being in Bangladesh. Short filmmakers usually took up serious themes and some interesting short films were made by Morshedul

Islam, Tanvir Mokammel and other young filmmakers portraying different social and political issues. These films departed from the stylistic approaches of commercial films.

The Short Film Movement drew considerable public attention toward films made outside the realm of dominant cinema. However, the Short Film Movement did not come close to initiating a film movement resembling the New Cinema Movement in India. Full-length feature films dealing with social and political issues were produced in Bangladesh only occasionally. Chitra Nodeer Paare (Quiet Flows the River Chitra, 1999) by Tanvir Mokammel is an attempt made by a Bangladeshi filmmaker to address the Partition of Bengal. The film portrays the insecurity and emotional distress of – an East Bengal minority.

When many Hindus left their motherland for India, some decided not to leave and

Mokammel‘s film shows the anxieties and risks faced by the Hindus who chose to remain in East Pakistan after the Partition. The film is a strong indictment of Partition. Two documentaries on the Liberation War of 1971 – Muktir Gaan (The Song of Freedom,

1995), and Muktir Kotha (The Story of Freedom, 1996), directed by Tareque Masud and his wife Catherine Masud, attracted wide public attention. Tareque Masud‘s debut feature Matir

Moina (The Clay Bird, 2002) became the first Bangladeshi film to compete for the Academy

Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It won the FIPRESCI prize in Cannes Film 86

Festival in 2002. The film, set in a village before the Liberation War in 1971, is strongly critical of Islamist religious fundamentalism. Religious blindness is one of the long-standing problems in Bangladesh. From the mid-1990s, the country has witnessed a rise of Islamist fanatics. Religion has always been a sensitive issue in Bangladesh, thus direct criticism of religious dogmatism has been absent in Bangladeshi films. Matir Moina is a courageous attempt to come to terms with a burning social issue. The Bangladeshi government found the film‘s content too sensitive to be shown and was duly banned. This ban was subsequently repealed though, and the film was finally released in 2005. Local and international acclaim of Matir Moina made Tareque Masud the most prominent contemporary film director in Bangladesh. His 2009 feature Runway also provides scathing criticisms of Islamist fanatics. Instead of giving this film to commercial distributors, however, Masud travels to different cities in Bangladesh with his film. He has shown

Runway in several private screenings organized mainly in different Universities and provided young people across the country with the opportunity to watch and discuss his awareness- raising, politically-critical film. Masud‘s use of an alternative way to exhibit his film recalls the strategy taken by Latin American guerrilla filmmakers to show their militant films through private, clandestine screenings. Masud was working on another film set in

Bangladesh during the Partition of Bengal. For him, this new film titled Kagojer Phool (The

Paper Flower) would be his most important work. But Masud could not complete this film.

By a tragic coincidence, Masud also died in an accident like his two predecessors Raihan and Kabir. He was killed in a car crash in 2011. Thus, alternative filmmaking in Bangladesh suffered yet another terrible loss of the most eminent socially-conscious filmmaker of the time.

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This survey of the development of socially-critical filmmaking in West Bengal and

Bangladesh illustrates how Bengali alternative filmmakers in different decades come to terms with burning social and political issues. While the alternative filmmakers in West

Bengal received government support to make socially-aware films, Bangladeshi filmmakers found it more difficult to incorporate politically-critical messages due to military rule and strict censorship imposed by the government. Politically-charged Bengali films made at the beginning of the 1970s gave way to reflective films in the 1980s. However, Bengali films made in the 1980s and in the following decades are also concerned with social and political issues. The following chapters will examine four specific politically-critical Bengali films to understand the characteristics of different types of political films made in West Bengal and

Bangladesh.

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CHAPTER TWO

Speaking Out against Social Injustice through Cinema: Mrinal Sen’s Calcutta 71 (1972)

Mrinal Sen is credited as having pioneered radical left-wing cinema in India.193 According to

Derek Malcolm, ―all [Mrinal] Sen‘s films, even his most lightweight, have attacked, with undisguised horror and anger, the poverty, exploitation and inherent hypocrisy of Indian society.‖194 Calcutta 71 is the second film in the director‘s Calcutta trilogy made in the aftermath of the far-left Naxalite Movement. Calcutta 71 displays a direct and angry opposition to social injustice and oppression, demonstrating that the director wanted to capture the rebellious political mood and spirit of tumultuous contemporary circumstances.

The other films in the trilogy, Interview (1970) and Padatik (Urban Guerrilla, 1973) are set in present-day Calcutta. But in Calcutta 71, Sen provides ruthless depictions of grinding poverty in Bengal in three different decades. For Sen, the contemporary political unrest has roots in the history of poverty and repression of the poorer sections of society. Thus,

Calcutta 71 is grounded in the historical context of poverty and exploitation in Bengal. As

Sen puts it: ―I wanted to interpret the restlessness, the turbulence of the period that was

1971 and what it is due to. I wanted to have a genesis. The anger had not suddenly fallen

193 See Shoma A. Chatterji, Mrinal Sen: The Survivor (New Delhi: Rupa and Co, 2003), 32; Suranjan Ganguly, ―A Cinema on Red Alert: Mrinal Sen‘s Interview and In Search of Famine,‖ The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 35, no. 1 (2000): 55.

194 Derek Malcolm, ―Guerrilla Fighter: Mrinal Sen,‖ Sight and Sound 50, no.4 (Autumn 1981): 262. 89

out of anywhere. It must have a beginning and an end. I wanted to try to find this genesis and in the process redefine our history. And in my mind this was extremely political.‖195

From the beginning of the 1950s, the state of West Bengal witnessed intense social and political discontent. In 1953, the state experienced a food crisis caused by the collusion between rural land owners, rice-mill proprietors and food hoarders. The landowners and rice distributors used to work for the ruling party in rural areas. So the Congress government did not take effective measures to defuse the food crisis.196 The food shortage brought the state to the verge of a famine. From the middle of the 1950s, mass movements demanding an immediate solution to the food crisis became a regular phenomenon. These movements were organized by the undivided Communist Party of India and other left parties. On 31 August 1959, a huge rally took place in Calcutta to protest against the

Congress government‘s handling of the food crisis. A brutal police charge on the demonstrators left eighty people dead and hundreds injured.197 The following day, the police also fired on a student rally organized to condemn the previous violent killing by the police.198 Other mass movements occurred in Calcutta such as protests over the increase of tram fares in 1953 and the demand by school teachers for a wage rise in 1954. Both of these protests met with stern government retaliation. West Bengal experienced another food shortage in 1966, resulting in the creation of another state-wide food movement.

195 Mrinal Sen, Montage: Life, Politics, Cinema (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2002), 125.

196 Fifty Years Ago: Food Movement of 1959 in http://www.pragoti.in/node/3575

197 Ibid; Jyoti , ―Khaddo Andolon o Juktofront Shorkaar‖ in Raajniti, Shomaj o Shongskriti: Uttal Shaat- Shottor, ed. Arjun Goshyami (Kolkata: Choyonika, 2006), 4.

198 Biman Basu, ―West Bengal: How the Left Front And Its Government Emerged‖ in http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0624/06242007_biman%20basu.htm. 90

Violent clashes broke out between police and angry mobs across the state. Several people died in police shootings, tramcars were burnt on the street, and widespread strikes and angry protest rallies created a chaotic situation. Mallarika Sinha Roy describes: ―It seemed that the entire state was poised on a violent outbreak of mass fury.‖199 The rise of these mass movements and the political oppression that followed inspired many Bengali students to embrace radical leftist politics. Many students in West Bengal were also influenced by

Maoism. In 1967, the Naxalite Movement began in the state. A faction of ultra-radical communist leaders of the pro-China Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI [M]) spearheaded the Naxalite Movement. The CPI (M) did not like the militant attitude of these leaders. Soon they were expelled from the party. But in 1969, a new political party named the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI [ML]) was formed to provide a political base for the Naxalites. The armed insurrectionary violence orchestrated by the

Naxalites slowly spread from rural areas to Calcutta. From the early months of 1970

Calcutta turned into ―an urban guerrilla battleground, between the police and the Naxalites, the Naxalites and the CPI (M), one Naxalite faction and another and criminal elements in all groups.‖200 The state government crushed the Naxalite rebellion by unleashing ruthless police action. By 1972, many Naxalite leaders and activists had been killed and the

Movement began to wane in West Bengal.

It is within this socio-political context that Mrinal Sen‘s political trilogy needs to be understood. According to Sen, ―there was violence and anger in the air, and I just couldn‘t

199 Mallarika Sinha Roy, Gender and Radical Politics in India: Magic Moments of Naxalbari (1967-1975) (Abingdon/ New York: Routledge, 2011), 3.

200 Andrew Robinson, ―Satyajit Ray‘s Calcutta Films,‖Visual Anthropology Review 4, no. 2 (Fall 1988): 15. 91

escape into a dreamworld fantasy. Calcutta became at this point of time the inescapable territory of my films.‖201 Sen also felt that it was the time to spell out the basic ills of the country.202 In Calcutta 71, the director employs a non-linear narrative structure, Brechtian alienation techniques, and documentary footage as the means by which he seeks to address live political issues. Except for a brief sequence at the beginning of the film, Calcutta 71 is mostly shot in grainy . Some episodes in the film exemplify traits associated with the neo-realist style, but others depart from the conventions of realistic representation. The film has a complicated structure. The beginning of the film is divided into three parts: a written text accompanied by the voice-over of a twenty-year-old boy; documentary footage of contemporary social and political scenes in Calcutta intercut with still photographs showing emaciated victims of famine; and a brief sequence showing a young woman in a park. In this scene, on the soundtrack we hear a radio bulletin about the death of an unidentified young man. The middle of Calcutta 71 comprises three episodes set in three decades. These episodes are based on short stories by three eminent Bengali writers. All three episodes mercilessly depict the suffering of poverty-stricken people in

Bengal in different decades. The concluding part of the film shows two sequences: a party attended by the affluent people in Calcutta and a stylized sequence involving fantasy, theatrical representation, direct audience-address and newsreel footage of contemporary violence in Calcutta. These parts are not directly related to each other, but the ruthless depictions of poverty juxtaposed with scenes showing the hypocrisy and the lavish lifestyle of the privileged contribute to the gradual development of a sense of anger.

201 Sen, Montage, 155.

202 Ibid., 125. 92

In the early 1970s, Sen watched a lot of Latin American films.203 It is thus not surprising that the politically-charged nature of the director‘s Calcutta trilogy incorporates themes and formal devices found in the films made by radical Latin American directors such as

Fernando Solanas, Jorge Sanjinés and Glauber Rocha. But as Sourav Roychowdhury argues, due to the lack of adequate international exposure, Sen‘s Calcutta trilogy has never been discussed within the paradigm of Third Cinema.204 This chapter will endeavour to trace a connection between Sen‘s approach and a number of concepts and principles at the heart of Third Cinema. Through a detailed analysis of the film‘s content and formal attributes, I will examine how Calcutta 71 attempts to intervene in the politically turbulent atmosphere of West Bengal. An important first step in this process involves situating the film within the context of the Naxalite Movement. Hence, the following section provides a brief overview of the Naxalite ideology and the explosive political situations in West Bengal during the years that saw the inception and gradual decline of the Naxalite Movement.

The Naxalite Movement in West Bengal (1967-1972)

The Naxalite Movement began as an agrarian struggle against the feudal exploitation of the jotedars (landlords) in a place named Naxalbari in rural West Bengal. But slowly it took the shape of a massive armed insurrection against the state and spread to urban locations in different states in India. The Naxalite Movement was not a sudden outburst of anger

203 Sen, Montage, 53.

204 Sourav Roychowdhury, ―Cinema 4.5? Legacies of Third Cinema at the Age of Informational Capitalism,‖ PhD dissertation, University of Southern California (2010), 56. 93

against the existing political system. It marked the culmination of several militant movements that took place in previous decades such as the Telangana Movement (1946-

51) in Andhra Pradesh, the Tebhaga Movement (1946-48) in Bengal, leftist protests demanding the release of the political prisoners in Bengal (1948-49) and the Kakdwip episode of the Tebhaga Movement (1949-50). Mass agitations in West Bengal from the middle of the 1950s and the ideological split within the Communist Party of India (CPI) also served as crucial factors in the emergence of the Naxalite Movement. Following the

Sino-Soviet ideological conflict of 1959-62, the Indian communists also divided into two groups: pro-Soviet and pro-China. The Sino-India war in 1962 caused bitter controversy among the Indian communists concerning their attitude toward China. While the Pro-

Soviet communists were not in favour of a militant revolutionary approach, the pro-China faction embraced a more radical ideology. In 1964, the CPI was officially divided and the pro-China faction formed the second communist party in India: the Communist Party of

India (Marxist) (CPI [M]).

The increasing social and political discontent in West Bengal from the middle of the 1950s contributed to the end of the 20-year rule of the Congress party in the state. In 1967, an alliance of 14 parties including both communist parties came to power in West Bengal. The new coalition government, namely the United Front government, was formed ―amid the unprecedented jubilation of the masses.‖205 But the new government could not quickly implement important policies such as land reform, food distribution and the implementation of proper wage for agricultural workers due to administrative procedures.

205 Biplab Dasgupta, The Naxalite Movement (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1975), 2. 94

This administrative delay created dissatisfaction among local communist leaders and the underprivileged sections of rural areas.206 In May 1967, when a local landlord in the

Naxalbari area of district in West Bengal, acting in defiance of a judicial order, tried to evict a tribal youth from his land, the tribal people of the area retaliated against the strong-arm tactics of the landlord.207 On May 24, a police team went to that area and an officer was killed in a tribal ambush.208 The following day, a bigger police force opened fire on angry peasants, killing seven women, one man and two children.209 This sparked a violent armed uprising. The name Naxalbari became a ―hallmark of a new dream of

‗people‘s war‘ to the communist revolutionaries of India.‖210 Charu Mazumdar and Kanu

Sanyal, two veteran local leaders of the CPI (M), played a vital role in organizing the peasant uprising. Charu Mazumdar was an ideologue and critical of the decision of the CPI

(M) to participate in the parliamentary election. As a radical Maoist, Mazumdar wanted the

CPI (M) to become more deeply affiliated with the thoughts of Chairman Mao Zedong.

Sushital Roychoudhury, another veteran member of the CPI (M), also possessed similar views. When the CPI (M) decided to participate in 1967 elections, Mazumdar and

Roychoudhury circulated a document criticizing this decision. Echoing the ideas of Mao

Zedong, these two veteran leaders classified the Indian ruing class as ―consisting of

206 Mallarika Sinha Roy, Gender and Radical Politics in India, 4.

207 Bidyut Chakrabarty and Rajat Kumar Kujur, Maoism in India: Reincarnation of Ultra-left Wing Extremism in the Twenty-first Century (Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2010), 41.

208 Biplab Dasgupta, The Naxalite Movement, 3.

209 Mallarika Sinha Roy, 4.

210 Ibid. 95

comprador bourgeoisie and feudal elements.‖211 They also emphasized the need for armed struggle with the peasantry as the leading force.

Soon after the armed peasant uprising in Naxalbari, the leaders of the Naxalbari unit of the

CPI (M) declared the area a ‗liberated zone‘.212 Armed squads were deployed to defend the area and several village committees were formed to run the local administration. Failing to persuade the local leaders to stop their revolutionary activities, the CPI (M) expelled them from the party. But the armed peasant uprising in Naxalbari caused a stir in West Bengal and a large number of educated youths were attracted to the idea of changing the social structure through an armed struggle. In 1968, the far-left radical communists of India formed the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) to organize armed struggle in different regions of the country. On 1 May, 1969 the third communist party in India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI (ML)) was formed by the AICCCR leaders. In 1970, the first congress of the CPI (ML), elected Charu

Mazumdar as general secretary of this new party. CPI (ML) was called the ―the party of armed revolution‖ and its leaders declared their aims in the party resolution: ―The first and foremost task of our Party is to rouse the peasant masses in the countryside to wage guerrilla war, unfold agrarian revolution, build a rural base, use the countryside to encircle the cities, and finally to capture the cities and to liberate the whole country.‖213

211 Biplab Dasgupta, 6.

212 Ibid.

213 Prakash Singh, The Naxalite Movement in India (New Delhi: Rupa and Co., 1995), 21-22. 96

After the village of Naxalbari, the activists of this armed struggle under the leadership of

Charu Mazumdar came to be known as Naxal (the Naxalites in English). Many students from Presidency College, the famous academic institution in Calcutta, and students of a number of other important medical and engineering colleges became Naxalites. These students were considered to be ―the cream of Bengali youth‖. The Naxalites drew their ideological inspiration from the revolutionary ideas of Mao Zedong and the Chinese

Revolution of 1949. Following Mao‘s analysis of the class character, the Naxalites considered India as a ―semi-colonial‖ and ―semi-feudal‖ country. For them, the independence of India in 1947 from the British colonial rule was a sham because it could not abolish class exploitation from Indian society. The Naxalites aimed to establish an equal society free of exploitation through a revolutionary armed struggle led by the oppressed classes such as landless peasants. The CPI (ML) strongly criticized the other communist parties in India because they had abandoned the idea of armed struggle and participated in parliamentary democracy. The Naxalites also accused the of social imperialism and considered the Indian state as a lackey of US imperialists and Soviet neo-colonialists.214 For the CPI (ML), after independence from British rule, the Indian state was plagued by US imperialism, social imperialism, feudalism and comprador-bureaucratic capitalism.215 The Naxalites deemed the political situation of post-independence India as favourable for commencing an armed people‘s revolution. For them, the ruling class lacked popular support and ―once armed struggle starts in any corner of this country it would spread like a forest fire within a short time to cover the whole country.‖216

214 Mallarika Sinha Roy, 5.

215 Biplab Dasgupta, 118.

216 Ibid., 121. 97

After the formation of the CPI (ML), the Naxalites began organizing various rural uprisings. The Naxalite Movement reached its peak at this stage and the Naxalites adopted the policy of annihilating the class enemies as the ―only tactic‖ of their armed struggle.217

Class enemies included landlords and their agents, rich peasants, money-lenders, police informers, police personnel and members of rival political parties such as Congress and

CPI (M). The Naxalites described the annihilation of class enemies as ―a higher form of class struggle and the beginning of guerrilla war.‖218 In the early months of 1970 the

Naxalite Movement reached the urban areas and Calcutta turned into the hotbed of

Naxalite violence. Following the Chinese model of ―Cultural Revolution,‖ the Naxalites destroyed property at a number of educational institutions and boycotted examinations.

For the Naxalite ideologues, the Universities ―were giving the wrong kind of education, which was colonial in outlook and which contaminated young minds with reactionary ideas.‖219 The Naxalites also demolished the statues of Indian national heroes and famous cultural personalities accusing them of serving and defending the interests of imperialism.220

By the middle of 1972, the annihilation campaign of the Naxalites was met by a brutal police response. Many Naxalites were arrested. Many of those, however, were killed by hired armed goons that worked in conjunction with the police force.221 Calcutta witnessed a

217 Ibid., 26.

218 Singh, The Naxalite Movement in India, 25.

219 Biplab Dasgupta, 72-73.

220 Singh, The Naxalite Movement, 72.

221 Atul Kohli, ―From Breakdown to Order: West Bengal,‖ in State and Politics in India, ed. Partha Chatterjee, (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), 351. 98

terrible massacre of Naxalites in Cossipore-Baranagar area on August 12-13, 1971. Police and a group of 200 to 300 armed people cordoned off this Naxalite stronghold and hunted the Naxalites.222 Within a very short time, more than 150 young men connected to the

Naxalite movement had been murdered in that area. Their mutilated bodies lay on the streets in broad daylight and later they were carried in rickshaws and handcarts and thrown into the river.223 In December 1971, a writer in Frontier, a leftist weekly published in

Calcutta, wrote: ―Now the Naxalites are not the killers, they are being killed or murdered by the police or their agents.‖224 Charu Mazumdar was arrested at his hide-out in July 1972.

He died in police custody after a few days, and with the death, the Naxalite Movement totally lost its momentum in West Bengal.

The Beginning of Calcutta 71: Coming to Grips with Contemporary Reality

In 1971, apart from the violence surrounding the Naxalite Movement, West Bengal also witnessed the influx of thousands of refugees from Bangladesh. When the Pakistani army launched a genocidal attack in Bangladesh, many fled to West Bengal.

During the nine-month war between the Pakistani army and the Bangladeshi resistance fighters, these Bangladeshis lived in squalid refugee camps in West Bengal. Calcutta 71 is the product of these chaotic contemporary circumstances marked by revolutionary

222 Biplab Dasgupta, The Naxalite Movement, 92.

223 Kohli, State and Politics in India, 351.

224 Prabir Basu, ―Lessons of Birbhum,‖ Frontier (18 December 1971). 99

violence, destruction, suffering and death. The film‘s unorthodox form is also influenced by the restless and turbulent socio-political atmosphere. As Sen explained later:

It was the worst of times for the country and yet, the best of times for me to explore

new areas. To make an attempt at establishing some sort of difference… I realized the

time had come to say something new, in a new style. The political environment had

been changing since 1967. So I tried to search for a new form.225

Calcutta 71 begins with a voice-over. The following written statement is read by a twenty- year-old male:

I am twenty years old. With twenty years of age, I have been walking one thousand

years. I have been walking through poverty, squalor and death. For the last one

thousand years, I have been watching history – history of poverty, history of

deprivation, history of exploitation.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The film then cuts to a low-angle shot showing the Bridge in Calcutta. The title of the film is superimposed on the shot of the bridge. The title is shown again in the following shot, this time against the backdrop of an old building displaying the

225 Sen, Montage, 53, 120. 100

architectural heritage of the British period. These two shots thus indicate Calcutta‘s present and the past, reminding us of the opening statement that also provides references to both history and the present time. Suddenly the jerky movement of a swish pan relocates the focus of the scene to a tram filled with people. The blurry panning shot is followed by a montage of different images of contemporary Calcutta: Bangladeshi refugees in their run-down camps, typewriters in newspaper offices, race-goers watching horse races, musicians playing Indian musical instruments at a musical soiree, a discotheque where men and women are displaying western style dance steps, and the traditional procession of Hindu religious festival with idols of Goddess . These carefully selected images demonstrate the social and cultural divides in Calcutta. Indian musical instruments and the festival procession indicate the cultural tradition, whereas the discotheque shows the influence of modernity in Indian society. The jubilant crowd at the racecourse stands in sharp contrast to the scrawny refugees, revealing the class contradiction in Calcutta.

Near the start of the montage, the non-diegetic music produced by electric guitar and drums is replaced by the ambient sound of Indian percussion instruments and cymbals when the image of the festival procession appears. The music produced by these Indian instruments is then suddenly interrupted by the harsh sound of a bomb explosion. The film cuts from the festive procession to the scene of a bomb blast on the street. The ensuing footage is an actual street fight between the police and angry protesters. Some still photographs of street violence also appear on the screen and the loud sound of repeated gunshots is heard on the soundtrack. During the tumultuous period of the 1960s and early

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1970s, Bengali films produced in West Bengal tended to avoid direct depictions of the contemporary political and social upheavals. Satyajit Ray‘s Calcutta trilogy indirectly mentions contemporary revolutionary struggle only through the conversations between the characters. Ritwik Ghatak‘s Jukti, Takko aar Gappo (Reason, Debate and a Story, 1974) contains an episode dealing with the Naxalite rebels. But depictions of popular discontent in Calcutta during the 1960s do not appear in the films made by Ray and Ghatak. By incorporating real footage of violent confrontations between the police and the angry masses that frequently rocked Calcutta during the 1960s, Calcutta 71 signals its willingness to directly engage with the discontent and violence that characterized Bengali political history at this point in time.

Scenes of street violence cut to a low-angle shot showing a modern high-rise building. The piercing noise of street pandemonium continues in the background; its continuation on the soundtrack can be read as indicating that the violent protests occurring at the present time are directed to the power-holders of the society. It can also be interpreted to suggest that despite the tumultuous situations of contemporary society, the privileged echelons remain undisturbed, living in tall buildings far above the chaotic Calcutta streets. The shot of the tall building cuts to a still photograph of an extremely thin child who seems to be a victim of famine. This photograph is followed by three others showing an emaciated mother and her children lying on the street. The sound of mayhem suddenly stops when those still images start to appear: they are shown in complete silence. But the last image cuts to a jerky, blurry, hand-held shot showing a tree. Loud noises of a bomb explosion and the scream of people break the silence. The subsequent shots show the still images of

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an empty auditorium, an empty stadium and an empty university campus, suggesting the effects of political unrest on the city.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Suddenly a shot of the final sequence of Sen‘s previous film Interview appears on the screen. We see the glass window of a shop is smashed by the stones thrown by Ranjit.226

Through the juxtaposition of contrasting shots such as a low-angle shot, still photographs and a jerky hand-held shot, optical conflicts are created in the film. The loud noise of street violence is interspersed with complete silence, creating an aural conflict. Such visual and aural conflicts are used to create a jolt in the spectator‘s mind. The swish pan, jump cuts, jerky shots, low-angle shot, still photographs, the documentary footage – all these devices call attention to the filmmaking process. The juxtaposition of the real footage and the fictional scene from a film also creates a visual conflict, serving to keep the spectator disturbed. This barrage of shots since the opening title provides constant shocks in the film. Through the use of these disorienting techniques, the first sequences of Calcutta 71 also convey a sense of unease, evoking the worrying circumstances of contemporary society.

226 In Interview, the young protagonist Ranjit fails to obtain a job in a British company based in India only because he does not attend the job interview wearing a suit. He could not collect his own suit from the laundry due to the strike by the laundry employees. He managed to borrow a suit from one of his affluent friends. But in the bus on his way home, he caught a pickpocket red-handed and had to go to the police station. He forgot to take the suit with him and the suit was lost. Ranjit attends the interview wearing traditional Indian clothes and does not get the job. Out of sheer frustration and anger, on that evening Ranjit throws stones at a shop-window, breaks the glass and strips the mannequin dressed in Western suit. In doing so, Ranjit seems to make a symbolic protest against social injustices. 103

The following sequence shows a young woman standing beside a tree. A news bulletin of

All India Radio is heard on the soundtrack. The news presenter reads a report about the discovery of the bullet-ridden dead body of an unidentified young man that morning in the north-western corner of Maidan, the largest park in Calcutta. The bulletin also includes the information that the unidentified deceased young man was about twenty-years-old, reminding us of the male whose voice-over was heard in the opening shot of the film. As the bulletin continues, the camera slowly tracks toward the woman. In a close-up, we see anxiety and grief spread across the woman‘s face. The written words shown in the opening shot are then superimposed on the dejected face of the woman, suggesting a connection between the words of the unseen man at the film‘s opening and the death of this unidentified twenty-year-old boy in Calcutta‘s Maidan. On the soundtrack, we hear a melancholy tune. The written statement fades out and a high-angle shot showing a slum fades in. The title ―1933‖ appears on the screen, and the film‘s exploration of the history of poverty, hunger, deprivation and exploitation in West Bengal begins.

Sad and Ugly Depictions of Poverty

In his essay ―An Esthetic of Hunger,‖ Glauber Rocha claims that the noblest cultural manifestation of hunger is violence.227 He notes: ―Cinema Novo shows that the normal behaviour of the starving is violence; and the violence of the starving is not primitive.

From Cinema Novo it should be learned that an aesthetic of violence, before being

227 Glauber Rocha, ―An Esthetic of Hunger,‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 59. 104

primitive, is revolutionary.‖228 For Rocha, the majority of Brazilians have not understood their hunger. They do not know where this hunger comes from. In his essay, Rocha asserts that the ―sad, ugly films‖ of Cinema Novo ―will ultimately make the public aware of its own misery.‖229 Recalling Rocha‘s observations about hunger and violence, Sen puts forward his own ideas about the ―dialectics of hunger, the dialectics of poverty‖:

What we wanted to do in Calcutta 71 was to define history, put it in its right

perspective. We picked out the most vital aspect of our history and tried to show the

physical side of hunger as well. Over time, the physical look of hunger is the same.

But there is a marked change in the people – their perception changes. In a way I call

this the dialectics of hunger, the dialectics of poverty. How from resignation and from

callousness people move to cynicism and defeat and anger and self-destruction and

poverty, and finally, to anger and violence which can become very creative in the

process.230

Rejecting the technological gloss of dominant cinema, Cuban filmmaker Julio García

Espinosa advocates an ―imperfect cinema‖ devoted to revealing the process which generates the problems.231 Through the three episodes depicting intense suffering and excruciating poverty, Sen attempts to show the underlying causes of present-day unrest and

228 Ibid., 60.

229 Ibid., 61.

230 Sen, Montage, 125-127.

231 Julio García Espinosa, ―For an Imperfect Cinema,‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 81.

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revolutionary violence. The episode entitled 1933 is based on the short story Atmahatyar

Adhikar (The Right to Commit Suicide, 1933) by Bengali Marxist writer Manik

Bandopadhyay. The episode shows the struggle of an impoverished family to keep dry on a night of torrential rain. Their house in the slum is too dilapidated to protect them from the downpour. There are holes in the ceiling and they keep several pots and bowls on the floor to catch the water leaking in. To protect the baby from the rain water, the mother holds her infant son to her bosom. Her teenage daughter, the oldest of the children, is already wet and shivering with cold; still, she holds an umbrella over her mother. The father does not look very perturbed. Unlike his wife, he does not show any concern for his children on this difficult night. He is seen smiling, making cynical comments and trying to smoke. He sardonically says that tonight the dirty water is dripping from the rooftop; probably tomorrow they will get fresh water falling directly from the sky. As the rain continues to fall, the daughter proposes that they should go to the porch of their neighbour to take shelter, but the father immediately sets the suggestion aside. He reminds his wife and daughter of the rude behaviour shown by these neighbours on a previous night.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The wife criticizes her husband. Unable to provide his family with shelter on a stormy night, he is in no position to be conscious of his ego. A heated argument begins and at one point, the husband is about to throw a bucket at his wife. The young girl tries to stop the quarrel between her parents and only succeeds in making her mother angry. The mother

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now vents her pent-up anger on the poor girl by slapping her and she screams in surprise.

A crash of thunder is heard on the soundtrack and the camera fixes on the father‘s face.

For the first time, we see an expression of grief on his face. But instead of relieving his young daughter from holding the umbrella over the woman, the father tries to take a nap.

At this stage of the episode, the daughter‘s pet dog wants to enter their house to keep itself dry from the rain. The man becomes furious to see this. He is about to thrash the dog with a stick but the girl begs him to show the animal mercy. The man pushes his daughter aside and comes out of the house to beat the dog, which disappears before he can attack it. The man fails to remember that just a while ago he condemned his neighbours for their unkindness. But now he does not hesitate to be cruel to an animal that is also seeking shelter from the storm.

Returning home, the man decides to take his family to the neighbour‘s house. Amid the incessant rain the parents and their children start walking toward a shelter. Only their feet are shown sometimes through hand-held shots, reminding us of the voice-over used at the film‘s opening – ―for the last one thousand years, I have been walking through poverty, squalor and death. I have witnessed the history of poverty, the history of humiliation.‖

Upon their arrival on the neighbour‘s house, they observe that many other impoverished people have already gathered at the veranda of that house. To their surprise, they see that the dog that has been chased away from their house also occupies a place in the veranda.

The camera slowly pans across the veranda, showing the crowd of underprivileged people.

The panning shot ends showing the father and the dog within the same frame. The dog is seen standing next to the man in that dry place. The man does not try to chase the dog out

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this time. His wife asks him if he would go inside the house. But the man only replies: ―Are you mad? Can‘t you see?‖ He does not make clear why he hesitates to enter the house. He remains silent. A dumbfounded expression spreads slowly across his face and the shot freezes. The camera zooms in on his face in the freeze shot. The dumbstruck expression reveals the pain, disgrace and humiliation caused by the grinding poverty. The written words of the opening shot, accompanied by the same melancholy background music, appear once again on the screen superimposed on the man‘s face.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

―1943,‖ the second episode, is based on a short story titled Angar (The Simmering Fire,

1943) by Prabodh Kumar Sanyal. The 1943 famine cost the lives of about fifty million people in Bengal and led thousands of hungry villagers to flock to Calcutta in search of food. During this period, these unfed people often even begged for some phen, the water strained off from boiled rice. The episode is set during this horrifying period and begins with the sound of aeroplane engine. A man is seen looking curiously at planes in the sky.

Calcutta was bombed during the Second World War. The man‘s curiosity suggests that these planes are military planes and the shot serves to establish the period. The following scene shows the depressed face of Shobhona, a woman in her twenties, against a dark background. Shobhona‘s voice-over narrates a letter written by her to Nolinakkho, her cousin. From the letter, we come to know that recently Shobhona lost her husband. Prices are soaring due to war and her family is undergoing financial hardship. Her younger 108

brother is unemployed and two other siblings cannot study anymore because of lack of money. The camera slowly zooms back from Shobhona‘s face, and her face dissolves into the dark background. The scene cuts to a railway track and we hear a man‘s voice-over talking about Shobhona‘s letter. We realize this is the voice of Nolinakkho.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The following sequence shows a conversation between two men in a train compartment.

Throughout , only one of the participants is shown, but the voice of the unseen man is that of Nolinakkho, heard in the previous sequence. From their conversation, we come to know that Nolinakkho lives in Delhi, the capital of India. He is going to Calcutta on a temporary visit to undertake official duties. When he reaches the house of Shobhona, he talks with her younger siblings and with one of their neighbours.

Most of the time during these conversations, Nolinakkho is not shown. Other characters are seen from his point of view and we only hear his voice. Shobhona‘s younger siblings do not recognize Nolinakkho. Even Shobhona‘s mother is unable to recognize him at first. Nolinakkho tells the neighbour that he is very close to this family. But most of the time during his conversations with his relatives, he is not seen. Thus, the filmic treatment of Nolinakkho presents him as detached from this family suffering from poverty. During his conversation with Shobhona‘s mother, his expensive shoes are shown in close-up, suggesting that unlike his relatives he has enough money to live comfortably. When

Nolinakkho is shown with his relatives, he is seen sitting at a distance. The physical space between them is emblematic of Nolinakkho‘s distance from the struggles and concerns of the family. The frequent use of Nolinakkho‘s point of view shots makes him appear like a 109

mere onlooker. He pays a temporary visit to his relatives‘ house and only remains a spectator of the distress of them and the city. Such treatment of Delhi-based Nolinakkho makes a political point. His distance from this family also stands in for the indifference shown by the central government based in Delhi towards the state of West Bengal. In

1967, the Congress party was defeated in the election for the first time in twenty years in

West Bengal, but the party was still in office in central government. A strained relationship thus developed between the central government and the new coalition government in

West Bengal. The Left parties of West Bengal accused the central government of not being supportive of the state. In 1943, when thousands of marginal peasants died of starvation in Bengal, Delhi did not experience any humanitarian catastrophe. Through the character of Nolinakkho, the film also condemns the privileged sections in India who only observed the deaths of millions of marginalized people in Bengal in 1943.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The conversation between Nolinakkho and another passenger in the train is followed by a sequence depicting the condition of Calcutta during the days of famine. A group of desperate and hungry people is seen sitting on the street. Suddenly a child shouts to let others know that someone is giving phen. The people immediately start running to collect the liquid. The scene cuts to another still image of an extremely thin child casting a sidelong glance at the camera. On the soundtrack, we hear the distant sound of an aeroplane engine, reminding us of the context of the war and the role it plays in the devastation and hunger experienced by the population. Sen provides his trenchant

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criticisms of the war by mixing the sound of the plane engine with the image of the undernourished child. The child rests his body against a bamboo post and casts a sidelong glance directly at the audience. The futility of this war and the rulers‘ lack of concern for the common people have been laid bare through this image. Through his glance, the child seems to put a question to the audience about the reason of his wretched condition. Sen‘s camera then zooms in on the child‘s image, making his accusatory gaze more discernible in the film.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Without knowing much about the struggle of Shobhona‘s family within contemporary adverse circumstances, Nolinakkho criticizes the immediate environment of Shobhona‘s house. Having seen Shobhona‘s younger sister to go to see a man in an adjacent house,

Nolinakkho also expresses mild dissatisfaction. Nolinakkho soon witnesses very unpleasant altercations between Shobhona‘s mother and her daughters. He discovers that both Shobhona and her younger sister have taken up prostitution and that this has been endorsed by Shobhona‘s mother. A terrible time and ruthless poverty have forced the members of this family to abandon their moral principles. Sticking to moral virtues in this miserable situation only leads people to starvation and death. An ex-school teacher, a neighbour of Shobhona‘s, remarks that although the famine-victims are dying of starvation, they are not looting the food stores in Calcutta. What would have happened if all these people had risen up in revolt? Yet these unfed rural people are too docile and emaciated to resort to violence. Depressing conversations taking place in this house are

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often interrupted by the heart-rending cries of hungry people coming from outside, seeking only some phen. 1943 witnessed the slow and painful deaths of millions of people who could not protest against unjust circumstances. Nolinakkho does not spend much time with his relatives, nor does he offer them any help. He departs for Delhi leaving his sad cousin and the doleful time of Calcutta behind. In the last sequence of the episode when he says farewell to Shobhona, he remains unseen. We only hear his voice. The camera shows Shobhona‘s face filled with guilt and grief, which dissolves into a freeze shot of the face against a dark background. The melancholy background music returns and the written texts again appear on the screen superimposed, suggesting the continuation of poverty, humiliation and exploitation.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Both of these episodes lay bare the sad and ugly effects of excruciating poverty in West

Bengal. Still photographs of starving people lying on the street, quarrels between family members, freeze frames of faces stunned in despair – all these elements add to the grimness of the episodes. ―Never before has poverty been depicted so ruthlessly, without any compromise in Bengali cinema,‖ writes Dipankar Mukhopadhyay.232 The Bengali tradition of making poverty ―respectable and dignified‖ has no place in Sen‘s films.233

Many Bengali poems and novels describe the beauty of a monsoon night and rain. But

Sen‘s filmic treatment gives incessant rain a brutal quality. Sen also does not celebrate

232 Dipankar Mukhopadhyay, Mrinal Sen: Sixty Years in Search of Cinema (New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers India, 2009), 100.

233 Mrinal Sen, Montage, 125. 112

liberal humanist ideas in his film made in a period of political crisis. He is determined to confront his audience by showing that the basic problems faced by his country are the result of a system that perpetuates exploitation and poverty. According to Sen:

As long as you present poverty as something dignified, the establishment will not be

disturbed. The establishment will not act adversely as long as you describe poverty as

something holy, something divine… I have tried to get away from painting pretty

pictures – pictures of poverty, pictures of rural life. It is very important for me to

make things look un-pretty, to keep the rough edges. I don‘t want to remain a

perfectionist or a traditionalist. That‘s not my intent.‖234

These episodes also demonstrate the gradual development of people‘s anger. Sen concurs with John Steinbeck‘s assertion that there is a thin line between hunger and anger.235 The first episode conveys a sense of cynicism. Due to the cruel blows of poverty, the father loses his feelings of compassion. He vents his anger on his young daughter and a dog. In the second episode, the anger becomes more noticeable. Their anger seems to be, as

Mukhopadhyay says, ―a savage attempt at self-destruction, violence committed against one‘s own self.‖236 But the third episode shows the deep resentment of some disadvantaged teenagers in West Bengal in 1953 towards the oppression and injustices of the society. They also do not conceal their anger against their mistreatment by some educated middle-class gentlemen. They do not hesitate to directly confront these gentlemen. For Sen, such protests exemplify the creative anger.

234 Ibid., 125, 163.

235 Mrinal Sen, Views on Cinema (Calcutta: Ishan, 1977), 93.

236 Mukhopadhyay, 100. 113

The Creative Anger: Direct Protest by the Downtrodden against the

Privileged

The final scene of the second episode dissolves into a shot showing the wheels of a train running at full speed. The melancholy music is also replaced by the sound of the train wheels. 1953, the title of the third episode appears on the screen. The episode set in West

Bengal at a period of food crisis is based on Esmalgar (the Smugglers, 1953), a short story by eminent Bengali novelist Samaresh Basu. The episode shows some teenagers from rural areas who carry rice secretly into Calcutta. During the period of food shortage in the

1950s, the state government introduced public rationing system in order to distribute rice to people. But taking the advantage of administrative corruption in the state, a group of people started buying rice from the peasants through middlemen and stored it in order to make huge profits. Instead of selling rice to the middlemen, the rural teenagers seen in this episode are selling rice directly to the retail market in order to get the real price for their products. But the state authority does not approve of such dealings and identifies these teenagers as smugglers.

All these teenagers are from extremely poor backgrounds. The leader of this group is

Gourango, a boy of about 15. Gourango and his friends look malnourished and they are raggedly clothed. We learn from their conversations that some of them have prison experiences. Gourango served short terms of imprisonment on three occasions. His father died leaving behind his mother and six children. In a scene we see a police officer visits

Gourango‘s house and interrogates his mother. The conversation informs us that as the 114

eldest son Gourango is now the head of the family, at the age of just 15. While many other boys of his age are enjoying a comfortable life, Gourango has to shoulder the huge responsibility of running a big family. In another scene, on his way to the railway station with a sack full of rice, Gourango stops near the window of a house in the same neighbourhood. A boy is seen reading attentively inside. Gourango teases the boy and offers him a cigarette. Instead of taking the cigarette the boy loudly calls his father and reports that he has been disturbed by Gourango. Gourango quickly disappears from the window. The scene shows the differences in upbringing between Gourango and another boy of his age. Gourango does not have a chance to study and he also does not know how it feels to be looked after by a father. Therefore, he smokes because he is performing the responsibilities of a grown-up man at such a tender age. He has already seen harsh aspects of life. Gourango is thus unrefined and rowdy. His friends also possess similar character traits.

When Gourango is about to get on a train, an unseen man asks him his name. Gourango looks directly at the camera and says that his name is Gourango and he is a smuggler. The camera tracks toward Gourango. Looking at the camera, Gourango sings a song. The lyrics of the song include paronomasia – ―chal chulo nei, bechal re, amra jotai chal.‖ In Bengali, chal means rice, roof and also manners. The song thus represents the sense that – we are underprivileged, we lack good manners and we supply rice. The song retains the attributes of , a Bengali devotional song performed by the Vaishnavas.237 The man asking

237 The Vaishnava Movement was a social and religious movement originated in Bengal in the fifteenth century. The Vaishnavas opposed the caste-system and the religious superstition of the upper-class, conservative Hindus. Kirtan was an effective device for the Vaishnavas to spread their ideas amongst people. 115

Gourango his name remains unseen. The question from the unseen man and Gourango‘s direct address to the camera lends the episode a documentary-like quality. It seems

Gourango suddenly ceases to be a fictional character. The scene thus serves to produce a jolt. It gives an impression that instead of controlling his actors, the filmmaker makes an attempt to shoot the spontaneous activities of Gourango and his friends with a view to capturing a real-life situation. Gourango looks like a real character as he starts speaking directly to the camera. By loudly asking Gourango to introduce himself, the filmmaker makes his subject confront the camera and also provide some critical remarks about the situations of the young rice-smugglers like him in the society. Thus, the scene draws on the style of a cinéma vérité documentary where, according to Barbet Schroeder, ―the camera, the actors, the director are all free to move and do what they want.‖238 Cinéma vérité films,

Colin Young writes, ―do not begin with a script but with an actual on-going event which they try to record, or a situation which they attempt to describe… in attempting to get at the truth of a situation, the preconceived script is disallowed, the film-maker does not direct (in the sense of controlling what is in front of the camera), and the editing process is faithful to the actual event.‖239 Cinéma vérité stories also display ―an individual‘s communicative relationship with his or her environment.‖240 The emphasis on individual subjectivity serves to foreground the auteurial act in cinéma vérité. On the one hand,

Gourango‘s act of directly addressing the camera adds to the sense of a real-life situation in the film. On the other hand, the scene serves to disrupt the fiction and audience immersion

238 Paul Gray, ―Cinéma Verité: An Interview with Barbet Schroeder,‖ The Tulane Drama Review, vol. 11 no. 1 (Autumn 1966): 130.

239 Colin Young, ―Cinema of Common Sense,‖ Film Quarterly, vol. 17 no. 4 (Summer 1964): 26.

240 András Bálint Kovács, Screening : European Art Cinema, 1950-1980 (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), 171. 116

in the story. Through Gourango‘s direct address, Sen thus systematically dismantles the usual pleasure and comfort the spectator expects to derive from a conventional narrative.

The episode thus far bears resemblance to the neorealist form. But at this point, through the incorporation of a direct address method the episode departs from the stylistic characteristics of neo-realism. Gourango‘s critical reflections on their situations á la a cinéma vérité character make the scene more personal and subjective than a representation possessing neorealist traits. Gourango‘s bold comments and his song marked by caustic wit draw the spectator in the scene and make him confront the reality faced by these rural boys. By making Gourango acknowledging the camera, the director not only tries to increase the sense of reality, he also endeavours to expose the reality of filmmaking by drawing attention to the filmmaking process. Gourango‘s direct address serves to bring the spectator closer to what is represented, thereby negating the passive receptivity of the spectator. Thus, in his film Sen incorporates Brechtian alienation strategy which was not a commonplace in Indian art films made until that time.

The scene is followed by a montage of indirectly related shots punctuated by jump cuts:

Gourango and his friends singing the same song in a train compartment, the view of the paddy fields from the window of the moving train, a police officer‘s visit to Gourango‘s house, some young boys are tackling their opponents on a field playing a traditional sport and the passing railroad tracks. These shots lacking immediately apparent connections once again serve to disrupt the audience immersion in the narrative. ―The effect of jump cuts,‖

Kovács writes, ―suggests to the viewer that actions are not represented in a film, they are rather created by authorial will, and their pace depends not on how they occur in reality,

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but what emotional effect the auteur wishes to exercise on the viewer.‖241 Gourango and his friends in the train compartment and the rural boys playing on the field look joyful. But the cheerfulness of the young boys singing and playing is juxtaposed to the expression of anxiety and fear on the face of Gourango‘s mother as she listens to the police, suggesting that Gourango and his friends belong to a vulnerable section of the society. The idyllic scene of the rural landscape lasts only for a short time. It is contrasted by close shots of the anxious face of Gourango‘s mother and the passing railway tracks which evoke a sense of unease. These contrasting shots also encourage the spectator to understand the dialectic between happiness and despair, between tranquility and tension.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

In the ensuing sequence, from the conversations between Gourango and his friends in the train compartment it is revealed that these boys have concealed their sadness and discontent behind a veneer of joviality. The sequence starts with a close-up of Gourango showing that he is talking about the miseries experienced by his family. Instead of showing the other boys in the compartment, the camera focuses on Gourango‘s face as if he is being interviewed. Thus, a documentary-like effect is once again created in the film.

Gourango‘s friends are seen in the subsequent shots. One of the boys in the group laments that his younger sister died because of lack of medical treatment when he was in the jail. Another boy says that they would not mind being arrested or being sent to jail by the police, but they just cannot stand the starvation of their family members. The

241 Kovács, 132. 118

sequence highlights that these young outcasts have great concern for the well-being of their families. Gourango‘s mother informs the police officer that they sell rice in order to survive. In spite of hearing this and seeing the poverty-stricken appearance of Gourango‘s mother, the police officer scolds her. Thus, the episode shows the administration‘s harshness towards these petty smugglers who are representing the people severely marginalized by an exploitative system. Gourango does not hesitate to say that he is a smuggler because for him, this is hardly a crime and he seems to be aware of the fact that it is the grinding poverty that has made him smuggle rice when many others of his age are enjoying a far more comfortable and peaceful life. In the train compartment Gourango is seen singing another song: ―I have seen jails and police stations; we poor people are dying out of sorrow, but no one seems to understand true justice.‖ While this critical song is heard on the soundtrack, Sen‘s camera shows the gloomy faces of Gourango‘s friends, signaling their helplessness within an unjust system.

The concluding sequences of the episode draw attention to the response of the educated middle-class to these undernourished and ragged young boys. Some well-dressed middle- class gentlemen are also seen in the train compartment. They look healthy and happy.

They are often seen laughing aloud. One of them is Biswas, a well-built man. His muscular body stands in total contrast to the malnourished bodies of the young rice-smugglers sitting on the floor of the same compartment, signalling the contrast between the haves and have-nots. Biswas is also seen travelling with two earthen pots full of sweets. Biswas is one of the privileged men in West Bengal who do not need to worry about the present food crisis. Another passenger in the compartment is seen eating delicious foods. The

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scene at this time cuts to a shot showing Gourango‘s mother in a swamp, collecting some plants. The poor villagers need to survive eating such plants when many others in this class-divided society enjoy a healthy, balanced diet. Gourango‘s mother always looks anxious and sad. It is evident that she needs to struggle against grim circumstances. In the swamp suddenly she sees a snake. She screams in fear. Her frightened scream seems even more painful when seen against the jovial laughter of the middle-class gentlemen in the train compartment.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

These gentlemen do not seem to tolerate the presence of Gourango and his friends in their compartment. One of them expresses his dissatisfaction against the rail company.

When Gourango politely approaches one of these gentlemen for a light, the man becomes furious. He rudely orders Gourango to move away. When Gourango protests his rude behaviour, the other gentlemen including Biswas become very angry. Their angry words only bring a small smile in Gourango‘s face. But Gourango‘s attitude makes Biswas even angrier. He mouths a swear word at Gourango. The uneducated Gourango hardly talks impolitely with the gentlemen, but an educated and well-groomed gentleman does not hesitate to hurl abuse at the young boy. Gourango still seems calm. He slowly stands up and starts singing a particular song that is critical of a person who uses swear words. This time big and burly Biswas attacks Gourango and starts beating the skinny young boy mercilessly. No one attempts to stop this huge man from beating an extremely thin boy.

Biswas gives the boy a violent beating. We see blood is oozing from the corner of 120

Gourango‘s mouth. Some of the passengers congratulate Biswas for his action. When a gentleman tries to say that it was not necessary to beat up the boy so violently, another passenger strongly disagrees with him and says that Biswas did the right thing.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Taking his sack of rice, Gourango moves near the door of the compartment. He looks sad and he remains silent. But when a passenger jeers at him, he looks at the passengers and for the first time we observe that his eyes are burning with rage. His face is still blood- stained. But there is no sign of depression on his face anymore. It is clear that his sadness transforms into anger as he has witnessed the meanness of these educated middle-class gentlemen. Soon the train reaches Biswas‘s destination. He rudely orders Gourango to move up from the door. When Biswas is getting off the train, Gourango quickly holds

Biswas‘s legs and Biswas falls from the train with his earthen pots full of sweets. We see

Biswas is lying on the ground. The other passengers look extremely surprised. It seems they cannot believe that this young boy would dare to confront Biswas even after enduring such a ruthless beating a short while ago. We see Gourango‘s face in a close-up and this time he smiles very happily. The scene quickly cuts from his happy face to the railway tracks on which a train is speeding by. It is thus shown that the anger of the oppressed slowly increases and the oppressed has felt the need to hit back.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

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Mike Wayne identifies ―politicization‖ as one of the recurring narrative tropes of Third

Cinema. He notes: ―For Third Cinema, one of the key areas of concern which needs to be explored is the process whereby people who have been oppressed and exploited become conscious of that condition and determine to do something about it.‖242 The episode in the train compartment demonstrates how Gourango‘s sadness about his miserable condition is transformed into opposition and action against the members of the middle- class. His anger against the oppression becomes so intense that he is not afraid to retaliate against the powerful oppressor. Now, he has a politicized consciousness. But Sen does not make his political criticisms oversimplified by only supporting the underdogs and presenting Biswas and other gentlemen as downright villains. Although the episode reveals the hatred felt by the middle-class gentlemen for these underprivileged boys,

Biswas is not portrayed as a man fully devoid of admirable qualities. A rural singer is shown in the train compartment. It seems that the singer earns money from the train passengers by performing spiritual songs. Seeing Biswas in the train compartment, he cordially greets Biswas which indicates that he has a good relationship with Biswas. Biswas replies to his greeting with a smile and talks very amiably with the rural singer who belongs to the disadvantaged section of the society. Gourango and his friends, however, are seen talking rudely with the singer when he wants to enter the compartment. In the train compartment, Gourango also shouts contemptuous remarks to an elderly underprivileged man, presumably a beggar. When another passenger starts eating,

Gourango and his friends poke fun at him. Apart from showing the hardship of the young rice-smugglers, the filmmaker also shows the negative aspects of their attitudes. Biswas and the other educated passengers seem to possess certain likable mental attributes, and

242 Mike Wayne, Political Film: The Dialectics of Third Cinema (London: Pluto Press, 2001), 16. 122

so they are not portrayed as out-and-out bad men. Thus, the narrative events of the episode do not make the spectator fully sympathize with Gourango and his friends. The director encourages the spectator to explore and perceive the complexities of social problems around him. He criticizes the failure of the educated middle-class to properly understand the roots of social problems. For the filmmaker, these educated gentlemen should try to understand the causes that make such young boys smugglers and unrefined.

The episode nonetheless highlights the fact that the end of colonial rule in India hardly changed the condition of the downtrodden. Presenting the middle-class gentlemen as unwilling to perceive the pains of the underprivileged, the episode justifies the outrage of the oppressed against the privileged sections. Thus, Sen‘s critique of the system and bourgeois individuals in this episode is connected to the Naxalite ideology. Gourango‘s retaliation in the train can be compared to the guerrilla actions against the class enemies advocated by the Naxalite leaders, in particular Charu Mazumdar. As Ananda Mitra puts it:

In the train sequence in Calcutta 71, there is an initial dominance of the youngsters as

they are able to create a degree of discomfort among the petty bourgeoisie fellow

passengers. Later, that position of dominance is wrenched away as one of the members

of the upper class is able to ―put the boy in his place‖, yet that position of bourgeois

advantage is subverted when the same boy trips his aggressor as the latter gets off the

train. That is the nature of that Mazumdar calls for, where the

downtrodden are able to hit quietly but decisively, as the boy does in this case.243

243 Ananda Mitra, ―Imaging of the 1970s: Calcutta and West Bengal,‖ in The Enemy Within: The Films of Mrinal Sen, ed. Sumita S Chakravarty (Wiltshire: Flicks Books, 2000), 57-58. 123

Calcutta in 1971: Pointing the Finger towards the Guilty Party

A central component of the process of politicization found in Third Cinema is presenting the scenario of class oppression from the point of view of the oppressed.244 According to

Gabriel:

In order that the struggle of Third World countries be successful, it is essential that

the people clearly identify the enemy(ies) and see, first, that it is the ruling classes of

the imperialist countries who oppress the Third World, rather than all whites or all

Europeans and Americans. Secondly, they must see that the peoples of Third World

countries are also divided into classes; and third, that the bourgeoisie will cling to its

interests rather than align itself with national anti-colonial and anti-imperialist

sentiments and, therefore, that it is inextricably tied up with the forces of

oppression.245

After documenting the suffering caused by relentless poverty in earlier decades, Sen intervenes in the contemporary crisis by pointing his finger at the upper class members who are the main beneficiaries of an exploitative system. The film returns to present-day

Calcutta to show a sequence of an upper class party. The last scene of 1953 showing a moving train cuts into a stage light. We hear the sound of electric guitar and 4/4 drumbeats. The following shots show a rock band performing on a stage. They are playing

244 Nandita Ghosh, ―Shooting Image Weapons: The place of Manthan as Third Cinema in India,‖ Deep Focus: A Film Quarterly 6, no. 1 (1996): 68.

245 Teshome H. Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1982), 15. 124

a long instrumental piece akin to Acid Rock which was popular in the West in the late

1960s and early 1970s. The sound of Acid Rock epitomizes the 1970s and also an urban setting frequented by the Anglophile members of the upper-class. A high-angle shot shows some formally-dressed men and women enjoying themselves at a party in a beautifully-decorated garden. Close-ups of the guests attending the party are also shown intercut with the close shots of the faces of the musicians performing on the stage. An elderly lady and a young woman are seen wearing expensive clothes and jewellery. They are smiling happily, sipping at their wine. They look very different from the worried, distressed and mortified women we have seen in the previous episodes in the film. Soon a gentleman named Bannerjee arrives at the party and greets everyone in English. The loud instrumental music performed by the band is heard on the soundtrack. The use of chiaroscuro lighting serves to lend the images a melodramatic effect.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

We learn from the conversations between the party guests that Bannrjee is a rich industrialist and he is also politically well-connected. During his conversations with other guests, he constantly talks about the importance of adhering to high moral principles.

Suddenly the image of a painting of famine appears on the screen. The painting shows a mother weeping uncontrollably keeping her child on her lap. Maybe the child is dead. A shot of the drummer of the band playing his bass drums very powerfully jump cuts to this non-diegetic insert of the painting. As soon as the painting appears on the screen, the loud background music stops. The sudden silence and the abrupt insertion of the painting

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create a jolt. The film then cuts back to the party scene and the background music returns.

We come to know from Bannerjee that he owns the original version of that famine painting. He informs the other guests that he hangs it on the wall opposite his dining table so that, every time he eats, he remembers the people who died out of hunger during the famine of 1943. Bannerjee continues to lament on the deaths of millions of people, all the while holding a glass of wine in his hand. The other guests listen to Bannerjee while they are drinking wine and smoking pipes. At this point, we experience another abrupt insertion: this time of real photographs showing skeletal children, hungry men and women, and corpses lying on the street. Loud drum beats and acid rock tunes accompany these real images. The music does not sound grim, thereby creating a contrast between the background music and the unpleasant and depressing content of the photographs. The juxtaposition of Bannerjee‘s hollow words about remembering the famine victims and the photos emphasizes the difference between the marginalized population who died of starvation in 1943 and the life-style of the contemporary affluent elite.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

During the course of the party we come to know that Bannerjee was involved with illegal buying and selling during the Second World War. Black marketeering is the source of his wealth. A discussion between guests at another table also reveals that in response to the request by workers for a meagre bonus, Bannerjee enforces lockout in two of his factories.

But due to Bannerjee‘s wealth and political influence, people do not dare to expose him.

During the party, one of Banerjee‘s subordinates tells other guests about Banerjee‘s

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depravities and dishonesties. But later, when Bannerjee openly insults the same man in front of other guests, he silently swallows Bannerjee‘s offensive remarks. The silence of this man is emblematic of bourgeois reluctance to challenge the powerful. This man also stands in sharp contrast to young Gourango who retaliates against a powerful adversary.

At the party, a young woman is seen talking with a man about her experience of collecting money from city pedestrians for the Bangladeshi war refugees. The woman found the experience annoying because she needed to work on a hot afternoon. She also found it embarrassing to approach unknown pedestrians for money. The woman says that after their work she and other women of her group told the organizers that they must be treated some ice-creams because they had worked so hard to collect money for the refugees. The film, at this point, cuts to the real footage showing the unhygienic and shabby interior of a refugee camp. A hand-held tracking shot shows the ailing, malnourished mothers with their extremely thin children in the camp. On the soundtrack, we hear cries of children. As the film continues to show the footage of the sorry state of the refugees, the comment of the woman is repeatedly used on the soundtrack – ―we must be treated some ice-creams.‖ By making us hear the comment several times while we see the footage of the suffering of the refugees, Sen indicts such callousness of the urban bourgeoisie as responsible for the miseries of the oppressed. The soundtrack thus serves to convey the director‘s political criticisms, drawing the spectator‘s attention to the cold- hearted attitudes displayed by the upper class members.

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In another scene, Bannerjee expresses his optimism saying that a new India is being born.

The scene is juxtaposed with another piece of real footage of a newborn baby lying on a dusty road. The baby is crying and we see some extremely poor people sitting on the street. The footage depicting the perpetual poverty in the country appears as a scathing attack on Bannerjee‘s idea of a new India. The shift from the fiction to the real footage also demonstrates that politicization operates across both the narrative and formal levels of the film. The real shots of individuals looking back at the camera implicate the audience and the filmmaker in the film‘s process of political reflection.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Throughout the party sequence, the conversations between the guests on grim topics such as famine, lockout, refugees and injustices are interspersed by the shots of the musicians performing on the stage. The band music is also heard on the soundtrack during their conversations. The musicians performing on the stage and the guests are never seen within a same shot. It is not made clear in the episode whether the band is performing in the garden in front of the upper class guests or they are performing elsewhere. Thus, the director deliberately makes it difficult to understand if the acid rock tunes are coming from a diegetic source or they are non-diegetic. Throughout the sequence, the juxtaposition of the real footage of famine and war victims and the merrymaking of the upper class members serves to disturb the spectator. The confusion regarding the nature of the soundtrack also increases the sense of discomfort. The discussions about the suffering of the poor seem like casual and relaxed conversations due to the

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accompaniment of the exultant tunes produced by the guitar and drums. Gleeful tunes also accompany the real footage and photographs depicting intense suffering of the disadvantaged during famine and war. Thus, the background music runs counter to what we see on the screen and thus becomes an example of contrapuntal sound. In 1928,

Eisenstein emphasized the use of sound that works against the information provided by the visual images. For him, ―only a contrapuntal use of sound could create real artistic effect in the .‖246 The disparity between background music and images serves to increase the dramatic tension of the party scenes.

The party conversations revealing the hypocrisy and callousness of the upper class members are often intercut by several full screen cards with written words and symbols appearing on the screen. We see printed words such as vote, election, hope, despair, frustration, hunger, unemployment and the betrayal of the ancestors. The scene informing us of the lock out in Bannerjee‘s factory cuts to more printed words such as lockout, strike, politics, capitalism and socialism. These words are followed by words such as bombs, pistol, gun and the Bengali word ―khatam‖ which means ―annihilation.‖ Finally, the Bengali word ―hotta‖ (which means ―killing‖) appears and flashes on the screen a few times. Through the juxtaposition of these words with the depictions of the upper class hypocrisy and callousness, the film identifies the upper class as the class enemies responsible for the oppression and exploitation of the marginalized. Annihilation and killing are seen as the outcome of the gradual development of the anger of the oppressed

246 Cited in Kovács, 298.

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towards the class enemies. But the word ―killing‖ also refers to the assassination of the individuals who rebelled against unjust circumstances and oppression. The use of the cards from time to time interrupts the conversations of the guests and also makes the spectator aware that he is watching a film. The deployment of these visual elements necessitates the viewer devoting greater intellectual effort to make sense of what he is seeing. The film constantly moves between text and image, documentary and fiction, representational and presentational forms of engagement with the audience. Thus, the director refuses to provide the spectator with the comfort of passively watching a film, thereby deconstructing traditional forms of cinematic representation. The party sequence thus demonstrates the film‘s emphasis on the politics of form as well as content. The director displays his political engagement as well as auteurial self-expression.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The Film‘s Call for Protest and Revolutionary Struggle

For Jorge Sanjines, ―the work of revolutionary cinema must not limit itself to denouncing, or to the appeal for reflection; it must be a summons for action.‖247 Gabriel also asserts that, ―the Third Cinema is based on provocation and participation, and it must induce audiences to act, rather than remain passive.‖248 The final part of Calcutta 71 critiques the spectators for their passivity and suggests direct action against the oppression and

247 Quoted in Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World, 21.

248 Ibid., 25. 130

injustice. At this stage, the film departs from realistic representation in order to create a greater emotional effect. During the party, suddenly we hear the sound of a bomb explosion. The background music stops and the screen goes dark. We hear screams of terror in the darkness. Soon we hear a male voice telling everyone not to be frightened because he is not carrying any bomb or gun. Suddenly the noises stop. The voice informs us that he is actually a dead man.

Soon we see a hazy object on the dark screen. The object slowly comes into focus and we see the face of a young man. Blood is oozing from a wound in his forehead. The young man looks directly at the camera and says that, very early this morning, he was chased to the western corner of Maidan where he was shot and killed by his assailants. The young man‘s story reminds us of the radio broadcast heard at the beginning of the film that reported the discovery of the dead body of an unidentified young man of twenty in

Calcutta Maidan. Chiaroscuro lighting is used in the shot showing the young man. He looks at the camera and directly addresses the audience:

Do you know why I am here? I have come here to tell you that I know who killed me.

But I wouldn‘t let you know their names; I want you to seek them out. And when you

try to look for them you will not be able to stay calm and silent anymore. Well, why

are you always so silent and unconcerned? Why are you so callous and cold? Don‘t

you live in this country? Don‘t you feel sad, don‘t you feel very angry to see such a

horrible death as mine?

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(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The young man also informs the audience that he has been murdered because he has seen oppression, injustice and exploitation for a thousand years, reminding us again of the voice-over we heard in the opening shot of the film. The film then cuts to a shot showing five mannequins. The mannequins are positioned in a way as if they are about to shoot someone with their rifles, recalling the soldiers in the Odessa Steps sequence in The

Battleship Potemkin (1925). The concluding sequences of the film involve the juxtaposition and replaying of various different scenes. Two brief scenes from the episodes 1933 and

1943 are again shown in the film intercut by the audience-address of the young man. The young man tells us that a protest seems to evolve over time out of the pain and humiliation suffered by the oppressed. The scene cuts to a shot showing a man dressed like a mannequin moving cautiously. He adopts a posture as if he is holding a gun in his hand and he is about to shoot someone. The film then cuts to the documentary footage of mass demonstrations and street fights. We see tear gas shells exploding on the street and the riot police chasing the demonstrators. Demonstrators are seen chanting angry slogans.

Another cut shifts our view to the legs of people marching like soldiers, echoing the

Odessa Steps sequence. Next, a collage of the documentary footage of mass protest is intercut with shots showing Gourango and his friends, Gourango‘s mother and the young man shot this morning. This intercutting positions the film‘s characters as part of the mass movement against social injustice. By showing the fictional characters of the film between real shots of mass demonstrations, Sen blatantly expresses his anti-establishment stance and inserts Calcutta 71 within the praxis of contemporary revolutionary struggle. The scene

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systematically provokes the spectator to become active. It suggests political action as essential means for achieving social transformation.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

But the film ends on a pessimistic note. A jerky hand held shot shows the young man running through a narrow alley. We see him for the first time in daylight. We understand that he is being chased by his adversaries. The following shots do not maintain consistency with time and space. The young man is seen running through narrow Calcutta lanes, forests, and a beach. His run is intercut with a shot shown in negative of people posing like marksmen and photographs of people killed in Bangladesh, Vietnam and

Biafra. This run is thus emblematic of the repression of people who rose against oppressive circumstances. Eventually the young man is seen running across the Calcutta

Maidan. We hear the piercing sound of gunshots. A long shot shows his lifeless body lying on the ground. The death of the young man evokes the police brutalities in Calcutta against the Naxalite youths. According to Biplab Dus Gupta, the police used to provide the same excuses about the deaths of the Naxalites with such regularity that people began to suspect that ―the police were killing them in cold blood in order to avoid the trouble of going through court proceedings.‖249 But when Sen was asked if the young man shown in

Calcutta 71 was a Naxalite, Sen replied: ―Do you mean to say that only Naxalites are being

249 Quoted in Ananda Mitra, The Enemy Within: The Films of Mrinal Sen, 55. 133

killed by police?‖250 Sen‘s position is clear: ―I had the greatest respect for those who played militant roles in the Naxalite movement; at the same time I was critical about them.‖251

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

But Sen‘s savage indictment of the upper class in Calcutta 71 made in the aftermath of the

Naxalite Movement indicates that the film is allied with the Naxalite ideology. Sen takes a stand in the film. He confronts the urgent problems and provides his political statements from the viewpoint of the oppressed. Through an exploration of the history of poverty and exploitation in West Bengal, Sen demonstrates the roots of contemporary social and political problems. The film concerns itself with revolutionary subject matter and forms. Identifying the forces responsible for the repression of the masses, Sen highlights the need for revolutionary struggle. Through direct-audience address, a filmic device rarely used in Indian cinema, Sen implicates the spectator‘s own viewing and responses in his protest against social injustice. Sen‘s explicit engagement with political themes and his denunciations of oppression serve to convey a sense of outrage. John Hood indicates that such an outrage is not commonplace in Indian films.

According to him, ―the absence of outrage, even as it might allow for the idealization of the highly questionable, does not make them inferior films, but it does preclude them from being political films.‖252 Calcutta 71 is also political in the sense that it subverts the conventional formal aesthetics of Indian cinema in order to provide its political messages.

250 Cited in Mukhopadhyay, Mrinal Sen, 110.

251 Sen, Montage, 155.

252 John W. Hood, Chasing the Truth: The Films of Mrinal Sen (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1993), 20. 134

Third Cinema emphasizes the critical engagement of the spectators with the film‘s representations. The unconventional film techniques employed in Calcutta 71 such as the alienation devices, departure from realistic representation, episodic structure, written words, the juxtaposition of stylized scenes and grainy documentary footage, and contrapuntal music serve to bring the cognitive powers of the spectator into play. Thus, the film uses some important strategies of Third Cinema. Sen‘s film directly addresses the spectator‘s own preconceived ways of understanding issues of violence and social oppression. The formal methods employed in the film encourage us to shift our position from emotional identification with character to a reflection on the underlying cause of social crisis.

For Sen, a filmmaker is under no compulsion to point his finger at the enemy in a film.

But during the turbulent period in Calcutta in the early 1970s, the director felt it important to expose them.253 Sen believes that his job is to provide information from a point of view which is clearly not neutral.254 Sen also said in the 1970s: ―I have of late developed a taste for pamphleteering to blend the fictional with the actualities, to draw conclusions on a propagandist note… this is my area of experimentation. This is where I am now trying to discover myself.‖255 In his attempt to interpret the causes of immediate political problems in Calcutta 71, Sen also identifies the guilty party responsible for the suffering of the underprivileged and the marginalized segments. Sen thus attempts to make an explicitly

253 ―Interview, Calcutta 71 and Padatik,‖ Chitrabikkhan, Mrinal Sen Issue (April-May 1993): 82; Sen, Montage, 236.

254 Sen, Montage, 160.

255 Mrinal Sen, Views on Cinema (Calcutta: Ishan, 1977), 9. 135

political cinema that would stimulate a discussion; a cinema which is described by

Fernando Solanas as a ―cinema of political-ideological argument.‖256 As Moinak Biswas observed, ―Mrinal brought cinema directly into the political debate. By its spirit of pamphleteering, his work freed film-going to some extent of its ritual aura.‖257 The overtly political content and unorthodox film style of Calcutta 71 demonstrate that Sen is concerned with both political engagement and formal innovation. The film represents

Third Cinema at its most formally adventurous in that the director uses such a range of forms of expression (written texts, photographs, documentary footage, and paintings) and forms of audience address. Calcutta 71 makes an attempt to deconstruct dominant modes of representation and also deals with, as Ananda Mitra says, ―ideas and histories that were only tangentially approached in other films of the period.‖258

At times Calcutta 71 seems ―one-sided.‖ But Sen said that his job was to identify and expose the enemy at that time, ―not to indulge in self-criticism.‖259 He admits that sometimes he became ―over-passionate‖ and ―sentimental‖ when he was making films such as Interview and Calcutta 71. ―I have no regrets over that,‖ he adds. ―On the contrary I am quite happy that I could capture the spirit of the time in both the films.‖260 Elsewhere Sen states: ―One needs to develop a partisan attitude as one gets to the analysis of reality. This, of course,

256 Fernando Solanas, ―Cinema as a Gun: An Interview with Fernando Solanas,‖ Cineaste 3, no. 2 (Fall 1969): 21.

257 Quoted in Ananda Mitra, ―Imaging of the 1970s: Calcutta and West Bengal,‖ in The Enemy Within: The Films of Mrinal Sen, ed. Sumita S Chakravarty (Wiltshire: Flicks Books, 2000), 38.

258 Ibid.

259 Quoted in Mukhopadhyay, Mrinal Sen, 104.

260 Sen, Montage, 155. 136

calls for commitment, political and social.‖261 Following a similar line of argument, Mike

Wayne distinguishes between explicit commitment to a position or cause and propaganda:

―Commitment to a cause, even unequivocal commitment, is not the same as suspending your critical faculties; it is not the same as dogma.‖262 Through the depictions of the suffering of poverty-stricken people, the disclosure of the comfortable lifestyle of the privileged, and the use of the real footage of the public discontent, Calcutta 71 endeavours to reveal the truth about a class-divided, exploitative system. As Solanas and Getino state in their manifesto: ―Every image that documents, bears witness to, refutes or deepens the truth of a situation is something more than a film image of purely artistic fact; it becomes something which the System finds indigestible.‖263 Calcutta 71 is political because it exposes the root causes that generate the problems in the society. The director critically investigates the connections between historical situations, politics and contemporary problems.

Through its engagement with the live political issues and its denunciations of political oppression, Calcutta 71 displays a revolutionary attitude advocated by the proponents of

Third Cinema. Sen attempts to shake people out of their indifference to social and political injustices and uses his film as an instrument for stressing the need for political action.

261 Sen, Views on Cinema, 99.

262 Wayne, 13.

263 Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, ―Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 46.

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CHAPTER THREE

Preference for Personal Protest in Political Cinema: Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970)

In his 1958 essay ―Problems of a Bengali Filmmaker,‖ Satyajit Ray underscored the need for films that grapple with contemporary reality. He wrote in his essay: ―For the truly serious, socially conscious film maker, there can be no prolonged withdrawal into fantasy.

He must face the challenge of contemporary reality, examine the facts, probe them, sift them and select from them the material to be transformed into the stuff of cinema.‖264

Despite this emphasis, during the period of political discontent in West Bengal in the

1960s, Ray did not confront contemporary social and political circumstances head on.

Instead, most of his films made in this period were set in tranquil locations away from

Calcutta. However, his earlier films such as Kanchenjungha (1962) and Mahanagar (The Big

City, 1963) depict the bold protest made by underprivileged individuals against the unpatriotic and domineering attitude and unjust decision of rich and powerful men. Ray also criticized the self-centredness and the ―fake self-confidence‖ of the urban youth in

Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest, 1969).265 Thus, these films sought to raise a socio-political awareness. But Ray‘s critics were dissatisfied with his reluctance to make films addressing burning social and political issues. From the middle of the 1960s, the

264 Satyajit Ray, Our Films Their Films (New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited, 1977), 41.

265 Suranjan Ganguly, Satyajit Ray: In Search of the Modern (Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2000), 115. 138

director came under attack for failing to directly engage with the volatile political realities of present-day Calcutta. His usual classical style was also subjected to strong criticism.

In 1966, Chidananda Das Gupta, one of Ray‘s close colleagues in the film society movement pointed out that, ―the Calcutta of the burning trams, the communal riots, refugees, unemployment, rising prices and food shortages does not exist in Ray‘s films.

Although he lives in this city, there is no correspondence between him and the ‗poetry of anguish‘ which has dominated for the last ten years‖266 For Das Gupta,

Ray‘s contemplative, lyrical style evidenced a detachment from the urgent problems of contemporary society.267 Another critic complained: ―Thousands like myself who once adored the humanist Ray, today cannot find him the same great creator of Pather Panchali and Aparajito. [The director] is getting alienated day by day from the people and their problems, their struggles for survival – which are becoming harsher and acute.‖268 During that period of intense political unrest, the critics wanted Ray‘s films to be invaded by the anger and tensions that permeated Calcutta‘s contemporary scene. They demanded overtly political films that would expose the underlying causes of the growing discontent, raise a politicized consciousness among spectators, critically interpret contemporary politics, and provide evidences of the director‘s explicit political commitment. In an interview in 1970,

Ray acknowledged that he was aware of these accusations. But in the same interview he

266 Chidananda Das Gupta, ―Ray and Tagore,‖ Sight and Sound 36, no. 1 (Winter 1966/1967): 31.

267 Ibid, 34.

268 Cited in Moinak Biswas, ―Introduction: Critical Returns,‖ in Apu and After: Re-visiting Ray’s Cinema, ed. Moinak Biswas (London, Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2006), 3. 139

also asserted that, although most of his friends were left-minded, he had become disillusioned with politics.269

Despite his disillusionment, Ray could not ignore the explosive political situation in

Calcutta for long. Witnessing the intensely chaotic reality around him since the spread of the Naxalite Movement, the director embarked on his new project of coming to grips with

―the violent and ugly aspects‖ of contemporary society in his films.270 He later admitted:

―You felt certain changes taking place, almost in day-to-day existence. You felt that without reflecting those changes, you couldn‘t make a film.‖271 During the troubled years marked by the Naxalite violence and consequent government reprisals, Ray made three films set in contemporary Calcutta – Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970), Sheemabaddha (Company

Limited, 1971) and Jana Aranya (The Middleman, 1975). These films, generally referred to as the Calcutta trilogy, have come to be seen as Ray‘s response to many of the criticisms levelled against him. In a letter to his biographer, , written in August 1970, Ray described Pratidwandi as ―the most provocative film‖ he had made to date. Pratidwandi marks a radical departure, in style and content, both from Ray‘s earlier films and the conventions of Indian mainstream cinema. The film lays bare the decline in moral standards in contemporary Calcutta. It is also a biting indictment of the control and callousness of the wealthy and influential people in society. Reacting to his mistreatment by the bureaucrats during a job interview, Siddhartha, the film‘s young protagonist, explodes

269 Karuna Shankar Roy, ―The Artist in Politics. From an Interview with Satyajit Ray in Kolkata [Calcutta], May 1970,‖ The Drama Review: TDR 15, no. 2, Theatre in Asia (Spring 1971): 310.

270 Das Gupta, 34.

271 Cited in Andrew Robinson, Satyajit Ray: (London/New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004), 204. 140

with a violent outburst. Siddhartha‘s anger seems to epitomize Ray‘s bitter protest against the oppressive and depraved conditions of present-day Calcutta. Ray, thus, considers

Pratidwandi as a film that is ‗basically though not blatantly – pro-revolution.‖272

Ray deliberately abandons his classical style in Pratidwandi in order to convey his revolutionary theme.273 The film demonstrates the director‘s adaptation of the cinematic style associated with European modernist cinema in its use of self-reflexive methods and disruptive cinematic devices. However, the narrative of Pratidwandi mostly advances through a realistic presentation. But the linear progression of the plot is often interrupted by abrupt flash-backs, fantasy and dream sequences, freeze-frame, voice-over, the shift to negative images, and jump cuts causing temporal and spatial dislocations. All these devices serve to disturb the spectator‘s mental immersion in the story and draw attention to the film medium. Siddhartha is depicted in the film as a hesitant and indecisive young man, full of inner conflicts. For Ray, such character traits of Siddhartha dictate stylistically unorthodox means and that is why the film incorporates a disjointed style of filmmaking which is new in his cinema.274 Ray‘s deployment of non-realist techniques, as one author suggests, can also be seen as his ―conscious critique of the documentary nature of much of historical-political filmmaking.‖275 Ray gives his own reasons for his decision to depart from his classical style in Pratidwandi: ―I wanted it to be apparent also in the style that this was my

272 Ibid.

273 Christian Braad Thomsen, ―Ray‘s New Trilogy,‖ Sight and Sound 42, no. 1 (Winter 1972-73): 32.

274 Ibid.

275 ―Contesting History: Cinematic Representations of Calcutta in the 1970s‖ in http://marxclub.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/contesting-history-cinematic-representations-of-calcutta- in-the-1970s/ 141

first political film. A different film from what I had done before.‖276 This chapter will examine the nature of this difference. I will pay particular attention to the way both the film‘s visual language and content reflect the tensions and conflicts of the society in which it is produced. Through a detailed analysis of the film, the chapter will provide an understanding of the unique nature of Ray‘s revolutionary film and examine how it fits within the rubric of politically critical cinema.

The Present Time as an Adversary

Pratidwandi is set in Calcutta at the time when the Naxalite rebellion was at its peak.

Siddhartha, the main protagonist of the film, is a young man of just under 25. He was studying medicine. Due to the death of his father, Siddhartha had to abandon his medical studies and now lives with his widowed mother and two siblings. Upon completion of his

Bachelor of Science degree Siddhartha is looking for a job in order to support his family.

But he soon realizes that unless one conforms to the ruling class ideas within a capitalist system, it is difficult to get a job in contemporary society. His younger sister Sutapa is working in an office and she is the only earning member of the family. Sutapa is ambitious, materialistic and self-centred. There is a suspicion that she is having an affair with her boss.

The boss‘s wife complains to Sutapa‘s mother about Sutapa‘s illicit relationship with her husband. Sutapa‘s mother gets very upset to know about her daughter‘s involvement in a scandal. But the distress of her mother does not seem to perturb Sutapa in the least. She continues her job in the same office.

276 Ibid. 142

Unlike Sutapa, Siddhartha‘s younger brother Tunu does not have a materialistic bent. Tunu is ardently socialist. He is a bright student; but he neglects his studies in order to take part in left-wing revolutionary activities. Siddhartha does not like Sutapa‘s self-serving and decadent attitude. Unlike Tunu, Siddhartha looks for a job instead of joining the existing revolutionary activities to change the social structure. Siddhartha‘s close friend Adinath also displays low moral standards. He does not hesitate to pilfer money from a Red Cross donation tin. Siddhartha meets young college student Keya and the pair seem to be on the same wavelength. Keya‘s company gives Siddhartha some emotional comfort when he finds his days in his own city very frustrating. Siddhartha attends another interview at the end of the film. Seventy-one candidates have been called for the interview. Most of the candidates have to stand on the corridor on a very hot day because the office provides only a few chairs. The officials also speak harshly with Siddhartha when he and a few other candidates request the officials to provide more chairs. Totally ignoring the suffering of the candidates waiting on the corridor, the officials soon take a lunch break. Siddhartha cannot keep his cool any longer. He storms into the interview room and starts yelling at the bureaucrats. He angrily accuses the bureaucrats of mistreating the candidates, overturns a table in the room and hurls a chair at the bureaucrats. Siddhartha ultimately leaves Calcutta for a small suburban town to work as a medical salesman.

Siddhartha has deep fascination for his own city, although contemporary Calcutta plagued by political unrest and moral decay turns out to be a bitter adversary for him. His father‘s demise disrupted the peace Siddhartha used to have in the past, and the troubled present only serves to exacerbate his feelings of worry. The film begins with an unsettling sequence,

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prefiguring the film‘s exploration of worrying social circumstances. The corpse of

Siddhartha‘s father is shown being taken out of their house to its cremation. The sequence is shot in negative. Therefore, this gloomy scene connected with death becomes even more disturbing. Ray also tries to disrupt the spectator‘s immersion in the story by showing conflicts between different shots and also within the same shot. The very first shot of the film demonstrates intra-frame graphic conflict, recalling a technique used by Eisenstein.

The shot, taken from an askew high angle, shows a passage in front of a door. A line of light divides the passage in half – one half is lit, while the other is in shadow. The clothes of the people standing in the shady corner of the passage seem white in the negative, whereas the clothes of the people standing in the other side of the passage look black. Thus, the shot contains the contrast between light and darkness, black and white. A man pulls back the door curtains, and pall-bearers come out in the passage through the door carrying the corpse. The sequence continues to provide visual conflicts through the juxtaposition of high-angle shots of pall-bearers carrying the corpse and close-up shots of a grieving woman. Her mournful cry is heard on the soundtrack. Immediately following this disturbing sequence, the camera zooms in on the face of someone standing beside a funeral pyre and the scene slowly turns into positive. We see the intensely disturbed face of

Siddhartha shot from below. The expression on his face seems angry rather than sad.

Siddhartha‘s face shown in negative also serves to indicate his troubled state of mind. A low-angle shot usually makes a character look dominant. But Ray subverts the conventional way of using a low angle shot. Siddhartha is seen from a low-angle when he is in a critical moment of his life. Despite the angry expression on his face, Siddhartha‘s inner anxiety is manifest in the shot as he is witnessing the cremation of his father. So the low angle makes him look emotionally disturbed rather than confident. The camera slowly pans from

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Siddhartha‘s face to the right of the frame and the title of the film flashes a few times on the screen. The meaning of the Bengali word Pratidwandi is adversary. The pan from

Siddhartha‘s image to the word ―adversary‖ conveys a sense that Siddhartha is facing up to the word, hinting at Siddhartha‘s impending encounter with a harsh reality. Throughout the film, Ray‘s camera remains mobile. The frequent use of pan, tilt and tracking shots contributes to the creation of visually compelling scenes. Siddhartha is shown several times in the film walking from one side of the screen to the other, symbolizing his constant confrontation with the present time which seems to turn into his adversary.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The word ―adversary‖ dissolves into a low angle shot showing some Calcutta buildings.

The following shot shows Siddhartha along with some other people standing on the footboard of a bus that is moving at breakneck speed through the busy streets of Calcutta.

While the opening credits begin to appear on the screen, the film again provides optical conflicts through the juxtaposition of contrasting shots. A long shot of a teeming Calcutta street is followed by a close up of the steering wheel of the bus. A low-angle shot showing the hands of the passengers holding onto the handrail inside the bus is juxtaposed with a high-angle shot showing the bus moving through the city street. Ray‘s camera constantly moves around the claustrophobic interior of the over-crowded bus, showing the exertions of the passengers through jerky, hand-held close-ups. Commuters are seen struggling to get on and off the jam-packed vehicle. In spite of their close physical proximity, the passengers appear totally oblivious to each other. It seems everyone is too tired confronting such

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difficult routine on a regular basis. Scenes showing the expressionless faces and the immobile bodies of the passengers are intercut with shots of the fast-moving wheels of the bus, symbolizing the isolation and detachment of these people from the rapid changes occurring in society. This bus journey represents a microcosm of the suffocating and difficult conditions experienced by the common people in this society. Indifference of the commuters to their difficulties also suggests many people in Calcutta continue to accept such conditions. Ray positions Siddhartha on the crowded bus, linking him with the other passengers whose withdrawn appearances serve to indicate their inertia. Siddhartha‘s precarious and uncomfortable existence in this city is symbolically foreshadowed by the shots showing him standing dangerously on the footboard of a speedy bus.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

After the bus journey Siddhartha is seen entering the office of Indian Botanical Survey. He pulls back a door curtain and enters a room packed with people. It is evident that he has come to attend a job interview. In the first sequence, the door curtains are drawn back to carry the corpse of Siddhartha‘s father to the corridor. The death of his father has brought

Siddhartha face to face with the realities of the world. Another shot of opening the door curtain to show Siddhartha‘s entry into the office waiting room suggests that he is constantly encountering the new reality of his life as a job-seeker. The interview candidates sitting close to each other resemble the bus passengers shown in the previous sequence.

One candidate asks Siddhartha in a nervous tone if the interviewers will ask questions in

English. So far in the film Siddhartha appears as a representative of the Calcutta inhabitants

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who seem estranged and conforming due to the pressures of their difficult day-to-day existence within this city. But Siddhartha‘s answers during the interview reveal his tendency to subtly reprove the attitudes of the ruling class. When he is asked the name of the Prime

Minister of England during the time of independence, Siddhartha replies: ―Whose independence, Sir?‖ This time the panel member states in a slightly angry tone: ―our independence.‖ Siddhartha now gives him the right answer: ―Attlee.‖ Siddhartha‘s mention of the War in Vietnam as the more outstanding event of the last decade than landing on the moon also demonstrates his reluctance to embrace the values of a capitalist system. For

Siddhartha, plain human courage is more important than the advancement of technology.

He states that advances in space technology are remarkable, but not unpredictable. But no one knew Vietnamese peasants had such courage in them. When Siddhartha is lauding the

―extraordinary power of resistance‖ displayed by the Vietnamese people the camera slowly zooms in on his face, emphasizing his great admiration for the resistance fighters of

Vietnam. This interview sequence thus shows Siddhartha‘s mindset. It seems unusual that despite possessing high regards for anti-imperialist struggle, Siddhartha is looking for a job at a time when a large number of leftist youths in West Bengal are taking part in revolutionary activities with a view to freeing the society from the shackles of neo-colonial tendencies. The panel asks Siddhartha if he is a communist. Siddhartha replies that one does not have to be a communist in order to admire Vietnam. But his answer does not satisfy the panel. Despite his good performance in the interview, Siddhartha fails to get the job. It appears that his world view contradicts the ideas and leanings of those in power. As

John Hood puts it, the questions of the interviewing panel in the Botanical Survey of India have nothing to do with plants ―but a lot to do with conserving the power of those in

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positions of influence by appointing unquestioning yes-men to work for them.‖277 The sequence also reveals the presence of opposing attitudes within Siddhartha. Although he is willing to get a job within the capitalist system instead of joining the armed struggle of the left-wing revolutionaries, he is reluctant to kowtow to the people in authority. Despite his desperate need for a job, Siddhartha finds it difficult to please the powerful bureaucrats.

His inner conflicts thus continue to torment him.

During the course of the film, Siddhartha‘s displeasure within the unpromising atmosphere of the city is constantly evoked through the jerky camera movements and discontinuous editing. Pratidwandi abounds in jump-cuts and hand-held shots. These cinematic devices serve to convey a sense of restlessness in the film and demonstrate its self-reflexivity by calling attention to the film‘s editing. Failing to get any solace in his house or outside,

Siddhartha seeks to escape from the harsh reality through his flights into his childhood memories. Flash-back and fantasy scenes frequntely interrupt the flow of the narrative in

Pratidwandi, suggesting Siddhartha‘s lack of peace within the situations that exist in the present and hence his escape in his pleasant memories and fantasies. One of such fantasy scenes appears during the first interview sequence. Siddhartha observes a tear in his pants when he is waiting at the Indian Botanical Survey office. He rushes to a tailor‘s shop. While the tailor is mending his pants, Ray‘s camera moves from the tailor to Siddhartha through a pan shot. The shot slowly tilts up to show Siddhartha‘s depressed face. In a close-up, we see Siddhartha is lost in thought. The scene jump cuts into a scene depicting Siddhartha‘s daydream. Three succeeding shots – a close-up, a mid shot and a long shot – show

277 John W. Hood, Beyond the World of Apu: The Films of Satyajit Ray (Delhi: Orient Longman Pvt. Limited, 2008), 188. 148

Siddhartha, elegantly dressed in suit and tie, standing in a greenhouse full of plants and flowers. The gradual enlargement of the shots indicates Siddhartha is becoming increasingly absorbed in his daydream. A call from the tailor jolts Siddhartha out of his reverie and brings him back to real life. The scene jump cuts into the interview room where Siddhartha once again confronts the harsh reality. His dream of becoming an executive of the Indian

Botanical Survey does not come true.

Pratidwandi also displays self-reflexivity by incorporating video clips from a newsreel and a

Swedish film. Siddhartha enters a cinema only to relax in the air-conditioned theatre. In the ensuing shots Siddhartha‘s close-ups are interspersed with a newsreel footage showing the

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. We hear an off-screen narration of the newsreel stating that 1970-71 budget comes up with proposals to stimulate growth and it would also provide the lower income group with a greater sense of security. Siddhartha does not pay any attention to this news bulletin containing promising information. He is seen trying to take a nap, revealing his lack of trust towards such government promises. We may suspect that his indifference to the news bulletin is emblematic of the public distrust of the present government. Suddenly we hear the sound of a loud explosion. Smoke indicates a bomb blast inside the theatre and people are rushing out. One can speculate that the bomb has been hurled by leftist insurgents. The revolutionaries intending to destroy the existing social structure are likely to define the government promises as false hopes. For them, the encouraging steps taken by the government to provide the underprivileged with benefits can hardly change the nature of an exploitative system. So their armed struggle continues, contributing to the intensification of violent conflict within the city.

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Despite indicating the politically volatile situation of the city, Ray does not show the faces of revolutionaries in the film. It is made clear that Tunu is involved with anti-establishment left wing activities but he is never shown with his party comrades. Keya‘s father talks about a political procession but the procession is not shown. The bomb throwers in the cinema remain unseen. An aerial shot shows a huge political rally in Calcutta. We can hear the sound of political speech coming through the loudspeaker. But Ray‘s camera remains on the top of a skyscraper, making no attempt to capture faces of the radical political leaders or activists. One sequence makes it clear that Ray deliberately refrains from showing the faces of individuals with political party affiliation. At a restaurant Siddhartha bumps into an old acquaintance Naresh, a politically influential man. From their conversation we come to learn that, during his college days, Siddhartha was also active in politics. Seeing Siddhartha‘s frustration, Naresh offers him advice. He asks Siddhartha to work for their political party.

He also suggests Siddhartha to consider joining a factory as a worker. Throughout the sequence the camera shows a mid close-up of Siddhartha‘s face and we only see the back of

Naresh‘s shoulder and parts of his face in profile. Naresh speaks mostly during their conversation. So, the partial view of his face creates a disturbing impact. The political party members are thus represented in the film through the sounds of a bomb explosion, a political speech and a conversation. Their faces do not appear on the screen.

The use of sound in this sequence becomes more complex when Ray makes us hear

Siddhartha‘s internal monologue. In a voice-over Siddhartha expresses his anger at the way he has been lectured by Naresh. Pratidwandi, I intend to argue, evokes a sense of inadequacy by representing the political party members mostly through sounds. These sounds fail to

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impact on the spectators because the people producing these sounds are not fully shown.

In a sequence on the roof of a tall building Siddhartha and Keya are seen talking about their personal problems, completely ignoring a loudspeaker through which a fiery speech is being delivered to a huge political meeting below. The political speech appears to be a noise disrupting the conversation between Siddhartha and Keya even when they are far above the ground. Siddhartha also seems to consider most of Naresh‘s advice as tedious sermons.

This cinematic treatment indicates Ray‘s disillusionment with Indian political parties and his critique of the failure of the radical left-wing politicians to engage people with socialist causes. Ray said in an interview: ―Having a political consciousness can also mean having a consciousness of the failure of politicians, just as our Indian politicians are failing now. I find politicians and their game of politics extremely dishonest and puerile. They change colours like chameleons; it's difficult to keep pace with them.‖278 For Ray, politics is a very impermanent thing in India because the political parties break up very quickly. Ray‘s dissatisfaction with leftist politics in West Bengal became evident in a 1972 interview: ―I don‘t believe in the Left as such any more. There are now three communist parties in India, and I don‘t really see what that means.‖279

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

278 Karuna Shankar Roy, 310.

279 Christian Braad Thomsen, 31.

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After Siddhartha comes out of the movie theatre, his watch falls from his wrist. But he does not have enough money to get the watch repaired. The breaking of the watch symbolizes that the present time is not favourable for Siddhartha. Apart from jump-cuts and hand-held camera movement, unsual framing of certain shots also creates a disturbing impact in the film. When Siddhartha sees the tear in his pants, he looks embarrassed and worried. In a close-up, the camera tilts down from his face and thus within the frame we only see the lower parts of his nose and his chest. His head and his eyes are not shown within the frame.

This unusual composition transfers Siddhartha‘s lack of comfort to the spectator. Such unusual framing is also used in a scene following the conversation between Siddhartha and

Naresh. Siddhartha enters a pharmacy to purchase pills to relieve his heahache. Ray‘s camera pans to follow the salesperson. When he stops in front of Siddhartha, because of the tight framing of the close-up only the lower part of the his face can be seen. The same shot shows only the back of Siddhartha‘s shoulder and parts of his face, recalling the positioning of Naresh within the frame in the previous sequence. Siddhartha tells the salesperson to give him a tablet, and only his voice makes the spectator recognize him. In the following shot, he requests the salesperson to give him a glass of water. But, instead of his voice, Naresh‘s deep voice is heard on the soundtrack asking for a glass of water. This unexpected change of voice makes it difficult for the spectator to understand whether the man standing at the pharmacy counter is Siddhartha or Naresh. Thus, Ray once again makes a complicated use of the soundtrack in order to obfuscate the visuals. In an ensuing shot, a frontal shot of Siddhartha is used to clear up the confusion. The unorthodox framing of the shots and the complex use of the sound contribute to the feeling of unease conveyed by the film. When Siddhartha tries to think about his childhood days sitting in a lakeside park, his peaceful moment is again interrupted, this time by some fair-skinned

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Western hippies. They start dancing and playing a drum. One of them loudly exclaims:

―Calcutta is fantastic. This is where the magic is!‖ A man wearing dirty and torn clothes is also seen sitting in the park. It seems this man is a beggar and he sleeps on the street.

Calcutta makes him deal with abject poverty and he can hardly experience any magic in this city. One of the hippies looks at a cow and finds it ―delightful‖. But they do not look at the poor man. The juxtaposition of these joyful hippies with the beggar serves to indicate the class inequality and the callousness of the privileged that are the central motifs in the film.

Siddhartha‘s facial expression reveals his feelings of mild anger to see their merriment that is verging on frivolity. The present time continues to trouble him.

A Man Lying between Two Extremes

Siddhartha‘s attempt to have a nap at the cinema is interrupted by a bomb explosion. In the turbulent time of Calcutta in 1970 it is most likely that the bomb is thrown into the theatre by leftist insurrectionaries. Siddhartha‘s moment of quiet contemplation in the park is disturbed by the sudden presence of the hippies. The Western hippies and the leftist insurgents in Calcutta do not have much in common. Rather, the hippies seem to share the character traits with the wealthy people of Calcutta whom Ray criticizes in the film for their callous disregard for the suffering of the common people around them.

Siddhartha‘s peace is shown to be disturbed in this city both by the insurgents and the hippies, symbolically indicating his displeasure both with the socialist revolutionaries and the privileged class. Siddhartha is a man lying between two extremes. Ray describes his

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protagonist as a ―hesitant character, full of doubts and inner conflicts and problems.‖280

Siddhartha is strongly critical of people like Sutapa and Adinath who overindulge in materialistic pleasures and do not care about behaving in a morally acceptable way. But unlike Tunu, Siddhartha does not directly confront the materialists by taking part in revolutionary activities. He says that he will be a cog in the bureaucratic machine when he gets a job. Yet, he does not hesitate to state his admiration for the courage of the

Vietnamese people in his job interview. Siddhartha is constantly seen having arguments with his siblings. In temperament, Tunu is the completely opposite to Sutapa. With his vacillations, Siddhartha remains midway between the contrasting positions of his revolutionary brother and materialistic sister.

On a number of occasions Siddhartha‘s middle position is conveyed through his positioning in the frame. He is seen sitting between two pillars in the park. He is often seen leaning against the wall and he tends to rest against the place where two walls meet.

In a scene we see the words ‗strikers‘ and ‗non-strikers‘ written on the wall behind

Siddhartha. It is unlikely that he would join any of these groups. Tunu has an intense dislike for Siddhartha‘s hesitancy and when Siddhartha accuses his brother of having a one-track mind, Tunu retorts by saying that Siddhartha does not have any track to follow.

Tunu finds no wrong in thinking about one particular aim. For him, as Suranjan Ganguly observes, ―the notion of one-track mind holds enormous appeal. As a Naxalite, his only goal is to dismantle the bourgeois state.‖281 For a committed socialist like Tunu,

280 Ibid, 32.

281 Ganguly, 122. 154

Siddhartha occupies a bourgeois middle ground.282 He shows Siddhartha a book on Che

Guevara that Siddhartha gave him as a birthday present two years prior. Siddhartha remembers that he had to sell three of his medical books in order to purchase it. Tunu is unhappy that Siddhartha has changed so much in two years, but Siddhartha replies that he was not in need of a job two years ago.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

A fantasy scene reveals Siddhartha‘s feeling of guilt about making a retreat from his earlier position. In Tunu‘s room, Siddhartha looks at a mirror and suddenly his face changes into a version of the bearded face of Che Guevara. But Siddhartha does not seem to revel in his fantasy; soon he takes his eyes off the mirror. We suspect, because of his great admiration for socialist struggles, Siddhartha feels unhappy to look for a job within a capitalist system. But he also finds it difficult to participate in revolutionary politics, ignoring the importance of getting a job to support his family. Siddhartha wants to support his family, whereas Tunu is more interested in changing society. By presenting the debate between the two brothers, Ray makes the spectator think critically about the particular stances taken by Siddhartha and Tunu.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

282 Ibid., 121. 155

If both Siddhartha and Tunu are unhappy with the present time, their sister Sutapa seems perfectly content with the social order. Ray uses watch as a metaphor for the present time.

Tunu wants to change the present system, and so we never see him wearing a watch.

Instead of joining the socialist revolution, Siddhartha intends to serve the capitalist system by obtaining a job, but he cannot accept the materialistic and morally degenerate tendencies of this society. So Siddhartha wants to wear his watch, but he is unable to repair it. A mid shot in the film shows Sutapa taking a watch off her wrist, standing in front of a mirror. Sutapa‘s expensive watch suggests that she makes a comfortable living within the present system. Siddhartha is often seen strolling along the busy, swarming city streets. His aimless strolls in the streets indicate his restlessness and vacillations, whereas when Tunu is first shown in the film, we see him bandaging a wound in his leg. The wound has perhaps been caused by a fight with his political opponents. Unlike her brothers, Sutapa is often seen reading magazines and listening to the radio lying on her bed. She also seems to possess a one-track mind. But Unlike Tunu, Sutapa wants to achieve materialistic benefits at any cost. Despite the accusation made against her of having an immoral relationship with her boss, she refuses to leave her job. She tells

Siddhartha without any hesitation that she finds it necessary to comply with her boss‘ orders because she would soon become his personal secretary and that would enable her to earn more money.

In an earlier sequence, Siddhartha‘s friend Shiben takes Siddhartha to the screening of a

Swedish film organized by a film society. Shiben informs Siddhartha that the film is

―uncensored.‖ The sequence shows a clip of the Swedish film intercut with reaction shots

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of Siddhartha and Shiben. In the film an old man is seen entering a furniture store with a young girl. They start jumping into the beds displayed in the store and hugging each other without any inhibition while the salesmen are describing their products. Siddhartha‘s reaction shots during that sequence reveal that he is not enjoying the film. Sutapa does not feel embarrassed hearing the accusations of a sex scandal made against her; her brazen admission that she will continue her job to receive better pay repels Siddhartha. Perhaps he is comparing his sister‘s lack of embarrassment to the obscene behaviour displayed by the couple in the Swedish film. Sutapa is also toying with the idea of doing some modelling because fashion models are paid well. When Siddhartha asks her if she would be asked to pose wearing a skimpy outfit Sutapa instantly replies that her figure is attractive enough to make her look good as a scantily-dressed model. Siddhartha is simply appalled by her sister‘s attitude. He says that Sutapa has changed a lot. Sutapa retorts: ―So has everyone; you have changed too.‖

In the sequences showing Siddhartha with his siblings, the positioning of Siddharta within the shots serves to indicate his difference from his siblings. In these sequences, most of the time Siddhartha is seen sitting or standing behind Tunu or Sutapa. Unlike him, both Tunu and Sutapa are following particular tracks in order to fulfil their aims. Tunu wants to rebel against this capitalist system. In contrast, Sutapa intends to conform to the capitalist principles. But Siddhartha is vacillating between assimilation and rebellion. His placement at the rear of the frame symbolically suggests his failure to come forward for pursuing any specific goal. When Sutapa is seen standing in front of the dressing-table mirror or lying in the bed, Siddhartha often looks at her from behind. Thus, he looks like an onlooker. In

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various other scenes, he is seen only looking at different people and events. He does not participate in the activities, nor does he try to talk to people. Thus, he seems to have an inhibited disposition. Like Sutapa, Siddhartha‘s friend Adinath displays a disregard for moral values too. Adinath comes from a wealthy family and he is not in any way going through financial hardship. Still we see him stealing money from a Red Cross donation container. For Adinath, he should have a share of this money because he worked hard to collect this donation from people. Siddhartha comments how Adinath‘s standards have descended. But like Sutapa, Adinath also provides a quick response to Siddhartha: for him, the whole country is going down. Therefore, instead of going down he cannot stay suspended in the air. Idealism has no place in the lives of people like Sutapa and Adinath who are completely obsessed with materialistic pleasures. Thus, Adinath and Sutapa are unwilling to embrace the idea of going up when the society is witnessing moral degradation.

They prefer to lower their moral standards because corruption and depravity always enable people to satisfy their lust for personal benefits. Siddhartha is more interested in getting a job than taking part in a revolution. But he can hardly support the debased and self-seeking attitudes of Sutapa and Adinath. He tends to avoid extreme positions.

Siddhartha‘s Ambivalence as a Thinker

Adinath classifies people into two categories: doers and thinkers. For him, thinkers only tend to think. But doers do what has to be done. Adinath considers himself a doer. He regards Siddhartha as only ever imagining doing something. A number of scenes in the film seem to confirm Adinath‘s assessment of Siddhartha. Siddhartha wants to confront

Sutapa‘s boss, Sanyal, but his failure to act becomes evident when he visits Sanyal‘s house. 158

When the servant goes inside to call Sanyal, Siddhartha cannot stay calm and relaxed. He rests against a wall. His face and body language reveal his nervousness. Sanyal‘s spacious drawing room is shown in a long shot taken from a high angle. Siddhartha‘s placement at the far right of the frame makes him look vulnerable and diminutive in the large room.

Soon we hear approaching footsteps on the floor. Sanyal enters the room in an ensuing shot. Importantly, we also hear the squeak of shoes on the stairs before Sutapa appears on the screen for the first time. Thus, Ray uses the similar sound to suggest the affinity between Sutapa and Sanyal. When Sanyal enters the drawing room, Siddhartha rises to his feet and fires point-blank at Sanyal‘s chest with a pistol. We hear the piercing sound of gunshots three times. Sanyal‘s body is riddled with bullets. But the following shot shows a ceiling fan starts moving. Sanyal is seen turning the fan on, causing considerable confusion for the spectator. He sits in a sofa and also asks Siddhartha to take a seat. This time we realize that the shooting takes place only in Siddhartha‘s imagination. Before visiting

Sanyal‘s house, Siddhartha wanted to collect bombs from Tunu. Using the Naxalite vocabulary, Siddhartha termed Sanyal as an ―anti-social element.‖ He told Sutapa that he was dead serious about punishing Sanyal. But this fantasy scene makes it obvious that

Siddhartha is not a doer. He can only imagine punishing a powerful adversary.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

During their conversation Siddhartha and Sanyal are seen in two corners of the screen, suggesting the tension between the characters. Ray again uses shots with unusual framing in this sequence. While Sanyal is talking, his eyes and the upper part of his nose are shown

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in an extreme close-up from Siddhartha‘s perspective. The camera then slowly tilts down to show the lower part of his nose and his lips before panning to the left to show Sanyal‘s fingers holding a cigarette. The shot concludes with a pan to the right to show the expensive buttons of Sanyal‘s shirt. During their conversation, Siddhartha and Sanyal are sometimes seen in slanted long shots. All These unusual shots serve to build up the sense of tension. Ray also makes the spectator aware of the camera thorugh the use of these shots. The expressionistic depiction of Sanyal‘s face and body recalls Eisenstein‘s emphasis on the use of shots that contradict realistic representations. According to

Eisenstein, ―absolute realism is by no means the correct form of perception.‖283 For him, a departure from realistic forms of representation serves to enhance the intensity and psychological expressiveness of the images.284 This lengthy shot seen from Siddhartha‘s point of view creates a disorienting effect and it signals Siddhartha‘s uneasy feelings before

Sanyal. As an experienced businessman, Sanyal knows how to manage emotional young boys like Siddhartha. He wants to give Siddhartha a letter that will secure a job for him.

When Sanyal goes to another room to attend a phone call, we hear him saying ―everything is settled‖ over the phone. Siddhartha seems to feel greatly disturbed by his failure to criticize Sanyal directly and by witnessing Sanyal‘s pretentiously kind behaviour. He abruptly leaves Sanyal‘s drawing room while Sanyal is talking on the phone.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

283 Quoted in Marilyn Fabe, Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 2004), 197.

284 Ibid, 197-198. 160

After coming out of Sanyal‘s house, Siddhartha witnesses a street accident. A street child is injured after being hit by a Mercedes-Benz car. The angry mob is beating up the chauffeur mercilessly. It is uncharacteristic of a sensitive man like Siddhartha to take part in a mass beating of one man. But Siddhartha becomes furious seeing the logo of the

Mercedes-Benz and he runs to hit the man. The car reminds him of the symbols of wealth he observed in Sanyal‘s house. Realizing that he can only fantasize about killing Sanyal,

Siddhartha wants to vent his feelings of anger on the chauffeur of the expensive car. But he watches a young girl trembling with fear in the back seat and does not try to hit the driver. Siddhartha identifies with this girl because, as Ganguly observes, ―he sees his own vulnerable self in her.‖285 May be a doer would not hesitate to hit the chauffeur, but for a thinker like Siddhartha it is difficult to give vent to his anger after seeing the girl.

Siddhartha‘s attitude towards sex also demonstrates his difference from a doer like

Adinath. An early flash-back scene indicates Siddhartha‘s sexual repression. During one of his aimless strolls Siddhartha watches a young woman crossing the street. As Siddhartha stares at the girl, the scene cuts to a flash-back of the central character attending a medical lecture about the lymphatic system of the female breast. According to Ganguly, the flash- back suggests that ―the only way [Siddhartha] can disarm lust and displace it is through such drab fantasies.‖286 Adinath and Sutapa do not seem sexually stifled. Adinath frequently visits the house of a nurse who works as a prostitute after hours. But

Siddhartha seems reticent to express his sexual desires. He wants to borrow a Playboy

285 Ganguly, 118.

286 Ibid, 119. 161

magazine from Adinath, but when Adinath takes him to the flat of the nurse-cum- prostitute to give him an experience of sex, Siddhartha backs off. When they reach the apartment building of the nurse, Siddhartha hesitates to go to the nurse‘s flat upstairs.

Adinath persuades Siddhartha to come with him. When they are approaching towards the door of the nurse, a tracking shot shows Siddhartha walking from the left side of the screen to the direction of screen right, conveying a sense of his imminent confrontation with a new situation. We hear some children playing on the terrace shouting ―Ready, steady, go!‖ For Siddhartha, it is too difficult to go into this new experience. The cheap flat of the nurse is no match for Sanyal‘s sumptuous drawing room, nor does the nurse possess Sanyal‘s aristocratic charm. Still, Siddhartha seems very nervous in front of her.

Adinath tells the nurse that Siddhartha is craving for sex, but he is too shy to admit it.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Both Adinath and the nurse are seen wearing wristwatches. Their watches symbolically suggest they are not struggling like Siddhartha to keep pace with the present time. Soon the nurse takes off her uniform. We again hear the shout of the children ―ready, steady, go.‖ The sound of a song playing in a radio outside the room is also heard at this time.

The distant song accompanied by drumbeats and the cheerful shouts of the children stand in stark contrast to the scene showing Siddhartha‘s discomfort. The song and the shout of the children thus appear as contrapuntal sound, serving to create a disturbing effect.

Wearing her bra and petticoat, the nurse asks Siddhartha to light her cigarette. When

Siddhartha responds to her request, the nurse is seen puffing out cigarette smoke into

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Siddhartha‘s face. The scene suddenly goes into negative, suggesting Siddhartha‘s disconcerted state of mind and disturbing the spectator‘s immersion in the scene. Once again we see a disturbed face of Siddhartha when the film returns to positive image. The nurse leaves them to take a quick shower. Adinath becomes angry to see Siddhartha‘s revulsion. For Adinath, nobody comes to this place to think, but when he goes to the bathroom to help the nurse with her bra hook, Siddhartha rushes out of the flat.

Fantasies, Dreams and the Mysterious Bird Call

Ray‘s camera frequently zooms in on Siddhartha‘s face. His grim, brooding expression reveals his inner tension and unhappiness. We also observe a gloomy atmosphere in

Siddhartha‘s house. The rooms always look low-lit and suffocating, conveying a sense of anxiety and unease. Siddhartha hardly gets any comfort when he returns home every day from his tedious strolls through the troubled city. He seems to be, in the words of Darius

Cooper, ―mercilessly caught between the city and home.‖287 Therefore, Siddhartha often turns to his fantasies and his childhood memories in order to get a temporary escape from the anxiety and frustrating circumstances of the present. His fantasies also reveal his ambivalence about his aims. He not only imagines himself as a revolutionary, he also has fantasies about becoming a bureaucrat. Tormented by his vacillations and frustrations,

Siddhartha desperately seeks some peace in his present life. In a flash-back showing a day of Siddhartha‘s childhood, Sutapa is seen drawing Siddhartha‘s attention to the tuneful call

287 Darius Cooper, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 135. 163

of a bird. Siddhartha listens to the bird call carefully and then asks a man if he knows the name of that bird; before the unseen man can reply, the scene cuts back to Siddhartha‘s face in the present. For Siddhartha, the bird call connotes the mental calm that he is missing in his present life. He associates this bird call with his childhood when he did not have anxieties. When he goes to the bird market to look for the bird, all he finds are cramped baskets and cages full of chickens and other birds. Instead of the soothing bird call, the soundscape of Calcutta is composed of the noise of bomb explosion, yell of the hippies, shouts of angry mobs, engines of fighter planes, yowl of the cats, and the loudspeaker located at a political meeting. Siddhartha‘s failure to hear this bird call in

Calcutta symbolically suggests his lack of peace within the present time.

Keya‘s company seems to provide Siddhartha with some solace. Keya is also leading an unhappy life. She lost her mother when she was very young. Her well-placed income-tax officer father has decided to marry the younger sister of Keya‘s mother. Keya becomes very upset about this. The first meeting of Siddhartha and Keya takes place in the dark doorway of Keya‘s house. When Siddhartha is walking through the dark street after coming out of the nurse‘s flat, he hears the voice of Keya calling him. This time

Siddhartha is seen in a tracking shot walking from right to left of the screen, making the shot look different from the tracking shot we see in nurse‘s flat. In another shot in this sequence, he is seen walking straight toward the camera, whereas the camera shows his back in the corridor of the nurse‘s apartment. These changes between two sequences serve to hint at the differences between his experiences of meeting two women on the same evening. Keya asks Siddhartha if he knows how to change a fuse. There is no

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electricity in their house at the moment because a fuse is broken. Siddhartha tells Keya to light some matches so that he can take a look at the fuse box. Every time Keya strikes a match the light drives out the darkness and her face is illuminated. Soon the fuse is fixed, and the room becomes fully illuminated. A place plunged into darkness evokes anxiety and lack of peace. The darkness in Keya‘s house symbolically suggests the anxiety and unhappiness of Siddahrtha and Keya. They meet each other at a place without any light.

But they make an effort to bring the light back. The return of the electricity makes them feel comfortable, prefiguring the possibility that they will find solace in each other‘s company.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

With her pleasant personality and refined manners Keya stands in sharp contrast to Sutapa and the nurse. Siddhartha finds the attitudes of his sister and the nurse-cum-prostitute revolting. Ray also puts in place a series of echoes between the attitudes of Sutapa and the nurse-cum-prostitute. The nurse takes up prostitution in order to earn more money.

Sutapa also wants to continue the same job to earn more money, ignoring the allegation against her of keeping an immoral relationship with her boss. During her conversations with Siddhartha in her room, Sutapa often stands in front of her dressing-table mirror and looks at herself in it. Siddhartha observes that the nurse also looks at herself in her dressing-table mirror. Both Sutapa and the nurse have long hair and they let their hair loose standing before the mirror. Both women want to take a quick shower and both of them mention they would spend only five minutes in the shower. The nurse makes a

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heartless comment wanting the quick death of an old patient she has been nursing in the hospital. Sutapa also seems totally unsympathetic towards the sad feelings of her mother.

The nurse‘s lack of hesitation to get undressed in front of Siddhartha is reminiscent of

Sutapa‘s lack of shyness to pose as a fashion model wearing a skimpy outfit. Sutapa takes

Siddhartha one night to the rooftop of their house to show him some of the dance steps she has learnt. Seeing Sutapa‘s dance steps, Siddhartha starts imagining that Sutapa is surrounded by people and she is also dancing with unknown men. In real life Sutapa is never seen smoking. But in Siddhartha‘s fantasy Sutapa is also seen puffing a cigarette, revealing that Siddhartha is unconsciously associating his sister with the nurse.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Siddhartha has a dream one night. His anxiety and confusion as well as his attitude to the people around him are encapsulated in this revealing dream sequence. Some recent incidents in Siddhartha‘s life appear in the dream. Before this dream, Siddhartha had a nightmare on the same night. In a sequence showing the conversation between Siddhartha and Tunu, Tunu talks about the killing of the aristocrats by guillotine during the French

Revolution. The scene immediately cuts to a shot showing Siddhartha‘s extremely frightened face under the heavy sliding blade of a guillotine. We see that Siddhartha is about to be guillotined. Another jump cut at this point makes us see that Siddhartha gets up from sleep after having this nightmare. These jump cuts thus disrupt the temporal and spatial continuity of the narrative, thereby creating an unsettling effect. Soon Siddhartha falls asleep again and he has a lengthy dream: We see a beach, an interview panel, bottled

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foetuses, Sutapa posing for a photographer wearing a swimsuit, a car being attacked by an angry crowd. Siddhartha is seen looking at these scenes standing at a distance. These scenes are intercut with his reaction shots. The interview panel is shot in negative, suggesting Siddhartha‘s state of insecurity and deep worries about getting a job. Bottled foetuses convey a sense of confinement, evoking Siddhartha‘s unease within the present time. His detachment from the crowd in his dream also indicates his tendency towards inaction. He does not like Sutapa‘s enthusiasm to pose as a scantily-dressed model. But in his dream Sutapa appears wearing a swimsuit, revealing Siddhartha‘s repressed sexuality.

The sea in the background looks peaceful, conveying a sense of liberation. But these disturbing events seem to collide with the serene setting of the beach, suggesting

Siddhartha‘s disappointment at the lack of peace in his own city. Tunu is seen in the dream about to be executed by a firing squad. The soldiers pointing their bayoneted rifles towards Tunu are seen a few times in negative. Siddhartha observes that Tunu is smiling.

He is not afraid to be shot. The scene indicates Siddhartha‘s great respect for his brother‘s courage. But it also reveals his guilt that unlike his brother, he fails to perform acts of bravery. Soon Tunu is shot and his body falls on the ground. Sutapa is now seen running towards the dead body of Tunu wearing a nurse‘s uniform. Siddhartha remains an observer thus far, but when Sutapa in a nurse‘s uniform tries to touch the dead body,

Siddhartha acts for the first time. He does not allow Sutapa to touch Tunu‘s corpse. It is clear that Sutapa is closely associated in Siddhartha‘s unconscious mind with the nurse- cum-prostitute. Suddenly in Siddhartha‘s point of view shot, Keya is seen wearing a nurse‘s uniform instead of Sutapa. Siddhartha observes some birds are flying around

Keya‘s face and he can also hear the bird call he heard in his childhood. He walks towards

Keya, and says with a relief: ―Oh, it‘s you.‖ Keya‘s presence accompanied by the bird call

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confirms that Siddhartha attaches great importance to his relationship with Keya. In an earlier scene Siddhartha asks Tunu if he has the guts to face the bullets of the police. Tunu does not give Siddhartha any answer. But Tunu‘s fearless demeanour in Siddhartha‘s dream shows Siddhartha has no doubt about Tunu‘s courage. Although Siddhartha watches the events in the dream as an onlooker most of the time, he stops the nurse from touching Tunu‘s dead body, revealing his respect for Tunu and his repulsion for moral degeneration.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

A Thinker‘s Violent Outburst

Pratidwandi reaches its climax in the second interview scene. Seventy-one candidates have been asked to attend interviews for only four vacancies. It is a hot day and there is only one ceiling fan in the corridor. We see the candidates standing in the corridor sweating heavily. They tend to grab a chair whenever it gets empty. When a candidate faints,

Siddhartha leads a small group to the room of the interviewers so as to request a few more chairs. But rather than agreeing to the reasonable request, the bureaucrats scold

Siddhartha. For them, a job in this office would involve far harder work than the physical exertion the candidates are experiencing at the moment in corridor. When Siddhartha tries to reason with the bureaucrats, one of them asks Siddhartha his name and position number. The other candidates immediately pull back, leaving Siddhartha alone in the

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room. Siddhartha says that he does not want a chair for himself. But the bureaucrats only mark him as a trouble-maker and ask him angrily to leave the room.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Coming out of the room, Siddhartha again stands in the corridor resting against the wall.

Ray then uses a montage of seemingly disconnected images to evoke the thoughts running through the mind of the protagonist: the Western hippies having fun, a poor man lying on the street, a slum, and a luxurious room. The connection between these images lies in the contrast between the privileged and the poor. In an ensuing shot, Siddhartha looks at the meek and unquestioning candidates sitting and standing quietly in the corridor. Suddenly we hear the voice of Siddhartha‘s medical Professor on the soundtrack lecturing on human skeleton. As the nondiegetic sound of the lecture continues, all candidates waiting in the corridor have turned into skeletons in Siddhartha‘s imagination. It is obvious that

Siddhartha is appalled to see the compliant attitudes of these candidates. They display a sheer reluctance to react even when they are unjustly treated by the officials. Such passivity of the candidates makes Siddhartha associate them with lifeless objects. An earlier scene during the second interview sequence shows a smartly-dressed candidate walking along the corridor. His shoes squeak as he is walking, reminding us of the squeak of the shoes of Sutapa and Sanyal. This candidate shows no reaction when another candidate faints, suggesting his cold indifference to the suffering of others. As T. G.

Vaidyanathan says: ―This young man, too, Ray seems to be saying, will turn into a Sanyal soon. He, too, will take his pretty secretary out after office hours to show her his new 169

house in the country.‖288 Although Siddhartha intends to get a job within the system like all these candidates, he can hardly identify himself with these men unwilling to protest against the callousness and unjust attitudes of the bureaucrats. Throughout the film, the lectures of Siddhartha‘s medical professor appear from time to time as flash-back scenes.

In the film, the director repeatedly shows the decaying standards of morality in the present society. We see a young man is pilfering the Red Cross money, a young nurse makes heartless comment about a patient, a young woman is willing to keep an immoral relationship with her boss in order to achieve financial benefits, and the bureaucrats tend to give jobs to compliant candidates rather than qualified ones. If Ray considers such moral decay as a disease of contemporary society, the frequent deployment of medical lectures in the narrative can be read as the director‘s suggestion that the present time is in need of proper care to cure such disease. But in the film, these medical lectures only appear as events held in the past. Presenting them only as memories, the director indicates the absence of effective remedies or procedures in contemporary society for curing or eliminating social and political malaise.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

288 T. G. Vaidyanathan, ―Ray‘s Pratidwandi: An Interpretation‖, Film World, Vol. 7, No. 3 (June-July, 1971), 51. 170

When it is announced that the officials are going to take a lunch break and interview will begin after the break, Siddhartha has run out of patience. A freeze shot shows his very angry face, his eyes are blazing with rage. A hand-held shot now follows Siddhartha storming towards the room of the officials. He pushes the peon aside and bursts into the room. His face is shown in a close-up from a Dutch angle, making his anger look more intense. Siddhartha asks the interviewers in an infuriated tone: ―Are we animals? Are we your servants? What right do you have to treat us this way?‖ Instead of giving him any answer, the officials try to push him out of the room. But Siddhartha thrusts past them.

He flings a chair at the officials, throws ink on the wall and upturns their table. No longer simply an onlooker, he shows the courage to protest the unfair attitudes of those in positions of power.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

After overturning the table, Siddhartha walks out of the office. The scene cuts to a fast tracking shot showing the rebellious wall writings of Calcutta gradually blend into the rural landscape seen from the window of a train compartment. The fast pace again creates a sense of restlessness and anxiety. But the pace of the tracking shot gradually becomes slower and the pastoral scene also stands in stark contrast to the city walls filled with political graffiti and slogans. Because of the violent outburst of Siddhartha, the film suddenly took on an angry tone. But the film quickly returns to a quiet and pensive mood as the serene countryside scenes start to appear. This tracking shot serves to bridge the film‘s climax to a scene that occurs some time after Siddhartha‘s outburst during the

171

interview. Soon, Siddhartha is seen in the train compartment. We hear his voice reading a letter he has written to Keya. We come to know from the letter that Siddhartha takes up a job of a medical salesman in a small peripheral town. The following shots show

Siddhartha‘s arrival in a hotel in that small town. At the end of the letter he starts to tell

Keya about an ―ordinary‖ thing. But the voice-over stops and in his hotel room

Siddhartha suddenly hears the bird call he has been longing to hear. He comes out of the room onto the balcony and he can hear the bird call again. From the balcony he observes a funeral procession at a distance. The bird call is juxtaposed with the funeral chant of the pall bearers. The film begins with a death that marks the beginning of Siddhartha‘s lack of peace. His moment of peace of hearing the bird call after a long time coincides with another death scene. If the first death indicates the beginning of Siddhartha‘s unhappiness, the second death scene accompanied by the bird call may suggest the end of his unhappy existence. Ben Nyce puts it, ―something is dying in him and something is being reborn.‖289

Siddhartha turns slowly to the camera and the shot freezes. Over the top of the freeze frame, we hear the bird call again. The final words of Siddhartha‘s letter, ―Yours

Siddhartha,‖ then appear superimposed over the protagonist‘s frozen body. Thus, the film does not have a closure. There are two ways we can read the film‘s final shot. On the one hand, the freeze frame can be understood to imply Siddhartha‘s entrapment within an unjust system and his inability to escape from his despair. On the other hand we can interpret the sound of the much-coveted bird call within the freeze frame as signifying that Siddhartha has finally attained an element of peace in a small town, far away from his own city plagued by confusion, chaos and moral degradation. The director does not provide unequivocal political messages. By making the closing scenes deliberately

289 Nyce, 133. 172

ambiguous, Ray makes the spectator ponder hard over the messages provided by his political film.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Ray‘s Politically-Critical Cinema

Siddhartha‘s anger and frustration seem to convey Ray‘s unhappiness with the contemporary circumstances in Calcutta. Ray said of Siddhartha: ―I felt very strongly for the character. He was very close to my heart.‖290 Siddhartha is a representative of the frustrated youth of a specific historical time. The film explicitly links these frustrations to the oppressive conditions of the society. Ray provides his condemnation of the power- holders within an unjust system through Siddhartha‘s violent protest in the interview room. Siddhartha‘s dislike of Sanyal, Sutapa and Adinath and the difference between

Sutapa and Keya in Siddhartha‘s dream also reveal Ray‘s angry reactions to the moral decline and the self-seeking attitudes of individuals in contemporary society. Siddhartha not only thinks, he also displays his moral courage. Thus, his acts are meaningful and important. As Ganguly says: ―The true doer acts with purpose and feeling, with

290 Robinson, 208. 173

conscience and guts, drawing on his life – not in the apathetic, self-serving, and irresponsible way Adinath‘s pragmatism functions.‖291

But the politically radical members of Ray‘s audience in India were not satisfied with the film‘s ending. For these critics, ―the logical arena for Siddhartha‘s further growth would be political activism.‖292 Ben Nyce argues that, ―the film presents in compelling detail all the reasons for radical politics and then rejects those politics.‖293 Similarly, Chidananda Das

Gupta considers Siddhartha‘s protest as ―an act of courage,‖ but which is ‗fruitless in the outcome.‖294 For Philip Kemp, Siddhartha‘s protest is ―psychologically cathartic‖ but he also indicates that ―nothing has been changed, no enlightenment achieved.‖295 These criticisms highlight the limitations of the film‘s political outlook. But in his political film,

Ray is more interested in depicting the example of individual courage rather than expressing his overt support for revolutionary politics. Through Siddhartha‘s debate with

Tunu, Ray asks questions about the resolve of the young revolutionaries in Calcutta. Ray highlights Tunu‘s strong commitment for the socialist cause. But by showing many young men willing to conform to the status quo Ray indicates the failure of the Naxalites to motivate people to rise up against an exploitative social order. Pratidwandi becomes a strong critique of class division in contemporary society. Ray does not provide any slogan

291 Ganguly, 120.

292 Ben Nyce, Satyajit Ray: A Study of His Films (New York: Praeger, 1988), 133.

293 Ibid.

294 Das Gupta, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray (New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 1992), 105.

295 Philip Kemp, ―Satyajit Ray‖ in World Film Directors, Vol II, ed. John Wakeman (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1988), 848. 174

or summons for action in his film. He intends to inspire people by highlighting the inner strength of individuals instead of providing any political rhetoric. Siddhartha‘s protest indicates his refusal to become a conformist and his rare courage to risk his own good in order to condemn unfairness. If Siddhartha‘s protest indicates his growth, Ray indicates such growth can only take place in a ―private region.‖296

According to Tom Milne, ―Ray does not follow Glauber Rocha or Godard with a mathematical analysis of the cause and effect of revolution; his equation, as always, is founded not on figures but on faces.‖297 Ray also asserts that his political films are different from the films of Godard and Glauber Rocha and the rest because he still believes ―in the individual and in personal concepts rather than in a broad ideology, which keeps changing all the time.‖298 Political purposes are more important to Tunu rather than any personal aims. But for Ray, a person ―with a definite political line is often psychologically less interesting.‖299 Dedicated activists of a political party sometimes tend to accept the party directives uncritically. Ray states that Tunu‘s strong identification with the revolutionary cause has made him ―a part of a total attitude and makes him unimportant. The Naxalite movement takes over. He, as a person, becomes insignificant.‖300 Ray finds Siddhartha a more interesting character because he does not have any firm political convictions and he is

296 Nyce, 133.

297 Milne, 111.

298 Thomsen, 33.

299 Thomsen, 33.

300 Udayan Gupta, ―The Politics of Humanism: An Interview with Satyajit Ray‖ Cineaste 12, no. 1 (1982): 28. 175

able to think for himself.301 Different kinds of thoughts are racing through Siddhartha‘s mind and thus he remains confused about his course of action at the present time. He occupies a middle space. Memories of the past provide Siddhartha with a temporary escape from his uneasiness with the present. In contrast, Tunu, according to Tom Milne, has

―totally erased the past in order to devote himself to a present whose justification will be the creation of a new, undefined future.‖302 But Siddhartha is not following any specific ideology. His decisions are governed by his inner self. Although Tunu is the committed revolutionary, Ray is more interested in Siddhartha in his political cinema. As Ray puts it, ―I am still too much of an individual and I still believe too strongly in personal expression.‖303

For Ray, it is possible to make a distinction between ideological gestures and emotional gestures and he is fascinated by the latter.304 Ray‘s preference for emotional gestures over ideological ones leads him to give more importance to Siddhartha‘s apparently fruitless outburst, rather than Tunu‘s premeditated political activities. Siddhartha‘s decision to protest against the powerful bureaucrats is, as Ray puts it, ―not based on the dictates of an ideology but mainly springs from his own, human experience.‖305 Ray finds it more important to show a young man‘s courageous protest against the system without any political backing: ―he carries out an act of protest on a personal level, which to me is a marvellous thing because it comes from inside and not as an expression of a political

301 Thomsen, 33.

302 Tom Milne, ―The Adversary,‖ Sight and Sound 42, no.2 (1973), 111.

303 Ibid.

304 Thomsen, 33.

305 Thomsen, 33. 176

ideology.‖306 Siddhartha‘s protest is not politically motivated but according to Ganguly, ―it is political in a larger sense because it involves a whole sensibility and way of life. In contrast, Tunu‘s planned, ideological violence is less authentic.‖307

An ambivalent Siddhartha‘s eventual explosion into violent anger in the room of the influential bureaucrats can be construed as Ray‘s endorsement of the view of Frantz Fanon that violence is a cleansing force. Decolonization is an important topic in Fanon‘s work.

For Fanon, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.308 Decolonization not only destroys the social and political structures of an unjust system but also contributes to the creation of new men. Fanon believes that revolutionary violence helps an oppressed to be free ―from his feeling of inferiority and humiliation,‖ thereby resulting in the termination of the individual‘s earlier life and the rebirth of a new man.309 Siddhartha‘s violent protest against the injustices of the system can make us think that Ray‘s pro-revolution film provides overt support to the Naxalite aim of changing the social structure through revolutionary violence. Siddhartha‘s metamorphosis through violence lends a feeling of revolutionary ardour to Pratidwandi. Thus, I intend to argue, the film has a decolonizing power upheld by Frantz Fanon and the manifestoes of Third Cinema. Siddhartha‘s transformation from a vacillating individual to a confident man capable of directly confronting the upper-class hegemony can also be seen as Ray‘s overt support for direct

306 Thomsen, 33.

307 Ganguly, 135.

308 Emmanuel Hansen, Frantz Fanon: Social and Political Thought (Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1977), 119.

309 Ibid., 121-22. 177

protest against social injustices and his attempt to provoke the spectator into political action.

Due to this pro-revolution political stance Pratidwandi can be defined as a Third Cinema product. Ray does not celebrate violence in the film, nor does he promote the ideological perspectives of the Naxalites. Instead of only hinting at the politically turbulent situation,

Ray asks critical questions in the film about the nature and influence of contemporary revolutionary activities. Ray illustrates his political concern in the film by trying to mobilize the spectator toward change. He emphasizes the politics of change through the protest of an individual instead of the protest generated by a specific political ideology. Pratidwandi is critical of both the privileged and the disadvantaged. While Ray condemns the callousness and immorality of the upper class, he also criticizes the conformism and lack of courage of the oppressed. By highlighting different attitudes and viewpoints of different characters, he sparks a debate about the main causes of contemporary problems through his film. Thus,

Pratidwandi appears to be effective as a political cinema because it makes the spectator evaluate the strengths of different contesting views. Like the dialectical content of the film, the cinematic language employed in Pratidwandi, I intend to argue, also involves ―a constant juxtaposition or clash of opposites (a thesis and an antithesis), the goal being the creation of a new synthesis or higher consciousness in the mind of the viewer.‖310 The dialectics of both form and content in Pratidwandi serve to reflect the tensions and conflicts prevalent within the chaotic situations of contemporary society. In his political film Ray is strongly critical of the social depravity and the class guilty of social injustice. But his denunciations

310 Marilyn Fabe, 194. 178

are made non-ideologically, without any political sloganeering. The film‘s limitations as well as its strengths lie in the way it privileges individual rebellion over any form of collective response and the way it invests in psychological turmoil over clear-cut calls to action.

Siddhartha‘s departure from the city can be interpreted as Ray‘s reluctance to make direct political statements. But through his emphasis on the protest from an individual, in his political film the director provides his messages from a philosophical plane. By showing

Siddhartha‘s vacillations and the violent outburst, the bird call and the squalid city, and the connection between personal and political issues, Ray makes the spectator deal with certain ambiguity that surrounds his political statements.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Cinema of Decolonization under Military Rule: Zahir Raihan’s Jiban Theke Neya (Glimpses from Life, 1970)

This chapter examines Zahir Raihan‘s 1970 film Jiban Theke Neya (Glimpses from Life) in terms of the director‘s attempt to use cinema as a political weapon to provide trenchant criticisms of the country‘s authoritarian rule. Jiban Theke Neya is the first film made by a

Bengali director in East Pakistan that attempts to deal with political reality of the country head on and provides a carefully assembled political message against authoritarian rule in

Pakistan. The film, made in the aftermath of a mass uprising in East Pakistan in 1969 against the government, is thoroughly informed by the political turbulence of contemporary society. The film departs from traditional mainstream films in its politically motivated use of various cinematic devices. The director uses certain strategies commonly associated with Hindi and Bengali commercial cinema such as linear narrative, popular stars, comic entertainment, songs, romance and theatricality. The chapter examines how the film transforms these conventional strategies from entertainment-oriented elements to film forms charged with political meaning. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, West

Pakistani-dominated central government displayed intense hostility towards the Bengali population of East Pakistan (today‘s Bangladesh) and their culture.311 Bengalis also

311 See Umar, The Emergence of Bangladesh: Rise of , 1958-1971(: Oxford University Press, 2006); Schendel, Willem van, A History of Bangladesh (Cambridge, UK; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009); Sisson, Richard and Leo E. Rose. War and Secession: Pakistan, India and the creation of Bangladesh (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Dos Santos, Anne Noronha, Military Intervention 180

vehemently opposed central government decisions in order to protect their own culture and political rights. Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s, East Pakistan often witnessed turbulent political circumstances. Due to strict political control, it was difficult for Bengali filmmakers during those years to portray contemporary political problems in their films.

The majority of Bengali films made in the 1960s remained fully confined to the conventions of escapist commercial cinema, the cinema which the Third Cinema proponents have regarded as First Cinema. A handful of Bengali films addressing the miseries of the middle class nevertheless did not confront volatile political realities of the country.

Jiban Theke Neya is a conscious attempt to grapple with urgent political reality and to mount a direct challenge to the status quo of the military state through cinema. Thus, the film functions as a significant reaction to the authoritarian rule as well as mainstream escapist cinema. It was necessary to camouflage the film‘s political intentions in order to escape censors. The film provides scathing criticisms of the dictatorial regime of Pakistan through symbolic characters and a metaphorical narrative. In their revolutionary manifesto

―Towards a Third Cinema,‖ Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino consider the presentation of truth as a subversive act in a neo-colonial situation: ―Any form of expression or communication that tries to show national reality is subversion.‖312 For these

and Secession in South Asia: The Cases of Bangladesh, Sri , Kashmir and Punjab (CA: Praeger Security International, 2007); Feroz Ahmed, ―The Structural Matrix of the Struggle in Bangladesh‖ in Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia, eds. Kathleen Gough and Hari P. Sharma (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1973), 419-448.

312 Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, ―Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 39. 181

Third Cinema proponents, ―freeing a forbidden truth means setting free the possibility of indignation and subversion.‖313 Solanas and Getino are sceptical about the ability of

Second Cinema or auteur cinema to produce films that can actively oppose the system.

Citing Godard‘s words they say that the Second Cinema filmmakers are ―trapped inside the fortress‖ or on their way to becoming trapped.314 For Solanas and Getino, in order for a film to be able to pose a serious challenge to the system, it must possess the attributes of one of the following films: films that the system cannot assimilate and which are foreign to its needs, and films that directly and explicitly set out to fight the system.315 In their foundational manifesto, Solanas and Getino assert that Second Cinema films fail to become either of these films. But they believe these requirements can be found in Third

Cinema films which, according to them, represent the cinema of liberation and decolonization.

This chapter argues that Jiban Theke Neya possesses the fundamental characteristics of a

Third Cinema film outlined by Solanas and Getino in their manifesto. The government of

Pakistan did not like the politically-oriented content of Jiban Theke Neya and made an attempt to ban it in its shooting stage. According to a government order, the authority of the Film Development Corporation seized the exposed footage of the film. Zahir Raihan was also asked to submit the script of his film to the authorities.316 Films dealing with

313 Solanas and Getino, 56.

314 Ibid, 42.

315 Ibid.

316 Anupam Hayat, Bangladesh-er Chalatchitrer Itihash (Dhaka: Bangladesh Film Development Corporation, 1987), 122. 182

contemporary problems made by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and other alternative Bengali filmmakers in West Bengal never faced any serious trouble with the censors for their explicitly political subject matter. Apparently the Indian Censor Board seems to have displayed more tolerance. But according to G. B. C. Menon, ―very few films in India have questioned the status quo of social organization in India.‖317 Through the means of allegory, Jiban Theke Neya strongly criticizes the coercive nature of existing social and political structures. The intention displayed by the military-backed government to ban it shows that the film created considerable discomfort for the system. The government could not ultimately ban the film because of the politically stormy situation marked by Bengali nationalist sentiment in East Pakistan. The government rightly realized that the ban of this film would not be taken lightly by the Bengali intelligentsia, students or the people of East Pakistan, who became eager to watch this film.318 Bengali spectators demonstrated their protest in front of the cinema against the delaying tactics of the administration in releasing this film. Jiban Theke Neya became a landmark in the history of

Bangladeshi cinema because the masses demanded its screening through angry protest.319

Jiban Theke Neya revolves around two families. Anwar, a politician and a leader of the factory workers, lives along with his two younger sisters Shathi and Bithi and a male housekeeper Modhu. Anwar has frequently been in jail because of his involvement in

317 G. B. C. Menon, ―Towards a Third Cinema: A Rejoinder,‖ Deep Focus 3, no. 2 (1990): 33.

318 Anupam Hayat, 120-22.

319 Chinmoy Mutsuddi, Bangladesh-er Chalatchitre Shamajik Angikaar (Dhaka: Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 1987), 45.

183

political activities. In his absence, the middle-aged housekeeper Modhu becomes of Anwar‘s young sisters. The other family becomes the integral part of the narrative. A very ill-mannered and bad-tempered woman intimidates and bullies her lawyer husband, two younger brothers Anis and Faruk, and servants of the family. We do not know the name of the woman in the film. She demonstrates cruelty and selfishness and she does not hesitate to insult people. Although the other members of the family have always been treated very harshly by the woman, they fail to gain the courage to retaliate against her. Thus, the woman remains a menace to the peace of the family and she keeps displaying her unpleasant attitudes over and over again.

The woman also does not hide her dislike for the struggle of the Bengalis for cultural and political emancipation. Therefore, she stands in sharp contrast to Anwar and his sisters and also to her own family members. The woman always seeks to keep control of the family, so she does not want her brothers to get married. But her brothers have got married – to Anwar‘s sisters, and the woman cannot tolerate their presence in the house.

Anwar is arrested by the police at the wedding of Shathi and he is again sent to prison.

Modhu is shot dead during a political procession. The woman tries to create conflict between the sisters using devious means and she seems to wait for the opportunity to harm them. One day Bithi has passed out on hearing that her husband Faruk is missing from a procession that comes under police fire. The woman quickly puts poison in a glass of water and asks the older sister Shathi to bring some water for Bithi. Shathi fetches the same glass of water for Bithi, who falls very sick after drinking it. It is revealed that there is poison in the glass and Shathi has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder.

184

During the trial, all the members of the family confirm that they have not seen Shathi putting poison in the glass; only the woman says that Shathi has poisoned her sister. The woman has ultimately been cross-examined by no-one but her lawyer husband; and it is proved in the court that the woman performed the deed; she is then sent to jail and the jury acquits Shathi of the charges. Anwar and Faruk are released and the last scene of the film shows the main characters of the film at the monument set up in memory of martyrs who died under police firing in 1952 during the movement to make Bengali one of the state languages of the country. The protagonists of the film are shown paying homage to the martyrs and expressing their commitment to work towards eradicating injustice and immorality from their country.

Socio-Political Context of Jiban Theke Neya

Historicity is one of the significant components of Third Cinema. Jiban Theke Neya is fully grounded in the socio-historical situations in which it is made. The director does not de- historicize the subject matter of his film by making it only a narrative based on the plight of certain individuals. It is not a ―timeless tragedy‖ nor is it a ―universal story.‖320 Raihan repeatedly highlights historical memory in the film through mise-en-scene and narrative events within the film. Contemporary reality depicted in the film remains closely intertwined with the historical context. Therefore, a brief historical review of social and political situations of East Pakistan in the 1950s and 1960s is of considerable importance

320 Michael Wayne, ―The Critical Practice and Dialectics of Third Cinema,‖ Third Text 52 (Summer 2000): 66. 185

in order to understand the political and ideological statements and denunciations included by Zahir Raihan in Jiban Theke Neya.

Pakistan was born, in August 1947, through the Partition of India that took place along religious lines. Today‘s Bangladesh originated as a province named East Pakistan in that new state. The euphoria of achieving a separate homeland for Muslims was very short- lived for the of East Pakistan. Just after the formation of Pakistan, they began to realize the discriminatory attitude being shown towards them in the new nation.

As Iain Cochrane states, ―in the first few weeks and months the Bengalis found themselves to be dominated politically and bullied culturally‖ by the establishment controlled by the West Pakistanis.321 Although Muslims were the majority in both parts of the country, religious affinity was the only bond to link them. The populace of West

Pakistan was composed of different races speaking different languages such as Punjabi,

Pashto, Sindhi, and Urdu. Urdu was the lingua franca of Muslims in India and Pakistan.

West Pakistanis displayed their adherence to Arab or middle-eastern culture and Urdu was written in Arabic script. Thus for the West Pakistanis, the language, according to

Salahuddin Ahmed, ―had attained some kind of religious sanctity.‖322 But Bengali Muslims and Hindus, both in East Pakistan and West Bengal, did not speak Urdu. They spoke

Bangla or Bengali, written in a -derived script. East Pakistan also shared the same

321 Iain Cochrane, The Causes of the Bangladesh War (Cochrane: Glasgow, 2009), 3.

322 A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Bengali Nationalism and the Emergence of Bangladesh: An Introductory Outline (Dhaka: International Centre for Bengali Studies, 2000), 83.

186

cultural heritage and social customs as the Hindu-majority West Bengal.323 Because of the lack of pro-Arab cultural orientation of the Bengali Muslims and their cultural and linguistic affinity with the Bengali Hindus, the ruling elite in West Pakistan considered the

Bengali Muslims as lesser Muslims.324 Within a year of the emergence of Pakistan as a nation-state, the Pakistani government declared that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan, despite it being spoken by less than four percent of all Pakistanis.

Bengalis in fact made up the majority of the population of Pakistan. Still, the West

Pakistani-dominated central government was unwilling to consider Bangla or Bengali as one of the official languages of Pakistan. Bengali students and intellectuals vehemently opposed the central government‘s extreme contempt for their language. The West

Pakistani disregard of the raised a storm of protest in East Pakistan. A cultural movement began to grow in East Pakistan criticizing the government‘s decision to make Urdu the one state language.

From the beginning of 1952, this movement gained momentum and the administration decided to take coercive measures to suppress the movement known as Bengali Language

Movement. On 21 February 1952, police opened fire on a mass demonstration in Dhaka and four students were shot dead. The killing of the students exacerbated the already volatile situation in East Pakistan. A martyr‘s monument was erected at the site of police firing at the Dhaka University campus to commemorate the sacrifice of the students. The

Language Movement also intensified in East Pakistan. It became difficult for the central

323 G. W. Choudhury, ―Bangladesh: Why It Happened,‖ International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) 48, no. 2 (April 1972): 247; Feroz Ahmed, 430.

324 Pranab Chatterjee, A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh and West Bengal: The Rise and Fall of Bengali Elitism in South Asia (New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 221. 187

government in that situation to ignore the demand of the Bengalis for recognition of their mother tongue as one of the official languages of Pakistan. On 29 February, 1956, Bengali ultimately attained official state language status. Article 214 (1) of Pakistani Constitution was changed to ―The state language of Pakistan shall be Urdu and Bengali.‖ People of

East Pakistan began to commemorate 21 February every year as Mother Language Day. It also became a regular phenomenon for the Bengalis in East Pakistan to visit the martyr‘s monument known as Shaheed Minar annually, on that day. A Bengali song written at the time made a huge impression amongst Bengalis. The lyrics of the song include – ―Amar

Bhai er Rokte Rangano Ekushey February, Ami ki Bhulite Pari? (How can I forget 21 February, a day stained with blood of my brothers?). The song instantly became the emblematic song of 21 February. Bengalis sang and played this song every year to remember the sacrifice made by the Bengali students. The central government‘s attempt to make Urdu the only national language of Pakistan and to quash the language demonstrations of the

Bengalis showed its imperialist attitude towards the Bengalis in East Pakistan.325 Conflict with the central government over the language issue made Bengalis aware of a separate

Bengali political identity. The Language Movement marked the beginning of the rise of mass Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan. The Movement, as Nasir Islam says, ―sparked a renaissance of Bengali culture and an emphasis on secular ideas as opposed to Islamic ideology.‖326

325 Richard D. Lambert, ―Factors in Bengali Regionalism in Pakistan,‖ Far Eastern Survey 28, no. 4 (April 1959): 56.

326 Nasir Islam, ―Islam and National Identity: The Case of Pakistan and Bangladesh,‖ International Journal of Middle East Studies 13, no. 1 (February 1981): 63. 188

On 27 October 1958, the army chief of Pakistan, General deposed the

President, Iskander Mirza, and assumed executive authority over the country. From 1958 to 1962, Pakistan witnessed complete authoritarian rule. General Ayub promoted himself to Field Marshal and retired from the military. From 1962, there was a controlled democracy in the country under his administration, with power concentrated in the hands of the President.327 Political parties were marginalized in Ayub‘s guided democracy. A multi-tiered electoral college was established with elected union councilors, called Basic

Democrats, from 80,000 constituencies to elect the President. The bureaucracy selected the candidates for election to the membership of the union councils. Government control over the Press and the Judiciary was institutionalized through the proclamation of a

Martial Law Ordinance and by legal reforms. The President also had the power to unilaterally veto any legislation. The regime established the authority of a military- bureaucratic oligarchy on Pakistan‘s political scene.328 Bengalis of East Pakistan were meagrely represented within both the army and the national bureaucracy.329 In the power structure established during Ayub‘s rule, as Choudhury states, ―the Bengalis had no share in the decision-making process. In any vital national issue they could only react; they could never act.‖330

327 Choudhury, 244.

328 Akmal Hussain, ―Pakistan‘s Economy in Historical Perspective: Growth, Power and Poverty,‖ in Pakistan: The Struggle Within, ed. Wilson John (Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009), 36-37; S. Mahmud Ali, Understanding Bangladesh (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 26-28.

329 Lambert, 53-54; Nasir Islam, 63.

330 Choudhury, 244. 189

Wide economic disparity also prevailed between the two parts of Pakistan. East Pakistan was the leading jute-producing country in the world and earned most of the country‘s foreign exchange by exporting raw and processed jute. This foreign exchange was spent on the industrialization of West Pakistan. East Pakistan received only 25-30 percent of the total earnings.331 The lion‘s share of development expenditure and foreign aid was used for the development of West Pakistan, although the majority of the country‘s population lived in East Pakistan. The economic policies enforced by the Pakistani government concentrated wealth in the hands of West Pakistani capitalists and, as Nasir Islam says,

―transformed East Pakistan into a captive market for West Pakistani manufactured products. This virtually created a situation of internal , leading to a vertical ethnic stratification, by which a class character was imposed on ethnic differentiation.‖332

Although Bengali was granted status as one of the official languages of the country, the

West Pakistani army-bureaucratic elite continued to undermine Bengali culture and language during the Ayub era. Ayub Khan often commented that the Bengalis should be freed from the ―evil influence‖ of the Hindu culture.333 With a view to Islamizing the

Bengali language, the central government several times proposed to change the script of the Bengali language from its original Sanskrit-like script to the Perso-Arabic script used for writing Urdu. Bengalis, whether Muslim or Hindu, were very fond of the works of

Nobel Prize-winning Bengali poet, novelist and composer . Tagore was extremely popular amongst Bengalis both in East Pakistan and West Bengal in India.

331 See Feroz Ahmed, 423; Choudhury, 246.

332 Nasir Islam, 64.

333 Feroz Ahmed, 431. 190

Tagore was Hindu and the West Pakistani rulers did not like the great admiration of the

Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan for the work of a Hindu poet.

In 1967, the Ayub Government banned Tagore‘s work in any written form and also imposed a ban on transmitting Tagore‘s songs and works through stating that Tagore‘s work was ―against Pakistan‘s cultural values.‖334 Iain Cochrane observes:

―Tagore had become a huge cultural icon and was embraced by Bengali Muslims and this was something, which mystified Ayub Khan‘s regime. The regime could not understand the national attachment to the poetry of a Bengali Brahmin Hindu, and the idolised position of

Tagore in the minds of Bengali Muslims. So they simply banned the work of Tagore.‖335

Bengali students, professors, journalists, writers, artists and cultural organizations deeply resented the ban on playing Tagore‘s songs on the Radio. On August, 1967, however, several Bengali progressive cultural organizations such as Chayanot, Bulbul Academy and

Oikotaan organized a three-day programme in Dhaka to commemorate the anniversary of

Tagore‘s death, ignoring the government restrictions. The programme was a direct challenge to the West Pakistani domination of Bengali cultural values. The British High

Commission made an observation about the West Pakistani control in East Pakistan:

West Pakistan, since partition increasingly proved itself an equally alien and

disagreeable ruler. West Pakistan has been engaged in the unimaginative exercise of

remote control of the Province‘s economic and social life in its own interests; has put

334 Cochrane, 27.

335 Ibid.

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its own frequently arrogant and almost always contemptuous representatives to fill

the best jobs on the spot; and has intimidated that it intends to impose its own

language. All this has revived familiar emotional reactions in East Bengal – fear,

hatred, rebelliousness and violence.336

Economic disparity and West Pakistani hostility towards the local culture of East Pakistan provoked growing dissatisfaction there. During the Ayub era, according to Choudhury,

―East Pakistan became a hotbed for political agitation and unrest. Hardly a year passed without Bengalis revolting against alleged maltreatment by the central government, the result was shootings and killings, which gave further impetus to the growth of Bengali nationalism.‖337 Up to 60 percent of the country‘s budget was used in defence expenditure.

But the large military establishment was based in West Pakistan. East Pakistanis comprised

55 percent of the country‘s population yet Bengalis held less than ten percent of the military positions.338 During the 1965 India-Pakistan war, East Pakistan was poorly defended. The bulk of Pakistan‘s troops were deployed in the defence of the Western part of the country. Rising discontent over the transfer of resources from East to West Pakistan and the realization of the military vulnerability of East Pakistan caused Bengalis to seek regional autonomy for their territory. In 1966, leading Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman put forward six demands at a national conference of opposition political parties in

West Pakistan. was the head of Awami League, the largest political party in East Pakistan. He described the six-point plan as Our Charter for Survival. According

336 Cited in Cochrane, 60.

337 Choudhury, 244.

338 Feroz Ahmed, ―Pakistan, Bangladesh, India: 1970-73,‖ MERIP Reports, no. 16 (April 1973): 6. 192

to Hasan Zaheer, ―the Six Points summarized the long-standing grievances of the

Bengalis.‖339 The six points included two separate currencies and two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings for two wings, no taxation and revenue collection power for the federal centre, the central government should deal only with defence and foreign affairs, and a separate militia or paramilitary forces for East Pakistan. The Six-Point plan in a very short time gained immense popular support in East Pakistan.340 But the West

Pakistani military-bureaucratic-industrial complex rejected the charter. President Ayub

Khan immediately dubbed it as a conspiracy to separate East Pakistan from the rest of the country.341 In 1968, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested along with some Bengali high government officials and in-service and former military personnel. They were accused of taking part in a conspiracy to secede East Pakistan with the help of the government of

India. The charges against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other Bengali officials provoked an angry reaction from East Pakistanis. In 1968-1969, the people‘s anger gradually grew into a massive popular uprising against the Ayub regime. Ayub‘s Government also faced strong criticisms in West Pakistan. The regime took stern measures to suppress the mass movement against it, but again found it impossible to crush an uprising by the Bengalis in

East Pakistan. In the face of widespread anti-Ayub agitation in 1969, the government had to withdraw the charges against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other Bengali officials.

Bengali prisoners were freed and they were given a grand reception in Dhaka. In 1969,

Ayub Khan resigned and his military-bureaucratic regime was replaced by a military government headed by the Pakistani army chief General . Political repression,

339 Hasan Zaheer, The Separation of East Pakistan: The Rise and Realization of Bengali Muslim Nationalism (Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2001), 97.

340 Ibid.

341 Shaikh Maqsood Ali, From East Bengal to Bangladesh (Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2009), 245. 193

economic inequality and cultural imperialism experienced by the Bengalis in East Pakistan contributed to the intensification of the political aspiration of the Bengalis to achieve independence from the Pakistani rule.

Culture and History as Sites of Ideological Struggle in Jiban Theke Neya

Because of the strict censorship imposed by the military-backed government, it is not possible for Zahir Raihan in Jiban Theke Neya to make overt and direct political statements condemning the repressive system. Therefore, Raihan uses symbols, metaphors and analogies throughout the film to render his political messages through indirect means.

Bengali Language and Bengali cultural traditions have always been subjected to West

Pakistani hatred. In a colonial and imperial situation, the distinctive culture of the colonized always undergoes systematic domination by the colonizers. The colonizers tend to treat the cultural heritage of the colonized with derision and contempt; they want the natives to assimilate the supposedly superior culture of the colonized. But the oppressed also display their determination to protect their national culture, and so culture inevitably becomes a site of political struggle between the oppressed and the occupying force. True to the tradition of imperialism, West Pakistani-controlled central governments in the united

Pakistan loathed Bengali culture, which became evident through their attempts to disregard the language of the Bengalis and to ban the transmission of the Bengali songs of

Rabindranath Tagore. Bengalis stick to their cultural identity and they put up resistance to cultural subjugation by the West Pakistanis. According to Teshome Gabriel:

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Wherever imperialist culture penetrates, it attempts to destroy national culture and

substitute foreign culture; therefore, the struggle to preserve the cultural make-up of a

society also constitutes a major area of concern for Third World filmmakers…. Third

World countries have two distinctively parallel cultures. The ruling classes emulate a

culture co-opted by colonial and imperialistic values, which is in direct conflict with the

culture of the people.342

By explicitly and systematically delineating the distinctiveness of Bengali cultural identity,

Jiban Theke Neya counteracts the ideology and hegemony of the West Pakistanis. The film‘s emphasis on historicity also highlights the attempts of Bengalis in the past in resisting the hegemony of the West Pakistanis. Throughout the film, Raihan uses various symbols which represent cultural tradition of the Bengalis and evoke the memory of their revolutionary protest against political oppression. These cultural and social symbols also connote ideology favoured by the Bengalis. Raihan thus presents the ideology of the oppressed in his film made under military rule that tends to perpetuate its own ideology contemptuous of the culture of the Bengalis. Jiban Theke Neya unfolds with a close-up shot showing the words ―the everlasting 21 February‖ written in Bengali on a poster. The opening shot of the film highlights both Bengali words and the importance of 21 February. The Pakistani authority several times tried to change the script of Bengali language. For Bengalis, 21

February is a symbol of their revolutionary struggle against the oppression of the West

Pakistanis. Therefore, by emphasizing two emblematic elements of the Bengalis‘ struggle

342 Gabriel, 16. 195

against the Pakistani authority, Raihan makes political statements from the very first shot of the film.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Anwar is seen preparing some posters for the commemoration to be held on 21 February.

The history of the Language Movement is directly connected to the nationalist and cultural consciousness of the Bengalis. The martyr‘s monument or the Shaheed Minar also becomes a political symbol that remains a great source of inspiration for the Bengalis to protest against social and political injustices. Since 1952, it has become customary for the Bengalis to place garlands on Shaheed Minar and on the grave of the martyrs on the day of 21

February. Many people in Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan, march in procession barefoot towards the Shaheed Minar on 21 February to pay the memory of the language martyrs. Shaheed Minar has become a symbol of the great courage and determination shown by the Bengalis for upholding Bengaliness. Visiting Shaheed Minar on

21 February also connotes a revolutionary act under the Pakistani regime because the remembrance of the sacrifice of the martyrs reinforces Bengali‘s adherence to Bengali nationalism. The gatherings signify a protest at and challenge to the political and cultural hegemony of West Pakistanis. The Pakistani army therefore demolished the martyr‘s monument soon after the military crackdown in Dhaka on 25 March 1971. But Bengalis naturally rebuilt it in independent Bangladesh after the War. Jiban Theke Neya thus makes a

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political comment in the very first shot of the film by highlighting the memory of 21

February.

In the following scene, from Anwar‘s conversation with their housekeeper Modhu we discover that Anwar has just been released from prison. But Anwar does not seem demoralized after spending time in the jail. During his conversation with Modhu, Anwar expresses his intention to continue his work for the rights of his countrymen and for taking part in activities marked by the spirit of Bengali nationalism. Soon, his younger sisters Sathi and Bithi join them. Anwar asks his sisters to sing the song of 21 February. A particular detail illustrating a religious gesture adds to the importance of this scene. Before they begin singing this song, Sathi and Bithi cover their head with parts of their sari, the long piece of cloth worn by Bengali women. Traditionally, Bengali Muslim women cover their head with parts of their garments at the time of performing religious rituals. The song of 21 February is not a religious song, but the scene of two young Muslim women covering their heads before singing it suggests its huge significance in the lives of Bengalis. The scene implies that the song of 21 February is so important for the Bengalis that it evokes a feeling of sacredness for them. The director thus emphasizes the strong sentiment and great respect of the Bengalis for the memory of the Language Movement through the use of this detail.

A portrait of Rabindranath Tagore is also seen on the wall of Anwar‘s house in this scene along with another Bengali poet . The West Pakistani authority did not like the influence of a Hindu poet on the Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan. For the West

Pakistanis, the idea of Bengaliness does not conform to the Islamist principles because

Bengali Hindus in West Bengal and in East Pakistan also adhere to the same Bengali

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culture. Instead of embracing the Pakistani ideology, Bengalis uphold their own culture which is based on religious syncretism. The pictures of both Rabindranath Tagore and the

Muslim poet Kazi Nazrul Islam on the wall of Anwar‘s house serve to indicate the secularist attitude of Bengali Muslims. The film in its first sequence highlights important aspects of Bengali culture which stand in stark contrast to the cultural outlook of the West

Pakistani ruling elite. The 21 February song also performs a narrative function by indicating the feelings of deep respect of the members of this family for Bengali nationalist ideas.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The sequence that follows shows real footage of the gathering of the Bengalis on the

Shaheed Minar premises. We see the processions of people walking towards the Shaheed

Minar with flower wreaths to pay tribute to the language martyrs. Bare feet of the people in the procession are shown through close shots, highlighting the particular cultural practices of this day. The 21st February song is heard on the soundtrack. The director also frequently highlights the symbols of Bengali cultural heritage. On several occasions Raihan‘s camera zooms in to some plaques and banners displaying quotes imbued with patriotic feelings from famous Bengali poems and songs. Certain paintings are inserted between the documentary footage. One painting shows a mother carrying her child. The mother looks very frightened. Another painting shows two men who are blindfolded and gagged. Behind the men, some books titled ―art‖ and ―culture,‖ some placards showing the word

―democracy‖ and some Bengali alphabets are seen in a place surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Another painting shows a huge, ominous-looking eagle coming towards the ground

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and some arrows having been shot towards it. Given the censorial restrictions it is not possible for Raihan to provide direct criticisms of the authoritarian rule, but through the use of these paintings the director portrays the repressive social conditions of East

Pakistan. The anxiety of the mother depicted in the painting indicates the worries and uncertainties of the people. Blindfolded and gagged men and the barbed wire indicate that the Bengalis are denied their democratic rights by the country‘s government. The ominous- looking eagle becomes a sign of Pakistani military aggression and arrows fired towards it stand for the resistance put up by the Bengalis. These images are only shown for a short time. But they serve to make Jiban Theke Neya a savage indictment of the dictatorial regime of Pakistan. Contemporary Bengali films made in East Pakistan do not use documentary footage. Through the use of real footage of 21 February commemoration, Jiban Theke Neya subverts the traditional form of representation of Bengali cinema and also displays a spirit of rebellion by emphasizing the history of the protest of the Bengalis against the suppression of the government.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

In the metaphorical narrative of the film, the director uses the character of the domineering and ill-mannered woman to represent the authoritarian ruler of the country. The woman is shown for the first time in the film in a scene following the sequence at the Shaheed Minar.

Before the woman appears, a bunch of keys are shown in a close-up shot. The scene is accompanied by the sound of bugle associated with a military march-past. Then the woman is seen walking pompously through the corridor of the house. She is carrying the bunch of

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keys. The sound used in the previous close-up shot evoking the military parade serves to symbolize the woman as a military ruler. In Bengali tradition, the housewife of the family usually keeps the important keys of the chest of drawers with her all the time. In a Bengali household family it is usually the eldest housewife who gets the privilege of keeping the important keys. The possession of keys grants someone a respectable position in a Bengali family. In the film, the house of the woman has become a symbol of the whole nation. The unpleasant and overbearing attitudes displayed by the woman epitomize the existing authoritarian rule of the country. Possession of the keys also serves to symbolize the power and authority of the authoritarian ruler. In a scene the woman also says that she can do anything in order to keep possession of these keys. The woman is shown mimicking certain attitudes displayed by the West Pakistani rulers toward the Bengalis. When Faruk returns home after attending the 21 February procession, she is seen yelling at him for going out.

When Faruk replies that he has attended the commemoration, the woman angrily asks him

―what is 21 February?‖ She does not seem to have any respect for the feelings of Faruk.

On the contrary, she scolds him by saying that he looks like a savage as he has gone out barefoot. Thus, the extremely derisive attitude displayed by the woman towards 21

February reminds the audience of the Pakistani disdain for the Language Movement of the

Bengalis and the commemoration events on 21 February.

The woman‘s husband is shown to be a music lover. But the woman does not allow him to sing a song in the house. In a scene, we see her husband is singing a song sitting on the roof of the house so that he can sing peacefully. But the woman even shows up on the roof. She harshly scolds him for singing a song. From her yelling we come to know that she

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has smashed her husband‘s musical instruments in the past. The scene thus reminds the audience of the decision of the central government to stop broadcasting Tagore songs in the country even though the Bengalis are immensely fond of these songs written in Bengali.

In another scene, the servant of the house also secretly criticizes the woman‘s tendency to exercise excessive authority over other members of the house. The servant describes the woman‘s overbearing attitude as a ―military attitude.‖

Jiban Theke Neya as a Dialectical Transformation of First and Second Cinemas

Jiban Theke Neya possesses various fundamental characteristics of Third Cinema. But the film does not fully reject aspects of dominant commercial cinema and art cinema. On the contrary, Raihan‘s ideologically subversive film appropriates both First and Second cinema strategies. Theorists often endorse the idea that Third Cinema should introduce a new cinematic language. Cynthia Ramsey states that ―the concept of Third Cinema is built on a rejection of Hollywood‘s retrograde commercialism that stimulates the consumer‘s interest in order to create greater demand. Commercial film formulas make money. Third cinema films make revolution on the ideological level with a new film style.‖343 Teshome Gabriel asserts that, ―the aim of Third Cinema is not to re-aestheticise traditional cinematic codes but to politicize cinema to such an extent that a new cinematic code appropriate to its needs is established.‖344 According to Robert Stam: ―Third Cinema is independent in

343 Cynthia Ramsey, ―Third Cinema in Latin America: Critical Theory in Recent Works,‖ Latin American Research Review 23, no.1 (1988): 266.

344 Gabriel, XI. 201

production, militant in politics, and experimental in language…. Revolutionary films must be aesthetically avant-garde.‖345 But Latin American Third Cinema proponents, in their manifestos on revolutionary cinema, do not propose a specific aesthetic strategy that a

Third Cinema film must employ in order to achieve its revolutionary aims. Classic Third

Cinema manifestos do not offer any normative revolutionary form for Third Cinema. A

Third Cinema filmmaker can utilize any form that serves to instil a radical and politicized consciousness in the audience. In Paul Willemen‘s words: ―The Latin Americans reserve the right to resort to any formal device they deem necessary to achieve their goals, as is clear from their refusal to straitjacket themselves into a codified Third Cinema aesthetic.‖346

Julio García Espinosa uses the term imperfect cinema to refer to the cinema that is antithetical to dominant cinema and for him, imperfect cinema may use either documentary or fictional mode, and ―it can use whatever genre, or any genre.‖347 Jorge Sanjinés is widely regarded as one of the prominent Third Cinema filmmakers. In his films Sanjinés often uses traditional cinematic language. Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez is known for his politically-oriented documentaries, but Michael Chanan observes that Alvarez‘s films do not display a ―conscious pursuit of a set of rationalized aesthetic aims.‖348 For Chanan, the filmmakers in revolutionary situations must ―adapt to the needs of the moment‖ and to use all available means. So, Alvarez‘s style bears the sign ―of constant evolution and change.‖349

345 Robert Stam, ―The Hour of the Furnaces and the Two Avant-gardes‖ in The Social Documentary in Latin America, ed. Julianne Burton (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990), 253, 261.

346 Paul Willemen, ―The Third Cinema Question: Notes and Reflections,‖ in Questions of Third Cinema, eds. Jim Pines and Paul Willemen (London: BFI Publishing, 1991), 27.

347 Cited in Willemen, 7.

348 Cited in Ramsey, 273.

349 Ibid.

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Getino believes that mechanical adherence to any particular strategy, no matter how radical it may seem, reduces the effectiveness of a political film. Solanas also points out that Third

Cinema is not distinguished by any particular genre.350

Third Cinema‘s reluctance to follow one particular model of revolutionary cinema and to adhere to any specific formal strategy ensures that it can also make use of stylistic devices of First and Second Cinemas. The continuous interchange between three cinemas suggests that Third Cinema should be seen as a dialectical transformation of the other cinemas.

Michael Chanan asserts that, ―unless these categories – whichever set we use – are comprehended dialectically, their application will inevitably be mechanical and sterile.‖351 In his book on Third Cinema, Mike Wayne emphasizes that Third Cinema‘s relation to First and Second Cinemas is dialectical. According to him, ―Third Cinema seeks to bring out their stifled potentialities, those aspects of the social world they repress or only obliquely acknowledge; Third Cinema seeks to detach what is positive, life-affirming and critical from

Cinemas One and Two and give them a more expanded, socially connected articulation.‖352

Although Jiban Theke Neya displays a specific aim of addressing revolutionary politics, it incorporates various filmic devices associated with conventional cinema to provide its radical messages. The film retains a conventional story-line and it does not dispense with

350 Cited in Michael Chanan, ―The Changing Geography of Third Cinema,‖ Screen 38:4 (Winter 1997): 379.

351 Chanan, 382.

352 Mike Wayne, Political Film: The Dialectics of Third Cinema (London: Pluto Press, 2001), 10.

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certain devices of entertainment cinema such as popular actors and actresses, songs, romantic plot, melodrama, exaggerated performance, humorous episodes by a comic actor and a happy ending. Raihan wants to stir the revolutionary attitude of his audience by highlighting patriotic feelings, Bengali cultural identity and the Bengalis‘ passionate struggle against political injustice. His target audience is not only the sophisticated intelligentsia but also the general masses of the whole country. The use of traditional cinematic methods makes the film easily comprehensible to the general film audience who are not familiar with highly experimental filmic language. However, the film also incorporates innovative formal strategies frequently employed in European art cinema such as documentary footage, painting, still photographs, freeze shot, and images shown in negative. Such filmic devices are not seen in contemporary Bengali films. Thus, Jiban Theke Neya becomes dialectically related to First and Second Cinema.

Bengalis are very fond of music. Songs with romantic lyrics and happy tunes are vital components of Bengali commercial films. Jiban Theke Neya also incorporates several songs, but these do not resemble the attractive songs commonly used in Bengali commercial films.

Although Jiban Theke Neya casts a leading romantic duo of Bengali commercial cinema and shows a romantic relationship between them, not a single romantic song is included in the film. On the contrary, the director systematically uses famous Bengali songs imbued with revolutionary zeal and patriotism. During the opening credits, the soundtrack includes a song imbued with patriotic feelings. The first sequence of the film includes the special song written in memory of the Bengali language martyrs. The melancholy tune of this song is again used on the soundtrack when Anwar is being arrested by the police at the wedding of

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Shathi. In a later scene, Shathi receives a letter from Anwar sent from jail. In it, Anwar expresses his strong determination to remain involved with the struggle of his countrymen against unjust political oppression. The scene of Shathi reading the letter cuts to one showing some political prisoners including Anwar sitting inside a prison cell. A famous song written by eminent Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam is used in this scene. This song, entitled ―Break the iron bars of prison,‖ is regarded as a revolutionary song because of its radical and fiery lyrics. Anwar and other prisoners are shown singing this song aloud inside the prison cell.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

This scene of political prisoners sitting in a cell recalls a scene of The Battle of Algiers, the politically-critical film made by Gillo Pontecorvo. Algerian political prisoners are seen chanting ―Long Live Algeria‖ from the prison, holding the bars of the cell, when two

French police personnel are taking another Algerian prisoner to guillotine him. The

Algerian prisoners do not look frightened, not even the man who is about to be guillotined.

This particular scene, demonstrating the ruthless treatment of the Algerian revolutionaries by the French administration, becomes a bitter denunciation of colonial control and additionally informs the audience of the sheer fearlessness of the revolutionaries who are fighting for the independence of their country. While the prison scene in The Battle of Algiers seems documentary-like because of its realistic presentation based on understatement, the jail scene in Jiban Theke Neya shows exaggerated emotion displayed by the prisoners sitting inside the cell. Thus, the scene becomes melodramatic. The camera repeatedly shows the

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prisoners through close-ups and mid-shots during the song. The bold and fearless expressions of their faces reveal their courage and spirit. The passionate lyrics of the song sung by the prisoners in an intensely emotional way and the accompaniment of a powerful tune convey their rebelliousness and lack of fear. These shots are often juxtaposed with still photographs of masses of people confronting police. The revolutionary song, fearless faces of the prisoners and original photographs of mass uprising all serve to provide political statements about the courage and political commitment of Bengali political activists to continue their struggle. One of the earlier scenes shows Anwar and Faruk with many factory workers. Raihan uses another song that is strongly imbued with socialist ideology.

This song begins with words ―Let us make the poor rise up for their rights today.‖ The scene shows workers raising shovels and spades, led by Anwar and Faruk performing this song on a street, through low-angle shots. The shovels resemble sharp weapons, suggesting that the workers are ready to rise up in revolt against injustices and exploitation.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

A very famous song written by Rabindranath Tagore is also used in the film. The song starts with words ―My Bengal of Gold, I Love You.‖ It reminds Bengalis of the distinctiveness of their own cultural identity. During a trip to their village, Anwar expresses his deep love of his motherland by touching the soil. He says that he loves this soil as much as he loves his mother and he cannot stand any harm coming to this country. Anwar and his sisters then start singing this song by Tagore that conveys tremendous patriotic fervour and upholds Bengali nationalist sentiment. During this song-sequence, the frame

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composition of the shots also emphasizes the rural beauty of Bengal. In most of the shots employed in this sequence, the characters are placed either at the far right or far left of the frame. The larger part of the frame is occupied by rural scenes such as the boats on the river, paddy fields and the vegetation. In every shot, either one or more protagonists are seen with a pastoral scene in the background. The shots thus draw attention to the beauty of Bengal countryside during the nationalistic song, and in doing so they try to strengthen the patriotic feelings of the spectator. By placing the protagonists at the corner of the frame the director also tries to convey his message that the country should be given precedence over the individuals. East Pakistan became the sovereign nation of Bangladesh following the Liberation War in 1971, and this song by Tagore has become the national anthem of the independent Bangladesh. Raihan has made an overt political statement by using this song in his film made during the Pakistani rule. All these song sequences depict the intense emotions of the characters. Thus, these sequences seem dramatized. But through the emphasis on passionate depictions of emotion in these sequences the film indicates the unflagging enthusiasm and the revolutionary ardour of the Bengalis for their struggle against political suppression and also to protect their culture and identity. Through the systematic use of these carefully-selected songs Jiban Theke Neya makes a revolutionary departure from traditional Bengali films.

Third Cinema always puts emphasis on collective subjects. When a central character is used in Third Cinema, as Gabriel has put it, ―the viewpoint goes beyond that of the community, of the collective, and of history.‖353 In a Third Cinema film attempting to depict social

353 Gabriel, 24. 207

problems, it is necessary not to separate the main protagonists from other individuals and social situations. According to Mike Wayne, ―one of the fundamental and persistent problems of First Cinema from a Third Cinema perspective is that it reduces social and historical problems and issues to individual causes and solutions.‖354 In Jiban Theke Neya, the bad-mannered woman symbolizes the dictator and the other characters in the two families represent the oppressed people in East Pakistan. Raihan does not put focus on any particular character in the film. In the opening credits, a statement appears after the names of main performers asserting that all peasants, workers and general masses of this country are also the protagonists of this film. During the opening credits, the faces of all main protagonists are shown within one shot instead of placing an emphasis on any particular character. In the last scene of the film, all the major characters of the film are shown standing together at the Shaheed Minar.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Although Jiban Theke Neya uses a few characters and a conventional story line, the theme and its characters are never cut off from the social context. Anwar and his sisters and Faruk are seen amongst many people during the sequence showing real footage of the gathering of people on the Shaheed Minar premises. Raihan shoots these scenes during the

354 Wayne, 138-39.

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commemoration programme of 21 February in Dhaka. His protagonists participate in real processions to the Shaheed Minar and place flowers on the martyrs‘ monument with many other people. Thus, the protagonists of Jiban Theke Neya do not remain isolated individuals.

Many Second Cinema films use documentary footage. But Raihan makes this technique more effective by placing his protagonists within a real event. In Calcutta 71, with a view to linking his fictional characters with the disgruntled real-life people taking part in anti- government protest, Sen inserts shots showing the protagonists of the film between real shots of mass demonstration. In doing so, he makes his political stance clear. Raihan connects his protagonists with the real people more compellingly by making his protagonists participate in a real event. Jiban Theke Neya not only displays its opposition to the oppressive attitude of the government at narrative level. By making his characters join the masses in 21st February procession, Raihan directly pays homage to the language martyrs with his film unit and thus makes his anti-government stance even more explicit and forceful. The participation of the protagonists in the real procession also makes the spectator aware of the filmmaking process. Through this particular use of documentary footage, Raihan presents his protagonists as collective subjects and he also transforms this second cinema strategy to fulfil an important requirement of Third Cinema. In later scenes of the film, Faruk and Modhu are also seen participating in the processions. At the end,

Anwar refuses to accept a garland from the people gathering at the jail gate to receive him.

He says that only those people who sacrificed their lives for this country deserve this garland. In spite of using certain First Cinema elements, Raihan thus avoids restricting his film to any individualistic framework.

209

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The film shows a romantic relationship between Faruk and Bithi. But romantic scenes in

Jiban Theke Neya hardly resemble the traditional romantic scenes that tend to highlight only the personal relationship. Raihan transforms this conventional device in Jiban Theke Neya.

Faruk and Bithi are seen on the morning of 21 February at the Shaheed Minar and they begin conversing. Many people holding placards in their hands are seen constantly walking past

Faruk and Bithi. In this sequence, Faruk and Bithi are mostly shown in close-ups. Their faces are surrounded by many placards with political messages such as ―Down with

Imperialism,‖ ―The Blood of the Martyrs will not go In Vain,‖ ―We Want to Live like

Humans,‖ and ―We will not Forget 21 February.‖ The close-ups are used in order to draw the spectator‘s attention to the contents of these placards. This scene demonstrates the close connection between the personal and the political in a society undergoing political turmoil. It indicates that the personal lives of individuals are being profoundly affected by political circumstances in this society. The presence of the placards prevents the scene from providing the emotional pleasures usually associated with a romantic scene and reminds the audience of the political injustices being committed. Thus, the possibility of the passive consumption of a romantic scene is disrupted. The scene not only shows romantic conversations between , it becomes a report on the politically turbulent situation of contemporary society. Raihan shows the private conversation between Faruk and Bithi again in a later scene through a low-angle shot. This time the Dhaka University building is seen in the background. Dhaka University students actively participated in social and political movements against the military government. Therefore, the university itself became a symbol of protest and political consciousness during the Pakistani dictatorial 210

regime. Raihan‘s use of the Dhaka University building within the same shot thus changes the conventional presentation of a romantic scene in the service of his political cinema.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The film also exploits stylized acting, another element of conventional Bengali cinema, in order to provide political critiques. One scene marked by theatrical emotion depicts the repressive social situation in the country. The woman‘s lawyer husband puts many posters on the walls of their house against the unreasonable and rude attitudes of the woman. The demands written in the posters reflect the real demands of the people of East Pakistan such as ‗‖We do not want one-person rule,‖ ―We want our rights to sing,‖ ―we want equal rights for everyone,‖ ―stop terrorism,‖ and ―stop bullying.‖ When the woman sees these posters, she starts shouting hysterically. No one in the family gains the courage to say anything at that time. The woman standing at the landing of a staircase is shown in a low-angle shot, making her appear to be dominant and overbearing. She orders everyone to remove the posters from the walls immediately. The other members of the family silently obey her order. This allegorical scene thus enunciates how the just demands of the Bengalis only provoke intense anger from the authority.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Like many other Bengali entertainment films, Jiban Theke Neya also includes a comic actor in the form of a matchmaker. But the amusing scenes of the film are also reworked to 211

provide useful statements. It is the matchmaker who every time suggests to the husband of the woman that new people are needed in their family in order to change the environment of the house and to nullify the woman. His suggestion can be read as the director‘s emphasis on the need for social change by opposing the contemporary repressive regime.

Third Cinema opposes all forms of oppression and it attempts to provide people with a radical consciousness so that they begin realizing the need for social change. In the words of Fernando Birri, one of the proponents of Third Cinema: ―Our purpose is to create a new person, a new society, a new history and therefore a new art and a new cinema.

Urgently.‖355 At the beginning of Jiban Theke Neya, we see these words appear before the opening credits: a country, a family, a bunch of keys, a movement, and a film. They provide an indication of the film‘s political engagement. Unlike contemporary Bengali films, Jiban

Theke Neya confronts present-day political reality head on. Thus the film falls into the category of new cinema and recalling Birri‘s ideas, Raihan advocates the need for new people and a new society in the film. Raihan also effectively transforms the components of commercial and authorial cinema in Jiban Theke Neya.

A Cinema of Freedom and Decolonization

The influence of the philosophy of Frantz Fanon pervades the classic manifestos of Third

Cinema and many Third Cinema films made throughout the World. In his works, Fanon emphasizes the notions of social conflict, a new consciousness, violent protest and total

355 Fernando Birri, ―Cinema and Underdevelopment‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 87. 212

liberation of the oppressed. Raihan‘s intention to make his countrymen critically aware of the importance of decolonization and political freedom is manifest in his incorporation of all these Fanonian motifs in Jiban Theke Neya. Throughout the film Raihan exposes the tensions between the oppressor and the oppressed prevailing in contemporary society by interweaving the photographs of the agitation of the Bengalis against the oppressive regime and an allegorical story critical of contemporary oppression. Raihan shows the desire of his protagonists to achieve freedom from the unjust control imposed by the woman. In the film, the woman‘s husband is often seen singing one particular song that begins with the words: ―How can I destroy this condition of captivity?‖ The woman is seen resenting the idea of having new people in their house. Her attitude can be read as the intention shown by the oppressive rulers to keep the status quo. Her brothers and her husband initially remain passive and they do not protest. But it becomes clear that their submissiveness and failure to protest against the woman will not bring the desired change in their house.

For Fanon, decolonization does not only refer to a change in the social, political, cultural and economic structures of a country, but also a change of consciousness. A change in the individual‘s world view, a change of one‘s entire self is needed in order to achieve true decolonization.356 According to Fanon, ―decolonization is quite simply the replacing of a certain ‗species‘ of men by another ‗species‘ of men. Without any period of transition, there is a total, complete and absolute substitution.‖357 Fanon thus emphasizes the importance of attaining new consciousness that will turn human beings into new men. Changes in social

356 Emmanuel Hansen, Frantz Fanon: Social and Political Thought (Ohio State University Press, 1977), 119.

357 Ibid, 120. 213

and political structures brought about by the new men will ensure true decolonization.

Fanon also says:

Decolonization… influences individuals and modifies them fundamentally… It brings

a natural rhythm into existence, introduced by new men, and with it a new language

and a new humanity. Decolonization is the veritable creation of new men. But this

creation owes nothing of its legitimacy to any supernatural power; the ―thing‖ which

has been colonized becomes man during the same process by which it frees itself.358

For Fanon, violence can be used as a means to achieve decolonization. He considers violence as a cleansing force because violence enables the oppressed to get rid of his feeling of inferiority and thus the oppressed has been transformed into a new man. Fanon advocates the ―emancipatory role of violence‖ in the process of decolonization.359 The

Bengalis of East Pakistan came out onto the streets several times during Pakistani rule in order to protest against unjust government decisions. The demands of the Bengalis were met only when their struggle had become violent and people had died. In 1952, students died in Dhaka at the hands of the police, during the anti-Ayub mass movement in 1969, people, including a university teacher and a student leader, were shot dead by the army in

East Pakistan. In Jiban Theke Neya, Raihan constantly portrays the volatile political situation and the protests of the people of East Pakistan, using real scenes and photographs of mass processions on the streets. Modhu is shown to have joined one of the protest rallies. We

358 Ibid.

359 Ibid.

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see plenty of placards bearing demands for civil rights and the release of political prisoners.

Modhu is shown chanting slogans and raising his fist. Raised fists of other protesters are also shown in the scene through close-up shots. Soon we hear gunfire, and the raised fists are seen slowly coming down and the placards fall to the ground. Madhu is shot dead and his body is shown lying in the street. Faruk is also seen lying on the ground with a head injury. The film inserts photographs of the army deployed on the streets of Dhaka with machine guns, police placed on a state of alert, anti-government demonstrations and burning vehicles in the street. The film thus shows the violent aspects of people‘s struggles in contemporary society.

When the woman continues to torment the lives of other members in the house, one day

Faruk strongly protests. No-one in the family has shown such courage to oppose the woman so far. For the first time in the film we see that the woman fails to intimidate one of the members of the family because of Faruk‘s boldness. Therefore, the need to become a new man is emphasized in the film. Through Faruk‘s direct protest against the woman, the film stresses the fact that it is impossible to attain complete freedom within the prevailing conditions and only the breaking down of the domineering structure can ensure actual liberation. Therefore, the film becomes strongly critical of the status quo and advances the idea of transforming individuals and creating a new society. In the ensuing scene, Faruk proposes Bithi to marry him on that very day. Faruk‘s face is shown in a close-up shot. We see a picture of Rabindranath Tagore hanging on the wall in the background. Faruk says that he wants to protest against all injustices that are continuing in their house, and he wants to destroy its repressive structure. The revolutionary dialogues

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exemplify the filmmaker‘s bold political statements made in order to inspire the people to attain the courage to react and to bring about social change. The picture of Tagore becomes a symbol of protest in a film made under Pakistani rule. The presence of

Tagore‘s picture in the shot during the delivery of such dialogues serves to represent the protest of Faruk as the protest of the Bengalis against the authoritarian rule of the West

Pakistani-controlled government. In the courtroom scenes, the woman‘s husband and

Anis also appear as new men by refusing to remain submissive. They directly criticize the woman using the word ―dictatorial‖ to describe her mindset.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Jorge Sanjinés prioritizes the importance of direct action in a revolutionary film. The revolutionary dialogues of Jiban Theke Neya give an impression that Raihan is thinking along the same lines as Sanjinés and intends to make his film a summons for political action.

Revolutionary films advancing the idea of social transformation often uses explicit teaching method. Explicit teaching may take place through the direct address of a character to the audience. It may also occur when a character says something to others but the dialogues are also directed at the audience.360 In Jiban Theke Neya, Anwar always emphasizes the need to love the country and his dialogues can be seen as examples of explicit teaching. In one scene Anwar says to his family members that we need to love our country selflessly, and it is not possible to love our country if we think what we will get in return for our love. He

360 Leon G. Campbell and Carlos E. Cortes, ―Film as a Revolutionary Weapon: A Jorge Sanjines Retrospective,‖ The History Teacher 12, no. 3 (May 1979): 385. 216

also says that if need be we must die for our country. Jiban Theke Neya was released in East

Pakistan in 1970, and the War of Liberation began in March 1971 after the military crackdown on the Bengali population. Bengali political leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a historic speech in Dhaka on March 7, 1971 just 18 days before the military crackdown.

This speech was made before a gathering of over two million people. Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman‘s brave declaration – ―This time the struggle is for our freedom, this time the struggle is for our independence‖ became a source of profound inspiration for the Bengalis. Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman also proclaimed in the speech – ―As Bengalis have learnt to die for their motherland, no forces would be able to dominate us anymore.‖ In the film, Anwar also says that we need to start protesting against the social injustices from our houses. In his speech, Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman also urged the Bengalis to turn their houses into forts in order to resist the oppression of the Pakistanis. Therefore, certain statements provided by the director in Jiban

Theke Neya in the form of explicit teaching method clearly prefigure the actual events. The

Liberation War of 1971 lasted for nine months. Many Bengali civilians, along with Bengali members of the armed forces, valiantly fought against the Pakistani forces and did not hesitate to risk their lives to liberate their motherland.

Jiban Theke Neya strongly supports the nationalist sentiment of the Bengalis and their political movements against the West Pakistani authority. Raihan emphasizes the need to make supreme sacrifices for the motherland through his film in 1970, which indicates that he rightly realizes that the struggle of Bengalis is not over, not even after the mass uprising of 1969 that caused the exit of the military dictator Ayub Khan and the release of Bengali political leaders and officials from prison. Jiban Theke Neya achieved commercial success.

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We can assume that the explicit teaching method employed by the director served to reinforce the revolutionary zeal of the Bengalis. In another scene, Anwar is shown saying that one‘s house symbolizes the country, so our protests against unfair things should take place even in our houses. In the 7 March speech, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman also emphatically told the Bengalis to transform every house into a fort in order to fight back if attacked. In another scene, Faruk ignores the request of his newly-married wife to stay at home; he says to his wife that the entire population of the country is rising up against the authorities in protest and thus it is impossible now to stay at home and not join this uprising demanding autonomy and democracy. The use of such dialogue in the film, made at a politically tumultuous time, suggests that Raihan intended to use his film to motivate the rebellious attitude of the people who have been repressed for a long time. By urging people to die for the country the film stresses the need for direct action: only through direct action against a repressive system can people change the prevailing social structure and achieve freedom. At the end of the film Anwar is released from the prison. His relatives have come to receive him and Anwar becomes very happy to see the new-born baby of Bithi. We learn that the name of the new-born is Mukti, which means freedom.

Jiban Theke Neya is a which supports a specific political ideology by making a stand against the dictatorial regime of Pakistan. The director clearly demonstrates his aim to seriously oppose the system and to mobilize people for direct action in order to achieve national liberation. The film is not cut-off from concrete facts of history and contemporary reality and Raihan attempts to politicize the audience by systematically addressing political and ideological issues. I intend to argue that the film does not become

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political propaganda, in spite of using black and white characterization of the good and the bad. Espinosa indicates that politically motivated Third Cinema is partisan and committed. Espinosa does not endorse the idea of an impartial cinema when social, political, cultural and economic inequalities continue to exist in the society.361 It is necessary for a Third Cinema filmmaker to have a political stand in order to condemn injustices and inequalities. But this stance, as Mike Wayne says, ―is not based on displaced anger (the source, for example, of much racism), irrational prejudice or unfounded assumptions but is argued rationally (logically, coherently, contextualized, conceptualized) and backed up with evidence.‖362 Jiban Theke Neya is firmly rooted in the socio-historical context of its production. The dependence on historicity enables the director to point his finger to show the guilty party. Raihan employs an explicit teaching method and provides political statements for the audience through his protagonists. But he always substantiates his statements through rational argument. From the opening scene of the film, Modhu is seen always contradicting Anwar whenever Anwar makes a comment about his love and responsibilities for his own country. Modhu seems to criticize Anwar for his involvement with political activities and for his excessive concern for the good of his country. But

Anwar gives coherent and logical replies whenever Modhu criticizes him. Collective protest of the masses one day inspires Modhu to realize the importance of protesting against injustices. He joins a political procession and is killed by police. By providing rational arguments about the importance of national liberation and by situating the film in

361 Wayne, 13.

362 Ibid, 129.

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the context of political repression, Jiban Theke Neya justifies the necessity of the mass protest of the Bengalis against the oppressive regime.

In his book entitled The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon identifies three stages in the development of critical consciousness concerning cultural decolonization in the Third

World. For Fanon, the first phase is the period of unqualified assimilation. In this stage, the Third World author derives inspiration from the foreign culture and his work is marked by direct imitation of the colonialist culture. The next phase refers to the remembrance stage where the work by the native author emphasizes the local culture, historical memory, old legends and mythology. The last phase is called the combative or fighting phase. In this stage, the Third world author attempts to raise a political consciousness of the people through his work. Thus, revolutionary and fighting works are produced. Fanon says about this combative phase:

During this phase a great many men and women who up till then would never have

thought of producing a literary work, now that they find themselves in exceptional

circumstances feel the need to speak to their nation, to compose the sentence which

expresses the heart of the people and to become the mouthpiece of a new reality in

action.363

Teshome Gabriel examines the evolution of Third World film style drawing on this genealogy of Third World culture outlined by Fanon. Gabriel describes three phases of

363 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1966), 179. 220

Third World films: (a) a dependency on the Hollywood or any other model of dominant cinema; (b) national cinemas that incorporate themes based on indigenous culture but without subverting the language of conventional cinema; and (c) the attempt to decolonize the cinema by making a radical departure from conventional films in terms of form and content. Because of its politically-motivated style and theme, Jiban Theke Neya corresponds to the revolutionary work produced in the fighting phase. Before making this film, Raihan makes commercial films using folkloric themes. Unlike his previous films, Jiban Theke Neya becomes a significant reaction against the political oppression experienced by the people of East Pakistan. Raihan also says at the beginning of 1970:

Our films do not grapple with political realities. Our films would remain

unsatisfactory if we would not address our political uprisings. So I want to make films

that are set against the backdrop of people‘s movements… I will feel guilty if I fail to

make a new kind of film by this year. I believe the time has come to make those films

that I always dreamt of making.364

Raihan stresses the importance of historical memory in Jiban Theke Neya. The film repeatedly uses historical symbols of Bengali resistance against the Pakistani authority and signifiers of Bengali culture. By highlighting these symbols and signifiers in the context of the political struggle of the Bengalis, the director ―inspires patriotism, encourages participation in the freedom struggle, and offers an antidote to spreading cultural

364 Cited in Anupam Hayat, Zahir Raihan-er Chalatchitra: Patabhumi, Bishoy o Boishishto (Dhaka: Dibyaprokash, 2007), 37, 104. 221

colonization.‖365 They also appear as ideological statements and serve to counteract the dominant ideology disseminated by the state. Utilizing aspects of Bengali culture to highlight patriotism and resistance is also a political act by itself during the Pakistani period when the rulers displayed a hostile attitude towards Bengali culture. In a country undergoing authoritarian rule, Bengalis committed a political act by expressing their strong intention to see this film which the system wanted to suppress. As Renée T. White has put it: ―The State, especially in repressive societies, use the symbolic and linguistic control wielded by controlling the media to replicate the dominant hegemony – one of false consciousness. In a period of revolution, any support for the transmission of anti-colonial information becomes another act of resistance.‖366 Thus, both the filmmaker and the audience perform political acts by creating and expressing their support for this film. The vital ingredient of a revolutionary film, according to Teshome Gabriel, ―is a revolutionary outlook in a situation of crisis which creates and fosters inspiration and a greater awareness of the forces that work against it.‖367 By delineating the revolt against political oppression in a turbulent time, Jiban Theke Neya has made an important intervention into a crisis situation and remains within the rubric of revolutionary cinema. The political commitment shown by Zahir Raihan in Jiban Theke Neya and the film‘s utilization of various fundamental attributes of revolutionary cinema advocated by radical Latin

American filmmakers distinguish Jiban Theke Neya as an important Third Cinema film made under suppressive conditions in a military-dominated country. The film therefore

365 Rakesh H. Solomon, ―Culture, Imperialism, and Nationalist Resistance: Performance in Colonial India,‖ Theatre Journal 46, no. 3 (October 1994): 327.

366 Renée T. White, ―Revolutionary Theory: Sociological Dimensions of Fanon‘s Sociologie d‘une révolution,‖ in Fanon: A Critical Reader, eds. Lewis R. Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and Renée T. White (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1996), 108.

367 Gabriel, 37. 222

has become revolutionary in its preparation and realization. Jiban Theke Neya also remains an important example of the fact that a rebellious film critical of the system can be made amid strict government control provided that the filmmaker employ certain inventive means to present his political denunciations.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Cultural Resistance and Political Protest through Allegory: Tareque Masud’s Matir Moina (The Clay Bird, 2002)

Religious orthodoxy and the political use of religion gave rise to various social and political problems in Bangladesh during Pakistani rule and even in the post-independence period. Religion has always been a sensitive issue in Bangladesh. Thus, it is not easy to critique religious fundamentalism in any artistic creations produced in the country. The state also, in different decades, encouraged the inclusion of religious rhetoric in the political realm, thereby making it more difficult for Bangladeshi filmmakers to critically address religious issues in their films. Historically, religion had a very strong influence on the political changes that today‘s Bangladesh has undergone. After the Partition of India in 1947, the newly-formed government in Pakistan started using Islamic ideology to achieve political objectives. The Pakistani rulers took measures to Islamize the language and culture of East Pakistan. Bengali Muslims from East Pakistan bitterly resented such government attempts. They put up strong resistance to the West Pakistani authority by upholding Bengaliness imbued with distinctive Bengali cultural values instead of seeking unity in their Muslim identity. The Liberation War of the Bengalis against the West

Pakistani army in 1971 strongly promoted the idea of religious harmony between different communities in Bangladesh. Secularism was also adopted as one of the state principles in the newly-independent country. But the military regime returned in Bangladesh within a

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few years of independence. Bangladeshi military generals, like the rulers of Pakistan, also sponsored Islam-oriented ideology and took deliberate measures to Islamize the polity. In the 1970s, secularism was removed from the constitution of Bangladesh. In the 1980s,

Islam was declared as the state religion of the country. Parliamentary democracy was restored in the country in 1991, but in the following years the country witnessed an alarming rise in Islamic radicalism.

This chapter will examine the attempts to expose and criticize the negative aspects of religious dogmatism in Matir Moina (The Clay Bird, 2002), the first full-length feature film by Tareque Masud, one of the leading independent filmmakers of Bangladesh. The film closely examines the life in a madrasa (Islamic school) during the politically turbulent period in East Pakistan in late 1960s. The film is not dismissive of religion, but its portrayal of the regimented atmospheres in the madrasa and in a middle class household whose head is a deeply religious man conveys strong denunciations of religious indoctrination and intolerance. Matir Moina is also critical of the political use of Islam. It can be regarded as an allegory of the West Pakistani political repression in East Pakistan.

A major strand of allegory found in Third World cinema turns to the past to comment on the present or show a microcosmic situation to evoke a macrocosmic entity.368 This type of allegory, according to Robert Stam, ―serves as a form of protective camouflage against censorious regimes.‖369 Masud provides a critique of Islamic fanaticism in his film at a time when the radical Islamists in Bangladesh have resorted to terrorist activities with a

368 Robert Stam, Film Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), 289.

369 Ibid. 225

view to advancing their aim of starting an Islamist revolution in the country. In 2001, the

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the main political parties in Bangladesh, allied with some Islamist parties to form a coalition government. Jamaat-e-Islami, the main

Islamist political party in Bangladesh, became an influential partner in the ruling coalition and the presence of the Islamists in the coalition government served to create ―a more favourable atmosphere for the operation of various extremist forces.‖370 Continuing acts of terrorism in the name of Islam were not met with stiff opposition by the government, and, as Willem Van Schendel observes, Islamist militants were able to ―carry out their actions with near-impunity.‖371 Although Jamaat-e-Islami denied having any connection with the Islamist militants, many observers contend that these extremists were protected by the far-right, Islamist elements within the government.372 Therefore, given the political circumstances of the country it was not easy to make a film that strongly denounced the

Islamist fundamentalists. But in his maiden feature film, Tareque Masud took up the challenge of coming to grips with a long-standing problem of the country. The director‘s disclosure of the ill-effects of religious dogmatism counteracts the ideology of the Islamist parties of the country.

Matir Moina does not draw on sloganeering, nor does the film use any violent motifs often seen in Bengali politically-critical films made in the 1970s. The film also does not have a militant tone. Instead of making his film provocative, Masud relies on understatement to

370 Cited in A M M Shawkat Ali, Faces of Terrorism in Bangladesh (Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2006), 41.

371 Willem Van Schendel, A History of Bangladesh (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 210.

372 Ali, 41; Schendel, 210.

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provide his condemnations of Islamist fanaticism. But this chapter intends to argue that the film is in conversation with the type of alternative and revolutionary cinema articulated by Solanas and Getino in their manifesto in the sense that Matir Moina ―becomes something which the System finds indigestible.‖373 For Solanas and Getino, the cinema of decolonization or liberation refers to the ―films that the System cannot assimilate and which are foreign to its needs.‖374 Matir Moina was deemed too sensitive to be shown in

Bangladesh and it was banned by the Bangladesh Film Censor Board. Clearly, the film‘s strong denunciation of religious dogmatism made the current Islamist-allied government in Bangladesh nervous. According to an observer, ―the government presumed the film marked the madrasas as breeding grounds for terrorism.‖375 Masud was asked to make some changes in the film in order to secure its release. The ban was later lifted. But Matir

Moina met with complications even after it had received the approval from the Censor.

Masud wanted this film to be seen by a large number of people in Bangladesh. But

Masud‘s dream to reach many of his countrymen with this film was not fulfilled.376

However, Matir Moina achieved greater international acclaim than many other Bangladeshi films produced thus far. It was the opening film of the directors‘ fortnight at the 2002

Cannes Film Festival and it received the FIPRESCI award in the festival along with the

Palestinian film Divine Intervention and the Mauritanian film Waiting for Happiness. The film

373 Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, ―Towards A Third Cinema‖ in Movies and Methods Volume 1, ed. Bill Nichols (Calcutta, Seagull Books: 1993), 55.

374 Ibid., 52.

375 Zakir Hossain Raju, ―Madrasa and Muslim Identity on Screen: Nation, Islam and cinema on the global stage‖ in Madrasas in South Asia: Teaching Terror?, ed. Jamal Malik (London, New York: Routledge, 2008), 137.

376 ―Runway: Tareque Masud‘s New Film‖ (in Bengali) in The , 29 September 2010 (published from Bangladesh)

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won awards in several other international film festivals and it was also commercially released in France, the , Italy, Japan, and Australia. In 2003, Matir

Moina was shown in 35 cinemas in the US.377

Matir Moina continues the legacy of Bengali politically-committed filmmakers and other

Third Cinema filmmakers of making films with social relevance and political overtones.

The Third-Worldist euphoria of the 1960s declined due to the deterioration and subsequent collapse of communism. The emergence of transnational capitalism marked the eclipse of the Third Cinema and revolutionary cinema paradigm of the 1960s and the

1970s. But filmmakers aspiring to decolonize the minds of people continue to make Third

Cinema films throughout the world today in alternative forms.378 Ella Shohat points out that the ―anti-colonial thrust‖ of Third-World films from the 1960s and the 1970s was

―gradually giving way to more diversified themes and perspectives.‖379 However, Shohat states that contemporary filmmakers are not less politicized; their cultural and political critiques have taken new and different forms.380 This chapter will make a detailed analysis of Matir Moina to understand the differences and similarities between a Bengali political film made in 2002 and the politically-charged films made by first generation Bengali political filmmakers in the 1970s. The chapter will also examine how the film is informed by various ideas of Third Cinema. In order to properly understand the political critiques

377 Zakir Hossain Raju, 136.

378 Adeline Koh and Frieda Ekotto (eds.), Rethinking Third Cinema: The Role of Anti-Colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity (Berlin: LIT, 2009), 6.

379 Ella Shohat, ―Post-Third-Worldist Culture: Gender, Nation, and the Cinema,‖ in Rethinking Third Cinema, eds. Anthony R. Guneratne and Wimal Dissanayake (New York/London: Routledge, 2003), 58.

380 Ibid. 228

and ideological messages offered by the film, it is necessary to place the narrative events of Matir Moina in their historical context. As Teshome Gabriel affirms, ―a critical examination of Third Cinema cannot take place outside of a comprehensive knowledge of the lives and struggles of Third World people, in both their past and their present histories.‖381 The following section provides a brief overview of the cultural and historical background of the conflict between the politics of Islamism and Bengali culture that is deeply imbued in the principles of religious syncretism. The section also discusses the tendency to use Islamic symbols to achieve political ends both during the Pakistani period and in Bangladesh.

Contextualising Matir Moina

Muslim leaders supporting the movement for a separate Muslim homeland emphasized the principle that Muslims are quite distinct from Hindus.382 Pakistan was founded as a nation state in 1947 on the basis of religious nationalism. Pakistani rulers believed a national identity based on Islam would be able to form a strong sense of cohesiveness within the new nation-state, but they overlooked the important cultural and linguistic differences between the two parts of Pakistan. The emergence of East Pakistan as the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971 through a Liberation War showed that

―adherence to a common religion, Islam, was never sufficient to make these two dissimilar

381 Teshome H. Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1982), 95.

382 Nasir Islam, ―Islam and National Identity: The Case of Pakistan and Bangladesh‖ in International Journal of Middle East Studies 13, no. 1 (February 1981): 56.

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parts a single nation.‖383 Bengali Muslims had much more in common with the non-

Muslim Bengali population than they did with the Muslims of West Pakistan. The cultural similarity between Bengali Muslims and Hindus made the non-Bengali Muslim rulers of

West Pakistan profoundly antipathetic towards Bengali culture and tradition.

Inhabitants of Bengal were not directly Islamized by the Muslim conquerors such as the

Turk-Afghans or the Mughals. Muslim aristocrats who came to Bengal as immigrants and the orthodox Islamic clerics known as mullahs and maulavis, who dogmatically adhered to religious scriptures, also did not contribute to the spread of Islam in Bengal. Historically, it was the Sufi mystics who played the most crucial role in promoting the embrace of Islam among the Bengalis.384 Sufism shared certain similarities with the religious Sahajiya tradition which won widespread popularity in the Bengali countryside. The Sahajiya movement first emerged in Bengal with the Buddhist Sahajiyas from the eighth century.

Atis Dasgupta provides a description of the Sahajiya philosophy:

The basic tenet of Sahajiya tradition was embedded in ujan-sadhan or the philosophy of

the ‗reverse path‘ or ‗sailing against the current‘. The Sahajiyas would proceed in a

direction opposite to what was advocated by sectarian scholastic scriptures. They

would avoid all forms of institutional religion in which the natural piety of the soul was

overshadowed by the useless paraphernalia of ritualism and pedantry. The ultimate

383 Feroz Ahmed, ―The Structural Matrix of the Struggle in Bangladesh‖ in Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia, eds. Kathleen Gough and Hari P. Sharma (New York/London: Monthly Review Press, 1973), 419.

384 Atis Dasgupta, ―Islam in Bengal: Formative Period,‖ Social Scientist 32, no. 3/4 (March-April 2004): 35.

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object of the ‗reverse journey of the Sahajiyas was to return to one‘s own self which

was sahaja or inborn in nature.385

The inclination of the Sufis toward syncretistic values and principles created a close affinity between Sufism and the pre-Muslim Sahajiya tradition. Like the Sahajiyas, Sufis also opposed the Hindu caste-system; both were critical of the intolerant religious attitudes of

Hindu priests and Muslim clerics.386 Islam in Bengal thus became more inclusive and tolerant due to the influence of the Sufis. The Sufis did not try to undermine the popular cultural elements and local language of Bengal; they realised the importance of using the local language in order to reach out to the indigenous peoples.387 Bengali Islam therefore took the form of a popular or folk Islam and remained free from the influence of strict

Islamic orthodoxy. As Dasgupta notes about the spread of Islam in Bengal:

The orthodox strategy could not make much headway in the face of rising popularity

of the Sufis. The peasant cultivators of Bengal, who had assimilated Islam, did not

perceive it as a totally alien religious system. This was not imposed on them forcefully

by the Turk-Afghan and the Mughal rulers. This was mediated through the social work

of the syncretistic Sufi preachers, some of whom were forest pioneers. The villagers of

Bengal who accepted Islam did not make any dramatic break with the past. The

villagers, even after accepting Islam, maintained their Sahajiya roots deeply anchored in

the countryside.388

385 Ibid., 30-31.

386 Ibid., 36.

387 Iain Cochrane, The Causes of the Bangladesh War (Lexington, 2009), 20.

388 Dasgupta, 38. 231

Upper-class Muslims, known as the ashraf, however, embraced the Perso-Arabic culture that was promoted by both the Indian rulers of Afghan and Turkic origin and by the

Mughal Emperors. For the ashraf, Arab and Persian social customs came to connote authentic Islamic culture. Muslim aristocrats of India, who later became the ruling elite in Pakistan, and also some upper-class Bengali Muslims, strongly sponsored the use of Perso-Arabic cultural symbols. The ashraf claimed to have Arabian, Persian or

Central Asian ancestry and considered themselves to be the custodians of genuine Islamic culture.389 They displayed a disdainful attitude to those Islamic practices that did not fully conform to the codes of Perso-Arab culture. Muslims from the lower social classes were contemptuously labelled as atraf, meaning ‗wretches‘ or ‗mean people‘.390 The West

Pakistani rulers also showed extreme contempt towards Bengali cultural symbols, and especially towards the Bengali language. Bengali is not written in Arabic or Persian script.

It originated from the Brahmi script of Sanskrit in which the Hindu scriptures were written. Thus, for the adherents of Perso-Arab culture, Bengali was not an Islamic language like Arabic, Persian or Urdu; as Rafiuddin Ahmed states, ―the ashraf never accepted Bengali as a proper language for the Muslims and always considered it a Hindu language.‖391 But the great majority of Bengali Muslims did not abandon their own language and traditions in favour of Perso-Arabic cultural norms. Iain Cochrane notes:

Bengali was the lingua franca for all of Bengal and Islam needed to use the vernacular

language to reach the Bengali people. Islam in Bengal developed a system of symbols

389 Van Schendel, 77.

390 Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983), 59.

391 Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims 1871-1906: A Quest for Identity (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1981), 23. 232

and values which were not exactly the same as Islam in northern India or the Middle

East. Islam was to make many concessions to local culture and the Bengali Muslims

remained Bengali.392

West Pakistani rulers fully conformed to the Perso-Arabic framework of Islam and they ethnocentrically viewed the Bengaliness of the people in East Pakistan. West Pakistanis inclined to consider the Bengalis ―socially inferior‖ and ―lesser Muslims,‖ recalling the condescending attitude of the ashraf towards the atraf.393 The West Pakistani authority decided to declare Urdu as the sole national language of Pakistan just after the creation of the nation-state. But Bengali was spoken by 56 per cent of the Pakistani population. The central government also tried to impose Perso-Arabic script for writing Bengali. They banned the radio transmission of Bengali songs written by famous Bengali poet

Rabindranath Tagore because Tagore was a Hindu. These attacks on the Bengali language and culture were made in order to Islamize East Pakistan. But Bengalis always vehemently protested such government decisions. The Language Movement of 1952 created greater consciousness among Bengalis of their cultural distinctiveness and their attachment with

Bengali language and culture became even deeper.

The domineering and discriminatory attitudes of the West Pakistani rulers towards the

Bengalis created widespread discontent among them. The politically turbulent years of the

392 Cochrane, 19.

393 Van Schendel, 111.

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1960s culminated in a genocidal attack by the Pakistani army in East Pakistan.394 After a nine-month Liberation War East Pakistan emerged as the sovereign nation of Bangladesh.

Since the creation of Pakistan, both civilian and military rulers of Pakistan have tried to marginalize and exploit the Bengalis in the name of Islam.395 Bengalis upheld the secularist spirit in their War against Pakistan; whereas the Pakistani government used religion as a political idiom again, claiming that the military action was necessary in order to save Islam in East Pakistan. The Awami League government formed in independent Bangladesh under the leadership of Sheikh Mujubur Rahman included secularism as one of the state principles in country‘s constitution. The government also outlawed the formation of religion-based political parties. Jamaat-e-Islami was banned because of their collaboration with the Pakistani army during the Liberation War.

But the popularity of Awami League started to decline due to its failure to take tough measures to combat corruption, abuse of power and nepotism.396 The rule of Awami

League, as Van Schendel comments, ―soon turned out to be a case of party over nation.‖397 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members were assassinated by a group of military officers on 15 August, 1975. This incident is followed by more military coups

394 See Wardatul Akmam, ―Atrocities against Humanity during the Liberation War in Bangladesh: A Case of Genocide,‖ Journal of Genocide Research 4, no. 4 (2002): 543-559; Rounaq Jahan, ―Genocide in Bangladesh,‖ in Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, eds. Samuel Totten and William S. Parsons (New York: Routledge, 2009), 245-265; Anthony Mascarenhas, The Rape of Bangladesh (Delhi: Vikas Publication, 1971); Robert P. Payne, Massacre (New York: Macmillan, 1973); Amita Malik, The Year of the Vulture (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1972); Kalyan Chaudhury, Genocide in Bangladesh (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1972); Imtiaz Ahmed, Historicizing 1971 Genocide: State versus Person (Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2009).

395 Ali Riaz, Religion and Politics in South Asia (Hoboken: Routledge, 2010), 57.

396 Van Schendel, 178-179.

397 Ibid., 178. 234

and counter-coups. After three months, four leading Awami League leaders were also killed by the army personnel during the coups. Bangladesh was governed by two military generals, (Zia) and Hossain Muhammad Ershad, for the following 15 years.

Both generals formed their own parties in order to gain political legitimacy for their rule, but they hardly gave any importance to the ideals of the Liberation War of 1971. Ali Riaz describes these military-dominated regimes: ―while there were attempts to civilianize the regimes, and one brief interregnum (June 1981- March 1982), both regimes were characterized by repression, curtailment of democratic rights, and the manipulation of constitutional processes, and both brought religion into the political arena.‖398

General Zia strongly encouraged the inclusion of Islam into political discourses in order to get the support of the centre-right parties. As Van Schendel observes, ―Ziaur Rahman used Islamists to prop up his own power, thereby politically validating an austere and intolerant version of Islam.‖399 Secularism as a state principle was removed from the constitution during Zia regime. Zia also rescinded the ban on communally-based parties and allowed them to take part in political activities. Thus, Jamaat-e-Islami and other

Islamist parties made their entry into mainstream politics in Bangladesh. The army chief

General Ershad usurped power in 1982 after the killing of Zia. Ershad, in the words of

Van Schendel, ―went a step further and used Islamic symbols and contacts even more freely than Zia.‖400 In 1988, Ershad declared Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh. The

398 Ali Riaz, Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh: A Complex Web (London/New York: Routledge, 2008), 11.

399 Van Schendel, 207.

400 Ibid. 235

politics of Islamism continued in Bangladesh even after the return of parliamentary democracy in 1991. Two main political parties in Bangladesh, AL and BNP, often came into conflict with each other over political and ideological issues. Despite their differences, both of these parties displayed their interest in using Islamic idioms and icons. They also did not hesitate to make alliances with Jamaat and other Islamist parties on different occasions for their own political benefit, thereby creating a situation conducive to the sustenance of Islamist politics.401 Siddiqi writes about the politics of Islamization in

Bangladesh:

By the mid-1990s, Islamic symbols and idioms had become part of everyday political

vocabulary. Especially since 1975, the rituals and cultural practices of the state have

progressively taken on a more pronounced ―Islamic‖ tone. From Zia‘s insertion of

Bismillah (the Muslim invocation of God) into what was a secular constitution to

Ershad‘s characterization of Bangladesh as a mosque-based society, Islamization

processes have tended to be state-centric.402

Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist parties became partners with the BNP in the ruling coalition in 2001. Thus, Islamist politics gradually gained a strong foothold in Bangladesh.

According to Ali Riaz, ―by 2001, it may be said that Islamism as a political ideology had become a part of the Bangladesh polity.‖403 A favourable socio-political environment for

401 Ali Riaz, God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004), 7.

402 Dina Mahnaz Siddiqi, ―Political Culture in Contemporary Bangladesh: Histories, Ruptures and Contradictions,‖ in Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh, eds. Ali Riaz and C. Christine Fair (London, New York: Routledge, 2011), 19.

403 Ali Riaz, God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh, 7. 236

Islamist politics also made the Bangladeshis witness an alarming increase of violent

Islamist extremism in the country. Against this background of the state-sponsored

Islamism and the rise of Islamist militancy, Tareque Masud made an attempt to come to grips with Islamic orthodoxy and political Islam in his maiden feature film.

Opening and Closing the Window: Dialectic between Light and Darkness,

Control and Freedom

Matir Moina is set against the backdrop of the politically turbulent situation in East

Pakistan at the end of the 1960s. The film revolves around the events taking place in the house of Kazi, a devout Muslim living in a village, and in a madrasa where Kazi has sent his son Anu to take Islamic education. Kazi‘s wife Ayesha does not like her husband‘s orthodox religious views, but she does not strongly criticize her husband. When their only daughter Asma becomes ill, Kazi refuses to give her modern medicine because of his reliance on outmoded methods. Asma dies because of the lack of proper treatment. Kazi‘s younger brother Milon is a politically-conscious student who actively takes part in the movement of the Bengalis against the political domination of the central government. But

Kazi strongly dislikes such subversive activities. In the madrasa, Anu comes across two teachers: Bakiullah, the madrasa head who endorses religious extremism and Ibrahim, who holds liberal and rational views. The political situation of the country is becoming more chaotic and restless and ultimately the country has witnessed the Pakistani military

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invasion. The Liberation War of Bangladesh begins; Milon joins the War, Anu leaves the madrasa and returns home. The Pakistani army enters the village and, much to the surprise of Kazi, Muslim military forces do not hesitate to attack the house of Bengali

Muslims.

Conflict between ideas, beliefs and people is the central motif in Matir Moina. Such conflicts recur in different forms throughout the film. We see individuals in disagreement with each other, and sometimes the narrative subtly indicates the marked differences between opposing classes. Masud repeatedly uses metaphors and allusions to illustrate the clashes between differing ideas and principles. Contrasting scenes are also frequently juxtaposed in the film to highlight these oppositions. Narrative events mainly take place in

Kazi‘s house and in the madrasa, these two locations functioning as allegories of pre and post-independence Bangladesh where people experience problems rooted in religious orthodoxy and repression by the state. Conflict between rigidity and open-mindedness, restriction and freedom becomes manifest from the beginning of the film. The very first sequence shows some young madrasa students getting cleaned up in the early morning using pond water. Throughout the film, Masud uses different colours to indicate the mood of a particular place and specific mental attributes of the characters. In the first sequence, the characters are shown in a misty morning. The overcast sky is visible in the shots and the characters are seen wearing ash colour winter garments. Thus, the insipid tones of grey and ash serve to suggest a dreary and gloomy atmosphere within the madrasa. The camera soon enters the dimly lit and stuffy interior of the madrasa. This shot also looks dull in colour and thus the film again draws attention to the depressing

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atmosphere of the madrasa. Young students are seen reading aloud from the holy books, sitting in front of a teacher. Another teacher is slowly walking around the room, keeping an eye on the students. A student falls asleep and the teacher gently strokes his head to wake him. Soon we hear the sound of aazan (call for the prayer) on the soundtrack and the young students start departing the room in order to attend the prayer. The sequence demonstrates the strictly regulated lifestyle of students in the madrasa.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The following sequence begins with a shot of the rising sun over the green trees in a rural setting. Open space and the scenic view serve to counterpoint the dimness and confining interior shown in the preceding sequence. The shot showing a bright day looks richly coloured and thus it stands in sharp contrast to the darkish shots shown in the film thus far. The camera then enters Kazi‘s house. Kazi‘s wife Ayesha and daughter Asma are seen sitting in the doorway. Ayesha is preparing the breakfast. Two other women are also seen working in the doorway. All of them are seen wearing clothes that are bright in colour.

Both Ayesha and Asma are seen wearing green shawls. The presence of different bright colours lends an air of liveliness to the doorway. But the camera soon shows the interior of the house. Kazi is seen sitting before a table in a darkened room. Kazi is wearing a topi even inside, suggesting that he is very religious.404 On the table we see a box full of small ampoules containing homeopathic medicines. A close-up is used to show one of the ampoules. The homeopathic medicine indicates Kazi‘s penchant for old-fashioned

404 Muslims usually wear topi during their prayers. But devout Muslims tend to wear topi most of the time. 239

methods. Kazi is shown wearing a grey shawl. The inadequately lit room and the drab colour of Kazi‘s clothes indicate a similarity between the atmospheres of the madrasa and

Kazi‘s house. The camera returns to the doorway again, showing a conversation between

Asma and her mother. Asma asks when Anu will return home from the madrasa and

Ayesha replies that she does not know when he will be back. We hear a male voice at this point calling Ayesha, and she goes into Kazi‘s room.

A long shot shows Kazi and Ayesha together in the darkened room. Ayesha‘s bright green shawl stands in marked contrast to Kazi‘s grey shawl, and thus colour is used to symbolize their mental differences. They are also seen having arguments with each other. When

Ayesha informs Kazi that Asma is still suffering from a fever, Kazi mildly rebukes his wife for allowing Asma to go outside the house. But Ayesha retorts that since Kazi had sent

Anu to the madrasa Asma has had no friends in the house. When Ayesha opens the window, we see a soothing view of lush green trees outside. After Ayesha leaves the room, the camera shows Kazi‘s face through the window-grille from the outside. The thick cobwebs hanging in the bars of the window suggests that Kazi prefers to keep this window closed most of the time rather than enjoying fresh air and the view of attractive green leaves and plants. In the following shot, Kazi comes to the window and closes it.

The mise-en-scène employed by Masud in this sequence delineates Kazi‘s closed and conservative temperament, and also indicates that Kazi and Ayesha do not have much in common. The window becomes a metaphor for progressiveness, modernism and freedom, and Kazi‘s reluctance to keep the window open indicates his lack of interest in embracing new ideas, outside influences and free thinking. Kazi‘s interest in homeopathic

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treatment indicates his greater attachment to traditional, orthodox and old-fashioned views. Ayesha‘s annoyance over Kazi‘s decision to send their son to the madrasa and her dislike of the unventilated and dark atmosphere of Kazi‘s room demonstrate that they are not on the same wavelength. Ayesha is a village housewife in a patriarchal society and less educated than her husband; but unlike Kazi, she has an open mind; she does not possess any communal hatred and she is also not hesitant about welcoming modernity. In the film,

Ayesha is mostly seen wearing bright colours. In contrast, Kazi is always dressed in light colours. Colour is repeatedly used in the film to indicate the differences between the madrasa and the village surroundings. A sequence showing the monotonous atmosphere of the madrasa is followed by a sequence showing Anu‘s return to the village to celebrate the holidays with his family. He is seen walking through the lush green paddy fields. He also visits a village carnival. These scenes show intense colours and lively music coming from the carnival is also heard on the soundtrack. When Anu enters his house, Ayesha is seen standing behind a bright reddish saree that was hung in the courtyard to dry. The use of vivid colours and joyful background music in these shots highlight the contrast between the village and the madrasa environments. The happy atmosphere of the village is also emphasized in a flash-back scene. The scene shows the merrymaking of the villagers during a boat-race and a Hindu festival. Masud once again uses intense colour and cheerful ambient sound to convey a sense of vivacity. The dimly lit madrasa premises are shown in a subsequent scene. The scene is accompanied by melancholy background music, thereby reinforcing the unhappy and gloomy ambience of the madrasa.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

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Throughout the film the window is used as an emblem to indicate the tensions between freedom and confinement, open-mindedness and communal prejudice, tradition and modernity. In a flash back scene we see Anu accompanying his uncle Milon to Hindu festivities in the village. When Kazi discovers where they have gone he rails at his wife.

Kazi thus mimics the prejudiced and intolerant attitudes towards the Hindus displayed by the West Pakistani rulers and also by some Bengali Islamists. When Milon and Anu return home, Milon does not enter the house. He opens the window from the outside and gives

Anu some sweet food items they brought from the carnival. Milon knows his brother will not allow Anu to eat these foods, but he does not hesitate to give the foods to Anu in the presence of Ayesha, suggesting that she does not disapprove of Anu‘s visit to local festivities organized by the Hindu community. Soon Kazi comes to the room and throws the food out of the house. For him, Muslims are forbidden to eat these things brought from a Hindu event. He also says that he will send Anu to the madrasa the next day. The food thus appears to be a site of contest between religious intolerance and communal coexistence. Kazi‘s ardent adherence to Islamic dogma makes him loathe aspects of local culture which are not strictly Islamic. His house appears to be a microcosm of Bangladesh during Pakistani rule. The open window always poses a challenge to the suppressive and conservative environment enforced by Kazi in his house. Kazi tends to close the window whenever he finds it open, revealing his keenness to maintain the existing atmosphere within. When Asma falls seriously ill, Ayesha wants to treat her daughter with modern medicine. Kazi is profoundly antipathetic to modernity; for him, modern allopathic drugs are similar to poison. But Milon collects a bottle of an allopathic drug for ailing Asma from a doctor in the town. Instead of entering the house, Milon secretly gives the bottle to

Ayesha. Like the food from the Hindu festival, this bottle of modern medicine also enters

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Kazi‘s house through the window. But much to the disappointment of Ayesha, Kazi soon confiscates it and forbids Ayesha to use it. Despite Kazi‘s attempt to use homeopathy to cure his daughter, Asma passes away. Kazi‘s failure to keep up with progress costs him the life of his daughter.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The opposition of light and darkness demonstrated by the opening and closing of the window symbolizes the constant struggle between progressive and dogmatic ideas. The light and other elements that enter Kazi‘s house through the window present a threat to

Kazi‘s preferred way of life and his control over others, thereby allegorizing the struggle of the Bengalis against the status quo of Pakistani regime. The struggle between progressive and dogmatic ideas occurs in a number of other moments throughout the film. Kazi dislikes local music, recalling the attitude of West Pakistani rulers towards certain Bengali songs. But Ayesha attends a local musical event one day when Kazi is not home. Anu purchases a small bird sculpture made of clay for his sister, although he knows his father does not like any sculpture or statue because of his strict Islamic belief. When

Anu gives it to Asma, Kazi suddenly turns up. Asma hides the clay bird behind her back.

Thus, Kazi‘s family members quietly perform acts of defiance against the domineering head of the house. Milon also stands in complete contrast to his elder brother. Kazi is always seen wearing a long garment and loose pants and a topi, the outfit usually worn by religious Muslims. But Milon is always dressed in shirt and trousers and he never wears a topi. Milon appears as a representative of the politically-conscious Bengali students who

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played crucial roles in putting up fierce resistance against Pakistani rulers in popular mass struggles from the Language Movement of 1952 to the Liberation War in 1971. Milon is often seen with his friends. One of his friends Uttam is a Hindu. Milon attends the Hindu festival and he also invites Uttam in their house along with his Muslim friends on a day of

Eid, the big religious festival of the Muslims. Unlike Kazi, Milon respects the idea of religious harmony which is a significant component of Bengali culture.

The mental differences between Kazi and Milon are rendered overt in one particular scene. In a long shot, Kazi is seen walking through a narrow street. There are walls on both sides of the street. A procession of young students is coming from the opposite direction. Students are seen chanting political slogans against the Pakistani dictatorial rule.

Kazi moves aside and rests against a wall in order to make room for the procession. We watch a few posters of entertainment cinema on the wall behind Kazi. A mid shot now frames Kazi with a poster depicting the romantic pose of a couple. The shot cuts to a point of view shot of Kazi and Milon is seen walking with the other participants of the procession. In marked contrast to the entertainment cinema posters occupying the wall behind Kazi, the opposite wall of the street behind Milon and the other young students is covered with militant graffiti such as ―Down with the Dictatorship of Ayub Khan‖ and

―Free the Political Prisoners.‖ These writings on the wall supporting a political revolution reflect the present-day situation in East Pakistan. Through the positioning of Milon against the background of these political graffiti, the director indicates Milon‘s rebellious bent of mind and his deep involvement with the people‘s struggle against the authoritarian regime.

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On the contrary, the cinema posters on the wall behind Kazi highlighting romantic tales, glamour and eroticism remain far from reflecting the tumult and turbulence of contemporary reality. These commercially-produced, entertainment-based films maintain the status-quo. Instead of attempting to make people aware of mechanisms of oppression, they offer people an escape from contempoary reality. These posters behind Kazi thus appear to be the reflection of Kazi‘s inner psyche. Like these films, Kazi is also detached from the current political struggle of his countrymen and he is preoccupied with defending the status-quo. His mental distance from the young students is also suggested by his standing aside from the procession. It is unlikely that, as a man with strict Islamic belief, Kazi would appreciate such entertainment-based films with erotic overtones. But

Masud associates Kazi with such films in order to show that both Kazi and these films ignore the importance of supporting and taking part in the people‘s struggle. Therefore, apart from criticizing Kazi‘s aloofness from contemporary reality, Masud provides a critique of commercial films that give precedence to glamour-based elements over an authentic portrayal of contemporary problems even at a time of national crisis. Masud‘s criticism of commercial cinema‘s lack of political engagement during a struggle within a colonial or neo-colonial setting echoes the idea of Solanas and Getino. For the Latin

American filmmakers, escapist media productions are used by neo-colonialists as instruments to suppress attempts at political awareness and decolonization.405 Neo- colonialism also makes an attempt to depoliticize the cultural expressions promoting social awareness. According to Solanas and Getino, ―Truth, then, amounts to subversion.

405 Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, ―Towards A Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World‖ in New Latin American Cinema: Theory, Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations Volume 1, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 39. 245

Any form of expression or communication that tries to show national reality is subversion.‖406 Masud‘s use of these alluring cinema posters in this sequence also recalls

Glauber Rocha‘s criticism of commercial film industry. For Rocha, the commitment of industrial cinema is to untruth and exploitation and that is why the Cinema Novo sets itself apart from the commercial industry.407 Thus, Masud‘s critique of commercially- motivated films with escapist themes is in line with the ideas expressed by the major proponents of Third Cinema.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Matir Moina, for the most part, follows the pattern of linear narrative. For Masud, his film draws much of its inspiration from Bengali folk plays and folk songs which are both musical and narrative. Masud keeps a conventional structure in Matir Moina because he wanted it to have a ―folkloric simplicity.‖408 But in the middle of the film, the linear progression of the narrative is interrupted by a lengthy flashback scene. The linear approach to storytelling is also disrupted throughout the film by the repeated use of

Bengali folk songs and scenes showing political debates between characters. Masud explains: ―The story and the debate are interchanged throughout the film so that once the audience becomes absorbed in the narrative aspect of the film we take them away from

406 Ibid.

407 Ibid., 61.

408 James Leahy, ―In Conversation with Tareque Masud,‖ Jamini: An International Arts Quarterly (September 2009): 78. 246

the narrative and cathartic involvement that has been used so far in the film.‖409 Several scenes throughout the film showing the folk singers performing songs serve to interrupt the linear structure and to prevent audiene involvement in the story. Unlike the romantic and glitzy songs employed in entertainment-based films, the folk songs of Matir Moina convey significant messages such as the lack of freedom in the country, the necessity of self-sacrifice during a national struggle for liberation, and the criticisms of religious intolerance and blind religious belief. These carefully-chosen songs highlight the director‘s political points and they also serve to disturb the spectator‘s immersion in the narrative.

Differences between the Madrasa Teachers: Conflict between Syncretistic and Intolerant Religious Views

Matir Moina demonstrates the tendencies in a madrasa to encourage orthodox and militant

Islam. But the film also shows that the madrasa teacher, Ibrahim, challenges fundamentalist Islamic ideas. Ibrahim‘s views and activities reflect the influence of the syncretistic and humanistic philosophies of the Sufi fakirs; whereas Bakiullah, the madrasa head embraces religious fanaticism and superstition. The distinctions between the two madrasa teachers symbolize the tension and contradiction between popular and political

Islam. Madrasa students are forced to conform to the orders of Bakiullah, showing that

Bakiullah and Kazi share similar character traits. In their house, Anu is forced by his father to wear a topi all the time. Anu also witnesses certain impositions in the madrasa.

409 Ibid. 247

Bakiullah does not like his name. For Bakiullah, this is not a proper name for a Muslim boy and Anu needs to give his formal Islamic name from now on. Bakiullah tends to use the madrasa students as his servants. In a sequence, Ibrahim is seen washing his own clothes, sitting beside a pond along with other madrasa students. But Bakiullah gives his clothes to a student and orders him to wash them. The director also uses colour to indicate Bakiullah‘s mental traits. Most of the time, Bakiullah‘s head is covered by a yellow scarf. Yellow serves to symbolize staleness and decay. Bakiullah‘s use of the yellow scarf is indicative of his outmoded attitudes and moral degeneration.

Although Bakiullah is a Bengali villager, he displays his preference for alien Perso-Arab cultural practices mimicking the typical attitude of the ashraf. Many Bengali mullahs did not have sufficient knowledge of Urdu or the other traditional Islamic languages such as

Arabic and Persian. Still, they displayed a pathological dislike for Bangla, their own language, because it is not considered as an Islamic language by the dominant Islamic ideology.410 Bakiullah is often seen using Urdu and Arabic words when he is speaking in

Bangla. Another madrasa teacher, Halim, does not like Anu‘s long hair. He informs Anu that the hair of the madrasa students should be cut very short and he himself gives Anu a haircut. Halim says that only women and some Hindu saints keep long hair; he also mentions that some Muslims fakirs are also keeping long hair imitating those Hindu saints. Halim rebukes Anu, suggesting Anu is trying to adopt that ―forbidden‖ lifestyle by keeping long hair. Halim‘s comments reveal his tendency to ridicule and detest the lifestyle of the Hindu saints and, like the sweet food from the Hindu festival and the sculpture of a

410 Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims 1871-1906, 120. 248

bird, a man‘s long hair is also subjected to hostility by the orthodox Islamic clerics. But we observe that Ibrahim has long hair, suggesting Ibrahim‘s difference from his madrasa colleagues in regard to cultural orientation and mentality.

Musical performances by village folk singers known as and Boyatis are shown several times in Matir Moina. The philosophy incorporates certain fundamental ideas from both Sahajiya tradition and Sufi mysticism. Therefore, the Bauls strongly subscribe to a popular syncretistic tradition and their world-views remain very different from the orthodox and conservative versions of Islam and . The Bauls, in the words of

Dasgupta, ―avoid all forms of institutional religion in which the natural piety of the soul is overshadowed by the useless paraphernalia of ritualism and ceremony on the one hand and pedantry and hypocrisy on the other. It is for this reason that the Bauls and other

Sahajiyas call their path ulta-sadhan (i.e. ‗the reverse path‘) and denote the process of their spiritual advance as the method of proceeding against the current.‖411 Throughout history, both Islamic clerics and Hindu orthodox leaders have showed bitter antagonism towards the heretical and syncretistic beliefs of the Bauls and Sufi fakirs. Musical performances of the Bauls often came under violent physical assault by religious fundamentalists.412 But the

Bauls were not deterred from presenting their heterodox and humanistic ideas through their songs and dance in Bengal countryside. The Bauls and Boyatis often keep long hair.

Masud provides criticisms of Kazi‘s religious orthodoxy through the comments of a long- haired man Karim, a village boatman and also a Boyati. Thus, Bauls in Matir Moina

411 Atis Dasgupta, ―The Bauls and Their Heretic Tradition,‖ Social Scientist 22, no. 5/6 (May-June 1994): 72- 73.

412 Ibid., 81. 249

represent a powerful symbol of protest against religious fundamentalism and intolerance.

Long-haired Ibrahim and Karim also make courageous comments criticizing the system, political use of Islam, and extreme religious conservatism, thereby becoming two revolutionary characters in the film.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The madrasa environment also bears marked similarities to the gloomy atmosphere of

Kazi‘s house. Masud‘s camera frequently shows the sharp fences of the madrasa, conveying an impression that the lives of the students are being strictly controlled in this place. Students are often seen walking through the narrow alleys in the madrasa; the concrete walls on both sides highlight their lack of freedom. The restricting environments of both Kazi‘s house and madrasa represent the suppressed social conditions experienced by the Bengalis under the Pakistani regime. Islamic fundamentalism appears to be the dominant position in both places despite the presence of individuals who do not conform to this dominant outlook. Thus, situations in Kazi‘s house and madrasa also stand in for the broader contemporary circumstances in Bangladesh marked by the increased use of religious idioms in public life and politics.

One hand-held shot shows Anu walking through the narrow alley of the madrasa. He reaches the rear of the madrasa and opens a gate. An open area of grass with lots of trees is seen through Anu‘s point of view shot. The scene serves as a counterpoint to the

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preceding scene showing the claustrophobic alley and colourless walls inside the madrasa.

In that grassy field Anu meets Rokon, a dispossessed madrasa student and they become best friends. Rokon‘s reluctance to abide by certain customs favoured by the madrasa authority and his lack of fear to clearly state his opposing ideas make him represent the rebellious individuals within an unjust system. Rokon often hears some noise in his ear and he does not mix with the other students except Anu. His courageous argument with

Bakiullah in a scene demonstrates his difference from the others who remain silent before the madrasa head. Ibrahim has a pleasant personality, whereas Bakiullah is often bullying towards his students. Rokon does not hesitate to openly criticize the madrasa‘s decision to make a left-handed student write Arabic using his right-hand. For Bakiullah, Arabic is a sacred language and that is why one can only use his right hand to write it, but the handwriting of the left-handed student becomes very bad because of this. Rokon‘s criticism of this decision annoys Bakiullah. He criticizes Rokon for his bad performance in

Urdu; he also mentions Rokon uses many Bengali words in his Urdu writing. When

Rokon says he does not like Urdu, a mid shot shows the very angry face of Bakiullah. He screams abuse to Rokon, saying it is not for Rokon to judge what is right or wrong in this place. Bakiullah thus dictates terms with force, resembling an autocratic ruler. His leaning towards the ideology of the Pakistani authority becomes evident when he starts making politically-charged comments in his speech to his audience during a prayer. He directly condemns the political movements of the Bengalis and the idea of secularism. For him, secularism is an idea propagated by the forces of blasphemy and the followers of Islam must remain alert and prepared to defend their religion. Bakiullah states that, if need be,

Jihad (holy war of the Muslims) should be undertaken in order to defend Islam.

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(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Rokon‘s problem of hearing noises in his ears suddenly returns when Bakiullah starts stressing the necessity for militant action against secularist forces. Rokon is seen covering his ears with his hands. The scene can be understood to suggest Rokon‘s aversion to

Bakiullah‘s act of circulating the Pakistani ideology. Madrasa teacher Halim later informs

Ibrahim that he finds Bakiullah‘s speech very inspiring. However, Ibrahim does not approve of the opinions of Bakiullah. An ensuing sequence showing a conversation between Ibrahim and Halim provides some of the director‘s overt political statements.

Close-ups and mid-close ups are mostly used during the conversation between the two teachers, showing the intention of the director to highlight their comments. Ibrahim boldly states that the speech of Bakiullah may mislead the young madrasa students.

Ibrahim points to the fact that Islam was not established in the country by the sword.

Instead of applying pressure and force, Muslim Sufi saints tried to win the hearts of local inhabitants by emphasizing a philosophy of peace and equality. Masud reminds us through the comments of Ibrahim of the historical truth that Bengalis did not become Muslims through . The Imperial Gazetteer notes about the Islamization process in

Bengal: ―It is difficult to apportion the result between the peaceful persuasion of

Musalman and forcible conversion by fanatical rulers, but probably the former had the greater influence. That conversion at the sword‘s point was by no means rare is known from history, but… its influence alone cannot make very many converts.‖413

A 1901 census report also makes similar observation: ―Cases of forcible conversion‖ were

413 Asim Roy, 22.

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―by no means rare,‖ but it seemed ―probable that very many of the ancestors of the

Bengali Muhammadans voluntarily gave their adhesion to Islam.‖414 Masud thus in this sequence strongly stresses the point that Islam cannot be established by the use of weapons, thereby providing a direct critique of the rise of violent Islamist militancy in contemporary Bangladesh.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

For Ibrahim, the madrasa teachers should not politicize their young students in order to use them to achieve their own objectives. But like Bakiullah, Halim also thinks the struggle of the Bengalis against the Pakistani authority is putting Islam in danger. He differs with

Ibrahim, saying that it is not necessary to separate Islam from politics. Halim‘s face is shown in a big-close up; he says if Pakistan does not remain united, Islam will be jeopardized in the country. Ibrahim‘s reply is another of the political statements made in the film. He asks Halim whether Pakistan has established Islam or a military dictatorship.

Ibrahim thus does not disapprove of Islam, but he becomes strongly critical of political

Islam and military rule. During his conversations with Halim, Ibrahim is seen taking care of a tomato plant. Close-up shots are employed to show Ibrahim washing his hands and watering the plants. In a close-up, we see Halim is moulding a lump of clay in order to make some earthen pebbles. Such earthen pebbles are used for cleaning oneself after using the toilet. But Ibrahim points out that although such pebbles are used in some Middle-

Eastern desert countries because of lack of water, it is not necessary to use these pebbles

414 Ibid. 253

in a country where water is easily available for cleaning oneself. Throughout the sequence,

Halim‘s hands are dirtied with mud, whereas Ibrahim‘s look clean. After showing the lump of clay, the camera slowly pans to show the green plants nursed by Ibrahim.

Ibrahim‘s care for the garden plants appears to be a more useful task than Halim‘s effort for creating those pebbles. The juxtaposition of the green plants and the earthen pebbles highlight Ibrahim‘s penchant for constructive tasks rather than doing something that would not have a helpful effect. Thus, the mise-en-scene employed by the director serves to place importance to Ibrahim‘s comments. It also shows the differences between

Ibrahim and Halim. Ibrahim‘s tendency to provide logical arguments marks him as a man with admirable qualities. At the end of their conversation, the camera cuts to a shot showing a young madrasa student holding a tender young plant in his hand. By showing a plant instead of an earthen pebble in the student‘s hand, the director indicates that

Ibrahim‘s rational remarks have made a profound impression on the minds of the young people rather than the aggressive statements made by Bakiullah and Halim. Ibrahim‘s critical comments and the repeated use of Baul performances in the film indicate the director‘s inclination towards religious syncretism and his strong opposition to the political use of Islam. The inclusion of these elements also demonstrates his attempt to keep a revolutionary outlook in his film aimed at a society that is witnessing a steady growth of Islamist politics, often sponsored by the state.

(Photograph has been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Masud frequently shows the longing of individuals to achieve freedom from suppressed conditions. In one sequence, Rokon is seen playing with an invisible ball at the back 254

garden of the madrasa. This scene is reminiscent of a similar scene in Michelangelo

Antonioni‘s Blow-Up (1966). Two young mimes are seen miming a game of tennis without using a ball. In Antonioni‘s film, underlining a sense of alienation within modern urban life, this scene serves to suggest people‘s tendency to escape into a world of make-believe to achieve a release from difficult conditions. In Matir Moina, Rokon says to Anu that it is much better to play with an invisible ball because that enables him to not be restricted by any rules. He throws the invisible ball to Anu, Anu pretends he has received the ball. The invisible ball appears to be a symbol of much-desired freedom from a life marked by control and suppression. Like the ball, the freedom also remains invisible and the young boys can only feel happy imagining it. A following shot shows Anu‘s nostalgia about his life in his own village. Some joyful moments of local Hindu festival and boat races are seen through a flash-back. Anu can get no such pure delight in the regimented setting of the madrasa; he can only think of the happy moments he has had before. Rokon informs

Anu that he has a special friend who brings him many presents, but like the invisible ball,

Rokon‘s special friend is never seen in the film. We do not know whether Rokon really has a special friend or if the special friend is an imaginary character. Rokon tells Anu about his special friend for the first time on a night when all other students are asleep in their room. The lights are switched off but Rokon lights a candle and we see the faces of the young boys illuminated against the darkness. The special friend, or the very idea of him, provides Rokon with a feeling of hope and happiness in his bounded life. If the suppression he is undergoing in the madrasa becomes synonymous to darkness, his special friend appears to be a ray of light. The idea of this unseen special friend also implies the notion of Bengalis‘ freedom from oppressed social and political circumstances. But freedom remains an imaginary concept within the harsh realities of the contemporary

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situation. From Rokon‘s smiling face in the candle-lit room, Masud‘s camera cuts into a tracking shot showing Rokon slowly walking beside the madrasa fence. Sharp iron spikes remain in sight as Rokon is walking, suggesting the lack of freedom in his life.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

When Rokon becomes ill, Bakiullah does not arrange for his medical treatment. But

Ibrahim gives money to Anu to purchase modern medicine for Rokon. Ibrahim also tells

Anu to keep it secret from Bakiullah. Thus, the mental similarity between Bakiullah and

Kazi becomes evident once again. Bakiullah believes in superstitions and archaic ideas; he thinks Rokon is under the spell of evil spirits. He forces Rokon to take several dips in the cold water of a pond on a wintry morning in order to repel the spirit. Bakiullah and other members of the madrasa are seen through low-angle shots; they are wearing warm clothes while Rokon is shivering with cold. Bakiullah administers the process with a long stick for punishment beatings in his hand. The cruelty conveyed by this scene serves to show the danger of religious superstition and irrational, outmoded thinking. Bakiullah‘s character traits seem to be harmful for both individuals and society, and they seem to symbolize the darkness shown several times in the film. But Ibrahim‘s caring, open-minded and reasonable attributes always provide a counterpoint to those of Bakiullah and Kazi.

Ibrahim is once seen walking through the dark courtyard of Madrasa alongside Anu; we observe a candle in Ibrahim‘s hand, reminding us of the scene of the discussion about

Rokon‘s special friend. Ibrahim seems to possess all the necessary attributes to become

Rokon‘s special friend, and his holding of a candle in a dark area also serves to indicate

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Masud‘s reliance on persons like Ibrahim to fight the darkness caused by intolerant, extremist and irrational beliefs.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The Protests of Rokon and Ayesha: The Resistance of the Oppressed and the

Search for Liberation

Rokon has created a separate place for him behind the madrasa. For him, this is his secret and special space. He brings Anu to see it, saying that no one knows about it except his special friend and Anu. The place is decorated with Rokon‘s collection of many different things – pictures of a winged horse and an astronaut, a kite string holder, and an old bicycle handlebar. The presence of these particular things indicates Rokon‘s intense longing to break free from the shackles of control and confinement. He says he drew the picture of the winged horse himself, revealing his deep-rooted desire for an unbound life.

He does not play with the other boys in the madrasa. Instead, he is seen playing with the old bicycle handlebar, suggesting his greater interest in escaping from this environment.

Rokon‘s secret refuge behind the madrasa bears almost no resemblance to the madrasa‘s interior or ideals. Thus, the creation of this hideaway appears to be an act of resistance against the status quo. Rokon‘s special place also stands in for the free and independent country imagined by the Bengalis trying to get out of the clutches of Pakistani hegemony and suppression. The Bengalis‘ attempts to defy the status quo met with stiff antagonism by the state. The madrasa authorities and the other students do not like Rokon‘s tendency 257

to spend most of his time in his special place instead of playing with the others. Some students discover Rokon‘s secret place and they destroy his favourite things by throwing stones at them, while he watches. Such an attack in Rokon‘s special place by some madrasa students symbolizes the Pakistani military aggression against the Bengalis in 1971.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

The Awami League, the political party led by Bengalis, achieved a landslide victory in East

Pakistan at the general election of 1970. But the Pakistani central government was reluctant to allow a Bengali political party to come into power. The Bengalis became anxious that the Pakistani authorities were trying to complicate the political situation in order to deny Bengalis their political rights. Matir Moina also shows the reluctance of some

Bengalis to oppose the Pakistani rulers only because they too are Muslims. A sequence in the film shows a conversation between Kazi and Khan Bahadur, an upper-class Muslim.

Khan Bahadur is a Bengali, but like Bakiullah he tends to use Urdu words quite often in his Bengali speech, displaying his ashraf-like attempt to Urduize the Bangla language. Khan

Bahadur supports the martial law imposed by the Pakistani authorities. For him, the political turbulence in East Pakistan caused by the conflict between Bengalis and the central government of Pakistan can be compared to a disease. He considers martial law as the antidote to such a pathological symptom. When an attack on the village by the

Pakistani forces is imminent, Kazi is seen criticizing the idea of putting up resistance against the Pakistani military. He refuses to believe that they are killing unarmed Bengalis because for him it is very unlikely that Muslims would kill other Muslims. He does not

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mind the military offensive in East Pakistan because for him, the Pakistani forces are coming to protect peace and Islam. When some villagers inform Kazi that Milon has joined the Bengali Liberation force and has moved near a bridge with others to fight the

Pakistani army, Kazi becomes very angry. He calls his brother stupid.

Therefore, for Bengalis like Kazi, Khan Bahadur and Bakiullah, the struggle of their countrymen against the Pakistani authoritarian rule in order to defend their distinctive culture and political rights is tantamount to destabilizing the foundation of an Islamic nation. Bengalis of such a mindset collaborated with the invading Pakistani army during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 and continued to advocate the political use of

Islam in post-independence Bangladesh. But students conscious of the Pakistani domination of the Bengalis had become resistance fighters by 1971 and did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives in order to liberate their country. In independent Bangladesh, people truly upholding the values and ideals of 1971 War always vehemently oppose all forms of religious fanaticism. Masud shows the conflict between these two classes throughout Matir

Moina; Kazi‘s humiliation at the end of the film and Ayesha‘s strong protest against Kazi for the first time indicate Masud‘s condemnation of political oppression and religious blindness.

When Ayesha is reminiscing about the past during a conversation with Milon, he becomes more interested to discuss the present because for him, the present signifies the Liberation

War. Ayesha is hitherto portrayed in the film as a submissive and meek housewife, who quietly obeys her husband‘s commands and wishes. Her silence represents the subaltern 259

silence. She sadly says to Milon that she does not have any war. Ayesha attends one musical programme during Kazi‘s absence. The camera shows her face several times during a song performed by a folk singer. The lyrics of the song convey a strong yearning for freedom – ―the bird is trapped in the body‘s cage/ its feet are bound by worldly chains/ it tries to fly but fails/ the bird pines with longing/ it yearns to spread its wings/ it wants to join the joyful birds/ leaving its home/ the clay bird says why did you infuse my heart with longing/ if you didn‘t give my wings the strength to fly?‖ The sadness imbued in this song echoes the sadness of Ayesha and the depressing state of a country under political subjugation. Ayesha flees from home taking her son with her when the

Pakistani army attacks their village. Kazi refuses to leave the house, keeping his trust in

Muslim Pakistani soldiers. When Ayesha and Anu return home the following day, they find Kazi sitting alone inside the house. The house looks burnt, suggesting an act of arson has been committed by the Pakistani army. Kazi looks completely shattered; he is looking at the torn pages of the holy book with great sadness. From the open window of Kazi‘s house some people are seen hastily fleeing. An old lady informs Ayesha about the brutality of the soldiers. She also informs her that all of those who moved near to the Kumarkhali

Bridge to resist the Pakistanis are now dead.

The information about the military brutality seems to transform Ayesha. Her face does not look sad anymore; we observe signs of anger and firm determination in her face for the first time. She tells her husband to take a look at how his Muslim brothers have destroyed the whole village, including their house. Ayesha asks Kazi to come along with them, but Kazi does not respond. He keeps looking at the broken ampoules of

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homeopathic medicines, standing with his back to the open window. The scene suggests

Kazi‘s total inability to change his deep-seated dogmatic mental attitude; he fails to leave his darkened room in order to protest even after witnessing that his trust in the Pakistani army has been betrayed. Ayesha, on the other hand, does not hesitate to come out of the house, taking Anu with her. In a long shot they are seen standing in an open space, against the background of the devastated village. We understand Ayesha will not remain submissive any longer, her war has begun. Ayesha‘s anger at the oppression by the

Pakistani army and her decision to face the contemporary perilous circumstances with courage make her representative of the country about to be liberated through a war of independence.

(Photographs have been removed due to Copyright restrictions)

Given the existing political atmosphere of Bangladesh in 2002, Masud‘s denunciations of

Islamic orthodoxy and the political use of Islam in Matir Moina intercept the dominant ideology and pose a serious challenge to the system. Different characters and allusions used in Matir Moina come to represent specific aspects of historical and political situations of the country. The allegorical treatment is employed throughout the film. Masud‘s criticisms of religious intolerance and Islamist extremism in Matir Moina, set during the

Pakistani period, also draw attention to contemporary rise of political Islam, demonstrating that certain tendencies prevalent during the Pakistani rule, such as the use of Islam as a political instrument and the rejection of secularism, still exist in the country today. These tendencies run counter to the ideals of the liberation struggle of the Bengalis.

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Matir Moina censures the military rule in Pakistan, and in so doing it aims to make the audience aware of the link between the return of military rule and the subsequent attempts to Islamize the polity in independent Bangladesh.

Masud provides direct political statements in the film through the comments made by

Ibrahim, Ayesha and Milon. Through its politically-oriented approach and strong social critiques Matir Moina makes an attempt to perform the decolonizing function advocated by the proponents of Third Cinema. Matir Moina departs from Bengali mainstream films thorough its use of metaphors and allusions, flashbacks and hand-held shots, non-linear narrative and politically-motivated use of songs. Matir Moina is deeply rooted in the history and . In his attempt to describe the major themes in Third Cinema,

Teshome Gabriel indicates that indigenous cultural forms such as folk songs and traditional musical themes often appear as crucial components in Third Cinema films.415

In Matir Moina, Masud creates an indigenous cinematic style through the utilization of musical performances by the Bauls and Boyatis. According to the director, ―if we want to evolve a regional or indigenous language of cinema I think we have to find inspiration in our traditional folk culture and folk forms. This understanding of traditional folk forms can help us shape a proper cinematic language, instead of a blind importation of Western film syntax or idioms.‖416 By imparting some of the core messages of his film through the performance of Bengali folk musicians, Masud transforms these folk songs into filmic forms. Through the systematic use of local songs, the film avoids complete dependence

415 Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World, 16-17.

416 James Leahy, 75. 262

on the dominant codes of Western filmmaking. The director‘s emphasis on folk art forms in his film owes its inspiration to the cinematic style of Ritwik Ghatak, which is deeply rooted in Bengali indigenous culture. He notes: ―I don‘t see myself as pioneering any iconoclastic new film approach, it is a road which has already been paved by Ritwik

Ghatak, and in some ways also by Satyajit Ray, despite the fact that Ray‘s mindset was much more Western.‖417

Bauls have always been subjected to criticism by right-wing Islamists. When the largest ultra-right political party of the country was part of the ruling coalition, Masud demonstrated a spirit of non-conformity to the dominant views by incorporating a number of Baul songs in his films. Several folk songs in Bangladesh appear as acts of resistance on behalf of the subaltern classes against the dogmatic and intolerant religious ideas.418 Masud uses a Jari Gaan at the end of the film.419 In this performance, two musicians are engaged in a debate between dogmatic Islamist ideas and syncretistic religious views based on Sufism. Eventually both of the musicians in the Jari Gaan emphasize the ideas of Sufism rather than promoting conservative Islamist views. Thus, the sequence serves to counteract the religion-based ideology upheld by the right-wing political parties. Matir Moina is not critical of religion. It also does not portray the madrasa as a breeding-ground for terrorists. Through the characters of Ibrahim and Rokon, Masud

417 Ibid., 77.

418 See Syed Jamil Ahmed, ―Hegemony, Resistance, and Subaltern Silence: Lessons from Indigenous Performances of Bangladesh,‖ The Drama Review, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer, 2006), 70-86.

419 Jari Gaan is a type of folk song of Bangladesh. In a Jari Gaan, various issues relating to religion, philosophy, politics and society are debated between two groups of musicians. Such musical performances based on debates continue for several hours. 263

shows the presence of individuals with progressive dispositions within the madrasa. Kazi is also not depicted as a bad man. He is shown to give money to the poor boatman for the treatment of his wife. After the death of his daughter, Kazi tries to console Ayesha and, at the end of the film, Kazi seems helpless witnessing the atrocity and arson committed by the Pakistani army. During the Liberation War in 1971, some Bengalis, mainly from the right-wing parties, became collaborators with the Pakistani army. But Kazi is not shown as a collaborator in the film. Like Kazi, Ibrahim is also seen wearing a topi most of the time.

Therefore, the film is not critical of topi-wearing individuals who appear to be devout

Muslims. Masud provides denunciations of religious intolerance and his film becomes a reaction against the rise of Islamic extremism in the country. The film also provides cultural resistance through its criticisms of the tendency to undermine Bengali indigenous culture. The acts of defiance against the unjust domination displayed by different characters in the film, the use of symbols denoting the resistance of the oppressed, the use of indigenous cultural forms as cinematic style and the attempt to make people conscious of the negative aspects of religious blindness enable Matir Moina to retain a revolutionary outlook both in its content and form.

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CONCLUSION

This study examined how socially-conscious Bengali filmmakers in Bangladesh and West

Bengal use cinema as a means of political action and aspire to awaken a revolutionary consciousness. I have questioned how these Bengali films, politically critical in form and content, attempt to intervene in a crisis situation. The study also set out to discern if these

Bengali filmmakers adopt and appropriate strategies of Third Cinema in order to produce decolonized and combative films that are critical of contemporary social and political problems. Historical specificity is an important aspect of Third Cinema. Hence, in my case studies I have shown how these Bengali films are deeply rooted in the political and social history of Bangladesh and West Bengal since the Partition of India in 1947. The discussion of the historical contexts of these films enabled us to gain a deeper understanding of the political concerns illustrated within them by the directors.

The case studies undertaken in the thesis show that different types of political films are made in the realm of Bengali cinema, indicating the fact that films can be political in different ways. Sen uses highly experimental film language in Calcutta 71. His utilization of agitprop aesthetics makes his film akin to a pamphlet. In contrast, Pratidwandi, which Ray considered the most provocative film he had made to date, critiques social injustice through the personal protest of its protagonist. In this film, Ray emphasizes emotional rather than ideological gesture. Jiban theke Neya turns out to be a savage indictment of

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authoritarian rule. Raihan makes use of several First Cinema elements and sufficiently transforms them in a way that departs from the principles of commercial cinema. Thus,

Raihan demonstrates the possibility of making a political film within the commercial industry using the existing distribution and exhibition channels. Through the use of allegory, Masud provides strong criticisms of the contemporary problem of religious intolerance and fundamentalism. His emphasis on folkloric elements highlights that culture can be a site of struggle which is one of the important tropes of Third Cinema. Each of these filmmakers denounces social injustice and different forms of oppression. Their films depict the conflict between opposing ideologies and provide clear evidence of the strong political commitments of the directors.

The attempt to break with the dominant conventions of the commercial industry and to attain a revolutionary outlook aligns the aims and objectives of these films with those of

Third Cinema. A central action in each of these films involves the process by which the protagonists have become conscious of their oppressed conditions. Drawing significantly on the aesthetics of Third Cinema, these Bengali films highlight the psychological transformation of its oppressed protagonists. In order to depict the violence unleashed on the people who protested against social injustice, the final scene of Calcutta 71 shows the death of the twenty-year-old rebel through a flashback scene. But the penultimate sequence of the film shows real footage of the people‘s angry demonstrations against the establishment. Shots showing the fictional characters of the film are also juxtaposed with documentary footage of the people‘s protest on the street. These shots suggest the liberated state of the oppressed protagonists. Siddhartha protests against the callousness of

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the bureaucrats. His departure from the big city and his experience of hearing the elusive bird call on his arrival in the remote town indicates his liberation from the putrid circumstances that embodied his experience in the city. Similarly, the protagonists of Jiban theke Neya boldly protest against the domineering woman at the end. In Matir Moina,

Ayesha does not remain silent any more. She criticizes her husband for his inability to see the oppressive attitudes of the Pakistani authorities against the Bengalis. When she leaves the house to confront perilous circumstances, her action stands in for the actions of many other people who left their houses to join the national struggle for independence. Anu also leaves the confining environment of the madrasa and returns home. Thus, all these films show ―a Third Cinema influenced transformation process that takes [the protagonists] from an oppressed state, to an empowered state, and finally to a liberated state.‖420 By affirming the courageous actions of their protagonists against unjust social and political circumstances, these films attempt to activate a revolutionary consciousness and mobilize their audiences towards political action.

Instead of presenting their criticisms in a propagandistic manner, the directors of these films encourage the process of dialogue. In these films, we witness the debates between

Siddhartha and Tunu, Anwar and Modhu, Ibrahim and Halim. These debates are intended to encourage audiences to think more deeply about the criticisms provided in these films.

In Calcutta 71, the director deploys direct audience-address to pose questions that are designed to challenge the spectators and provoke them to re-examine their attitudes. Third

Cinema is, according to Gabriel, ―based on provocation and participation, and it must

420 Tama Lynne Hamilton-Wray, ―The Cinema of Haile Gerima: Black Film as a Liberating Cinema,‖ PhD Dissertation, Michigan State University (2010), 254. 267

induce audiences to act, rather than remain passive.‖421 The use of the documentary footage and photographs in Calcutta 71 and Jiban Theke Neya, and the juxtaposition of the photographs of the homeless and affluent people in Pratidwandi demonstrate the turbulence, tensions and disparities of the contemporary reality. The real footage of the village festivity in Matir Moina shows the religious harmony that prevails among the ordinary people in a village in Bengal. The use of such materials also marks these films as witness-bearing films which, for Solanas and Getino, signify a militant form of expression:

―Every image that documents, bears witness to, refutes or deepens the truth of a situation is something more than a film image of purely artistic fact; it becomes something which the

System finds indigestible.‖422 Solanas and Getino also remark: ―Truth, then, amounts to subversion. Any form of expression or communication that tries to show national reality is subversion.‖423 In my case studies, I have illustrated how directors such as Mrinal Sen,

Satyajit Ray, Zahir Raihan and Tareque Masud not only document the reality and examine the causes of social unrest but also criticize the forces responsible for its perpetuation.

Thus, these filmmakers provide new depictions of reality designed to oppose the status quo. They thus, ―attempt to intervene in the situation as an element providing thrust or rectification.‖424

In considering the radical nature of the films I have examined in my case studies, I have endeavoured to keep in mind Gabriel‘s important dictum: ―Style is only meaningful in the

421 Gabriel, Third Cinema in the Third World, 25.

422 Cited in Martin, 46.

423 Ibid., 39.

424 Ibid., 47. 268

context of its use – in how it acts on culture and helps illuminate the ideology within it.‖425

Their films are also revolutionary in the sense that the filmic language of them not only marks a formal break with the style and strategies of the dominant cinema but also with the filmic forms of their previous work. The use of politically radical film forms demonstrates that these directors are influenced by particular socio-political situations. As we have seen, the utilization of the direct address methods, documentary footage, episodic structure, fragmented narrative, the fantasy sequences, symbolism, Bengali songs imbued with revolutionary zeal and the folk songs of the Bauls are some of the ways in which these films convey ideological and politically-charged content. The range of stylistic strategies employed by the directors indicates Third Cinema‘s flexibility in deploying any formal strategy that is deemed useful to convey revolutionary messages.

Mira Reym Binford considers Indian new or alternative cinema as a Second Cinema rather than a revolutionary Third Cinema. For her, while Indian new cinema facilitates the process of internal decolonization, it has also proved useful to the state because this cinema ―has become for the state an unofficial voice which demonstrates internationally the nation‘s progressive social commitments and modern cultural stance.‖426 Similarly, Nandita Ghosh argues that the Indian government‘s support for alternative filmmaking ―complicates the issue of a Third Cinema in India since the government is not completely for or against the people.‖427 Despite the presence of a democratic system in India, social and political

425 Gabriel, 41, original emphasis.

426 Mira Reym Binford, ―The Two Cinemas of India,‖ in Film and Politics in the Third World, ed. John D. H. Downing (New York: Praeger, 1987), 164.

427 Nandita Ghosh, 68. 269

problems have persisted in this country since its independence in 1947. Therefore, serious

Indian filmmakers have found it necessary to develop a critical consciousness of these social problems through their work. Their films do not resemble the style of guerrilla filmmaking advocated by Solanas and Getino in their original manifesto on Third Cinema.

But many of them qualify as Third Cinema due to their overt denunciations of the political establishment and their attempts to raise a revolutionary consciousness through their incorporation of a new film language. Ghosh argues: ―The Third Cinema in India is then a political cinema which presents the condition of the oppressed from their point of view.‖428

In an interview, Sen goes as far as to say that political films do not have to be subversive.

For him, in order for a film to be termed as political, it is necessary to keep a socio-political perspective. He does not consider the style of clandestine filmmaking advocated by the

Latin American directors as a suitable form of political cinema in India: ―A large number of people, with whom you also want to share your ideas, can‘t see your films. That‘s why it is important, at least in India, for films to be shown publicly.‖429 Sen believes as a political filmmaker his job is to provide information from a non-neutral perspective with an aim to create an environment in which the undemocratic and oppressive aspects of the society can be discussed.430 Ray also defines his films more in terms of political films rather than militant cinema. According to him, ―I don‘t use any political characters; my films don‘t revolve around a political leader or figure, but they have a political background. The films deal with social problems, and that is political.‖431 However, I intend to argue that their

428 Ibid.

429 Mrinal Sen, Montage, 160.

430 Ibid., 160-61.

431 Cited in Kerstin Andersson, ―Satyajit Ray,‖ Cinema Papers, no. 88 (May-June 1992): 47. 270

films can also be considered as subversive because of the violent and accusatory tones incorporated in them. They may not be able to topple a government, but their importance in strengthening a radical consciousness cannot be denied.

Due to the military rule and the lack of government support to promote politically- committed, alternative films, Bangladeshi filmmakers found it more difficult to make overtly political films. Strict government censorship also limits the opportunity of

Bangladeshi directors to provide explicit political statements. In an interview, one of the leading Bangladeshi alternative filmmakers Tanvir Mokammel describes the censorship in

Bangladesh as very harsh and fatuously bureaucratic. He points out that given the better democratic tradition in West Bengal, it is easier for the West Bengal filmmakers to denounce the establishment. Two of Mokammel‘s documentaries and a feature film were banned by the government. On two occasions Mokammel went to the High Court and won the cases. Later, the films were released. Mokammel indicates that certain topics such as the army, the Islamist fundamentalists and the miseries of the religious minorities such as Hindus and the tribal populations are considered as taboo subjects by the authority in

Bangladesh.432 By criticizing the military dictatorship and the intolerant attitudes of the

Islamist fundamentalists Jiban Theke Neya and Matir Moina confronted taboo subjects. The censorial restrictions faced by these films reveal the fact that their politically-critical content caused considerable worries for the establishment. In spite of the strict censorship system, the attempts of Raihan and Masud to come to grips with urgent problems and to make a stand against the dominant ideology mark their films as examples of Third Cinema. I argue

432 This interview of Tanvir Mokammel was taken by the author on 06 January 2010. 271

that both Jiban Theke Neya and Matir Moina are exemplary filmmaking of the combative phase in the genealogy of Third World film delineated by Gabriel. Films are recognized as an ideological tool in this phase. A combative phase filmmaker looks into the problems experienced by people in the past in order to understand the lives and struggles of the oppressed in contemporary society. Jiban Theke Neya and Matir Moina examine the struggles of the past in order to indicate that similar problems still prevail in contemporary society.

These films also use the past to comment on both the present and the future. Through the use of allegorical means, they provide their ideological messages with a view to subverting the dominant ideology. Thus, these films produced in a repressive society turn out to be political instruments for denunciating social injustice and the tendency to undermine the local culture.

To my knowledge, there is no comprehensive study that deals with politically-critical filmmaking in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The findings presented in this thesis provide the basis for developing a critical understanding of the unique characteristics of Bengali political cinema. This study shows that Third Cinema-inspired films still exist in the realm of Bengali cinema, even after the heady days of Third World euphoria from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. In Bangladesh in the 1980s, the spirit of the Liberation War was not given sufficient importance by the autocratic government of a former military general. The alternative short filmmakers made several features highlighting the ideals and principles of the Liberation War in Bangladesh. These films, according to Mokammel, contributed to the development of the pro-Liberation consciousness among the audience.433 The findings of

433 Interview of Tanvir Mokammel taken on 06 January 2010. 272

the thesis also enable us to forge a connection between a number of important Bengali films made at the beginning of the 1970s and more recent manifestations of politically critical cinema. In 2011, Nasiruddin Yousuf directed Guerrilla, a film made in Bangladesh that depicted the brutality of the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators during the

Liberation War. One year before this, Abu Sayeed directed Opekkha (A Long Wait, 2010) and Tareque Masud made Runway, films strongly critical of Islamist extremists. In West

Bengal, the shooting of the Naxalite revolutionaries is shown in recent films such as Herbert

(2005), and Bhooter Bhobishshoyot (2012), recalling the murder of the twenty year old protagonist in Sen‘s Calcutta 71. The murderers remain unseen in Calcutta 71. But the new generation filmmakers show that it is the police who are shooting at unarmed Naxalite revolutionaries from behind. Thus, they provide a direct condemnation of the atrocity.

These contemporary Bengali directors continue the vital task of using cinema to awaken political consciousness and mobilize people towards social transformation. Further research on the important connection between Bengali cinema, Third Cinema, and political cinema will provide us with an even greater understanding of the legacy and impact of the

Bengali cinema of liberation.

273

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