Belated Happy Birthday to Srijit Mukherjee: The man behind the content revolution in Bengali Movie Industry
Bengali Movie Industry has produced and nurtured a plethora of talented artisans who have excelled in the domestic and international movie circles. Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Ritwik Ghatak are some prominent names among the list of elite Bengali stalwarts. Satyajit Ray was the only Indian director to have received the honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievements.
Bengali movies have always preferred content over gimmick which resulted in pathbreaking visual masterpieces like Meghe Dhaka Tara, Pather Pachali, Sonar Kella to name a few. Though the quality of the Bengali films has drastically gone down in the ’90s and the early 2000s barring a few movies(Rituparno Ghosh directed movies). After almost two decades, a director has arrived and conquered both the box-office and our hearts with his directorial debut, Autograph, a modern-day adaptation of Satyajit Ray’s Nayak.
Autograph has changed the industry graph for the Bengali movie-goers. It has successfully wiped out the barrier between commercial movies and the art-house cinema. At the same time, it has brought back the urban content-loving Bengali audiences to the theatre. A decade has passed since then and there has been no stopping for the maverick director. With each movie, his fan-following has grown exponentially with immense praise being showered upon him for his impeccable storytelling along with astounding visuals.
Here we discuss some of his most accomplished works:
Jatishwar
The reincarnation drama is a pure soulful love tale with some brilliant acting done by Prosenjit Chatterjee, Sastika Mukherjee, and Jishu Sengupta. This movie is nothing short of visual poetry with non-linear film-making and a soothing score by Kabir Suman. The veteran actor, Prosenjit, has been outstanding as the troublesome reincarnated middle-aged man who is slowly getting lost in the shadow of his previous life. Jissu, a Gujrati boy trying to impress a Bengali girl, has been top-notch in his craft. The passionate romance between Jisshu and Sastika will take you for a trip down the memory lane. The worlds of Rohit(Jisshu) and Anthony Firingee(Prosenjit) plunge into one another via a common thread – Love. This movie is a phenomenal amalgamation of unrequited love, passion for music, and friendship. The camera work and the cinematography need special mention. Srijit has successfully poured in the flavor of platonic love and nostalgia in this National-Award winning musical. It is undoubtedly the best romantic Indian movie of the decade.
Gumnaami
Srijit has been a pioneer in setting foot in the uncharted territory. Most of the movies and web-series, that have explored the heroics done by our beloved Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, have not explored the controversy surrounding the death of Netaji. Srijit took that drastic step and created a non-fiction documentary on the alleged plane crash. Based on the Mukherjee Commission and the book ‘Conundrum’, Gumnaami takes the uneven road to unleash the truth behind the sudden disappearance of Netaji and the aftermath of the event. The movie discusses the controversial issues such as Netaji’s apparent escape to Russia and his reappearance as a Hindu hermit in the Uttar Pradesh state of India. The movie touches down various bureaucratic failures such as Govt. apathy in the investigation, favoritism in the politics, and vote bank appeasing politics. The sheer amount of research work and dedication put in by Srijit is praiseworthy.
Baishe Srabon, Chatushkone and Vinci Da
The thriller trilogy, helmed by Srijit, gracefully ups the content game in this genre. Srijit has successfully made a name in the history of Indian cinema as the torch-bearer of storytelling, especially when it comes to thriller movies. His thrillers are dark, gritty, and gory but never misses out on content and context. Baishe Srabon brings back the daunting memory of the gruesome Stoneman killings that wreaked havoc in the country. The haunting background score added with the guerrilla-style camerawork will leave a mark on you. A quarrelsome couple whose relationship has come to a screeching halt, a loner former cop, an urban journalist submerged in one-sided love, and a rebellious poet – the movie has several subplots but it never loses grip from the narrative.
Chatushkone is one of its own kinda film which has secured a place in the heart of thriller lovers. An anthology film consisting of four short movies with a common thread between them – Death as the theme. Every short film is distinct in terms of camerawork, cinematography, and the color tone. The cast boasts of several industry stalwarts and they raised the bar quite high with their commendable and realistic portrayals.
Vinci Da is another addition to the list with an unpredictable storyline. A passionate makeup artist and a criminal lawyer set out on a journey of right-doings and wrong-doings added with the conflict of human emotions. The maverick director has drawn a notable comparison between Nietzsche’s Ubermensch and the character played by Ritwik Chakroborty. The movie pendulums between right and wrong and the audience become skeptical to cling onto a particular side.
P.S – all three movies have some amazing dialogues and extra-ordinary climax sequences. The Thriller genre thrives on big reveals and Srijit has done a Ph.D. in it. Trust me!! You will be left in awe after you finish this trio.
Nirbaak
Srijit experiments with the silent movie genre with this pathbreaking movie, Nirbak(Silent). Nirbak encompasses four interconnected love stories that transcend the barrier of life and death. The movie creates the world of a narcissist, drowned in his own small world, bereft of the outside world, a tree in love with the woman whom it gives shelter every day, an attention-seeking dog who loves her master so much that she can’t even tolerate his wife and a crematorium worker in love with a corpse. The canvas of the movie is so wide and diverse that you would want to pat his (Srijit) broad shoulder for the brave attempt. Two scenes need special mention – the narcissist can’t recognize himself as he suffers permanent memory-loss due to an accident and the semen-ejaculating tree got uprooted after a thunderstorm hits the city in the night of her (whom the tree used to fantasize about) exodus. These abstract ideas are such visual treats for the arthouse cinema-lovers.
Uma
Durgapujo is a very common theme in Bengali as well as Indian movies. Srijit has rather walked a different route to make this festive drama. Inspired by the real-life story of a Canadian boy named Evan Leversage, Uma tells the tale of a terminally-ill teenage girl, Uma, who lives in Switzerland with her father and has never seen DurgaPuja before but only listened about it from her father. She has a long desire to experience the extravaganza that happens every year in the streets of Kolkata. She wants to experience the cacophony of the crowd, pandal hopping, gulping phuchkas, and pujo romance. As she is about to undergo a life-battling surgery, the outcome of which may be fatal, her father organizes DurgaPuja in the city of Kolkata in April, investing all his life-savings. There are several sub-plots in the movie which only add nuance to the emotional rollercoaster. For those festive-lovers, who await the whole year for the festive season to begin, this movie will leave you teary-eyed with a grin in your face.
Shahjahan Regency
Based on the best-selling novel, Chowringee by Shankar, this movie is a soothing tale about the lives revolving around a plush Kolkata Hotel, Shahjahan Regency. The movie touches down so many aspects of our human life such as love, passion, greed, jealousy, and lust. Though it didn’t churn out a lot of money in the box-office, the movie has a separate fan-base for showing different shades of people, irrespective of the social status quo. The thematic illustration of the life-cycle is visually stunning. The death of a high-class escort, who was a permanent inmate of the hotel, writes the eulogy of the traditional culture of the hotel, resulting in a change in ownership as well as values. Shahjahan Regency, the hotel, is a character that changes its traditional attire and dons the corporate look, leaving its sanity and originality at the bay.
His filmography is diverse and mostly genre-defying. It would take an insane amount of time to discuss elaborately about his works. Some of his other works include Rajkahini, EK Je Chilo Raja, Kakababu Series, and Dwitiyo Purush. Currently, he is working on a web-series on the famous Bengali sleuth, Feluda, and the third installment of the Kakababu trilogy. We wish him good health and more accolades in the years to come.
