The Guerilla Fighter

This movie has some brilliant camerawork and the leading man, Dhritiman Chatterjee, is convincing. But everything good about this supposedly celebrated movie ends here. It is pretentious and boring, with no narrative or cinematic arc. Parts of it really felt like watching a documentary--sorry, that is not film noir. Everything is spelled out and there are random shots of poor famine-struck Bengalis thrown in for shock value. It is way too literal and in your face. Art cinema has to have some art.

Mrinal Sen's Padatik brings to the forefront the Naxalite movement in Bengal on the backdrop of turbulent 70s worldwide when people fed up with unemployment, corruption, political economic mismanagement, social evils, were yearning for a change and the bugle of revolution sounded loud and clear from every nook and corner of the globe. It captures the predicament of the then Bengal youth who were swept away by leftist ideals but those who joined the militant left movement were caught in no man's land due to its failure and misdirection as against the formal left who were able to capture political power through popular support. Pravash Sarkar's portrayal of Dhiman impressed me and the presence of Simi Garewal provided the necessary yet not disjointed relief from the narrative. I wonder why this beautiful and capable actress not made into more lead heroines roles in mainstream Bollywood, maybe she was too glamorous for the then Hindi film industry. The movie won National Award for Best Screenplay in 1973. 7/10.