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mantrani74
Reviews
Dahan (1998)
Male bashing - feminism is easily sold
Spoiler No doubt the movie is beautifully scripted and shot. But this is one more feminist movie which is based on male bashing. I understand the crime on women is a serious concern to Indian society. But the theme of this story is not whether rape is good or bad. It shows that a morality of women is being raped unnoticed everyday. Females stands for morality and masculine gender stands for moral rapists. Keep your eyes open in the society. Is it really what is happening ? Are females less morally cripple than their male counterparts ? I don't believe that. The cruel incident where Rituparna is physically assaulted by few hooligans and her husband Abhishek gets injured to save her, leaves a sad trail in their life which is very tough to cop up with for everyone. Rituparna and Abhishek are both physically injured. Abishek becomes unconscious. But god knows how he becomes almost physically fit when Rituparna is bed-ridden.
Initially the family stands behind Rituparna but as the society in the form of relatives, colleagues starts cherishing the story and start intriguing about the incident, the situation changes. Here comes the twist of the story. How the females and the males are reacting are shown in complete different light. The story skips the part where Abhishek goes thru the same agony when his colleagues ask to be detail about the incident similar to the case of Rituparna when the elderly relatives asks the same from her. Instead, the anger of Abhishesk was shown in very negatively as if his male ego is getting hurt. This is utter injustice to reality. Also it put a black shade on the character of Abhishek where he fails to stop the loud speakers when Rituparna challenges him. Though Abhishek tried his best to save her from the hooligans, this shows him as a lesser man who cant take on the society. Why the ladies expect a mumbai-style hero in her life partner ? Why they cant accept that her life partner is also a common people. Its the society who is morally down not the male part of the society. The females are equally part of that society. Starting from Jhinuk's grandmother's character to Jhinuk to Rituparna to the fiancé of the rapist - the movie shows that the ladies have to compromise with all the immoralities of male society.
Reality ???? Hard to believe. Though some female character like Jhinuk's mother showed as similar self concentrated but no male character is morally sound. As if, good people are necessarily female. And males are necessarily the villain in one women's life. Even jhinuk's brother is being caught with porn picture in the cards he play. Jhinuk's boyfriend is being shown as taking this as very obvious. This shows that all the male has lust for female body, may be those males are your beloved brother or husband of an woman. There is not much difference between the rapists, Abhishek or Jhinuk's brother or boyfriends. Is this so ? Hard to believe when we see that Salman Khan and several other male film stars are being shown on the screen with least clothes on their well- endowed body.
Also the compromise shown in the movie is the similar topic of maximum of Rituparno movies. Unishe April is the one. Then Utsav. Female don't get right companion who will match with their high moral frequency , in men. Very sad that this type of movie is projecting completely erroneous picture of the society. None makes movie how men are being tortured by his life partners unnoticed. How a man can become helpless when the wife says to desert his parents if he really loves her. But that's one of the burning issue in our society. Why more and more the elderly people are being deserted to oldage home today. Please have a close look at the society and you will get the answer. It is the highly moral grounded 'putrabadhu's who are making husbands parents redundant in their small tinny nuclear and selfish world. When Dipankar or Tabu's husband flirt with female colleagues when they are away from their wives that is moral bankruptcy but when Tabu or parama makes love to different men in their bed meant for their conjugal lives, is it revolutionary. What a logic. The most modern and feminist mother in law of Paromita in paromitar ekdin gets relieved and happy when her husband dies. Reason ? No frequency match for some unknown reason or may be he didn't accept his wife's lover or he reads pornography ? have you even seen that girl is standing behind her mother in law when she confesses her illicit extra marital affairs which gave birth to the girl's husband ? Far fetched imagination.
Lastly, I want to congratulate Rituparno for making movies which fetched so many best actress awards. Hope to see one best actor award from you too for a good male role in your movie.
Nayak (1966)
Satyajit and Uttam - two genius together
Though Uttamkumar is not the favorite of the class audience as opposed to Saumitra Chatterjee, the favorite of Satyajit Ray himself, this movie is one of the two occassions where Uttam and Satyajit came together and the outcome is a masterpiece. To me, this is the best creation of Ray. Satyajit rightly chose one and only Uttam as the 'Nayak'.Undoubtedly, Uttam,whose movies are intimately woven to every bengali's life even after 24 years of his death, is the alltime silver screen idol of all generations of Bengali film lovers. Though Uttam didn't get the much blessings of the classy directors compared to his arch rival Soumitra, this is one of the few occassions where Uttam got the chance to prove his acting skill and explioted to the fullest extent.
The story starts when there are two news regarding Arindam, played by uttam, published in the news papers - one is the fighting in a night club and the other that he has been nominated for a prestigeus award. In a train journey to delhi, he reveals himself to a lady reporter played by Sharmila. It was a self digging in a form of informal interview. The movie shows the public life and the personal life of a celebrity and all within the time span of a train journey and the flashbacks.
Finally, whoever likes good movie and haven't seen it already, its should be a must-see one.