Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa

This much acclaimed film is a narrate of Sujata Chatterji's (Jaya Bhaduri) discovery of her son's (Brati Chatterji played by Joy Sengupta) life. Made in the backdrop of the Naxalite uprising in Bengal's Naxalbari, the film mostly deals with Sujata's quest for understanding her deceased son's ideologies and outlook to life. Starting off with a mere corpse number '1084' (which lends the film its name), she establishes her son's true identity, despite the social barriers surrounding her.

What appealed to me the most was Sujata's character defined as a simple minded mother whose love for her son gave her the strength to not only discover his pursuit in life, but also, find meaning in her own. That apart, Govind Nihalani brings out a nice diagnosis of the varying ideologies of an entire generation - how a protected and almost shrouded environment can co-exist with an uprising that seeks to change the very foundation of society. The movie explodes at a point where Sujata questions this very oddity, thus marking a moment of change in her own life.

The film has some rather intense moments in Nandita Das's portrayal of the character Nandini . In almost a monologue, Nandini converses with Sujata where she not only brings to light a revolutionary and romantic episode of Brati's life but also rescues a mother dwelling amidst ignorance and compromises. A stark contrast to the dignified and contained Sujata, is Somu's mother (Seema Biswas) who despite her troubles, has has seen more meaning and truth in her motherhood.

The film has tremendous talent in its actors like Anupum Kher, Seema Biswas, Nandita Das, Joy Sengupta, Milind Gunaji and of course Jaya Bachhan making a comeback in 1998 after a long gap in her cinema career. On a slight con side, I think the cinematography on occasions could do better. Overall, a very good film to watch.

Corpse number 1084 is lying in the govt. mortuary, a life-less body which is reduced to a mere four digit number by the authorities and the mainstream. Nobody wants to claim the body, or accept his association with it, except his mother. But why is he so neglected, why do people want to forget him, why was he killed and what sort of a man was he, when alive? The film is the journey of his mother to give, and find answers to these questions and through this, the film tries to capture the story of those thousands youth of Naxalite Movement who dared to dream, and fight for a better alternative, and who were butchered by the the nexus of state, right wing parties, and betrayers and saboteurs present in the left movement itself.

Based on a novel with the same title by eminent Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi, this film tries to capture the Kolkata of Stormy-seventies, when Naxalite Movement was penetrating among the urban, educated middle-class youth.

Sujata(Jaya Bachchan) is the mother of Brati(Joy Sengupta), a brilliant and honest-to-self upper-middle class student, who chooses to dedicate his life to the cause of proletarian revolution and is murdered by state supported goons. Sujata goes through an epistemological journey in search of the reasons for this, and finally, realizing the relationship between her own oppression(in the household) and that of the poor (outside), she decides to resist, alike her son. In the end, the mother feels that each time she offers a resistance to injustice, she gives re-birth to her deceased son again, and gets more closer to him as a mother, a friend, and a comrade.

The film captures everything, and that too perfectly, be it the decadence of Bengali well-off society and artists, the tortures inflicted by police on the naxalites, the ideological deviations of the movement, the betrayals by insiders, the beauty and honesty of the dreams of the naxal youth, and the brutality and ugliness of their cold-blooded genocide by the state,the weaknesses of the movement at that time and its capacity to learn from mistakes; and all this added by masterly performances by Nandita Das(Nandini),Seema Biswas(Somu's mother), Jaya Bachchan, Joy and other actors. Govind Nihlani's direction is excellent and the film surely is one of his Masterpieces.

Above all, it shows that Naxalism is not about some splashes of blood or some crime oriented or mindless killings, but it is about a dream nurtured by a whole generation of 16 to 40, which sacrificed itself for the same and whose dream carries audience and relevance till now. Best Hindi film on Naxalism. 8 out of 10.

Calcutta, the capital city of West Bengal, the eastern state of India. The period is 1970-72. The city is in the grip of a leftist militant movement, popularly known as the "Naxalbari Movement". The "Naxalbari Movement" began in the Naxalbari region to get minimum wages for the agricultural labour, and soon spread to other rural and urban areas of Directed by Govind Nihalani and based on Jyanpeeth award winner Mahashweta Devi's novel, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (Mother of Number 1084), is clearly one of the better films to come out of India in the recent past.

Set in Calcutta in the turbulent period of 1970-1972, when the region was much shaken by the Naxalbari movement, it tells the poignant story of a woman's quest for truth and self realization. The Maoist movement that originated in the Naxalbari region demanding minimum wages for agricultural labor had spread to urban areas in the 70's and attracted leftist intelligentsia and restless student groups. Wanting a new social order, a socialist economy and a society free of all social barriers, these youth took to the streets renouncing the lifestyles of their affluent parents. In the process, however, the movement muddled into dogmatic class-struggle theories espoused by Mao's (since disgraced)lieutenant Lin Piao and adopted violent, even murderous, tactics that completely alienated the bourgeoise and most of the general population.

A struggle that sought to free oppressed villagers from the clutches of feudal landlords soon spilled into urban homes with leftist militant youth rebelling against what they considered the complacent, hypocritical and bourgeois society.

As the film begins, Sujata Chatterji (Jaya Bachan), an upper middle class wife and mother is called to the police morgue to identify her son Brati Chatterji (Joy Sengupta). Known only as number 1084, her son is vilified by his own father, who is more concerned with hushing up the matter. The police refuse to turn over the body, and mother and daughter watch numbed as the son is cremated in a perfunctory public funeral.

The mother, beginning to question the conditions in which she herself lives, seeks out a reason for her son's passion for the revolutionary cause and sense of sacrifice for a proletariat that the family has had no connection with. Her anguish and pained bewilderment are slowly supplanted by her self-awareness andcoming to terms with her own reasons for existence.

This reviewer, never a fan of the over-the-top mannerisms that constituted Jaya Bacchan's acting style, was impressed here by her restraint and economy of movement. The integrity of her performance as the protagonist in this film reveals a sincerity and conviction that may have been unrealized in the Bollywood light comedy for which Ms. Bachhan is mostly known. Govind Nihalani must surely share the credit for tapping this actress's potential.

Seema Biswas, an enormous talent (Bandit Queen, Company), is commendable as the mother of a working class Naxalite, who is also murdered in the same encounter as Brati. Nihalani depicts the two mothers coping with their loss in their different ways, bringing out their class and cultural differences. Seema Biswas, the poor Bihari mother is warmly uninhibited both in grief and expression of affection, while Jaya Bachchan bottles up her sorrow, and is restricted in her display of emotion. While there are no cathartic outbursts,in a climactic scene, Ms. Bachhan suffers a burst appendix at the party celebrating her daughters's engagement. As she clutches her stomach and writhes in agony, her screams evoke a woman crying out in pain during childbirth.

In the novel, the story ends there. The film, striving to bring a more Cinematic closure to the tale, has the woman build a successful Human Rights organization and converting her unfeeling husband to her way of thinking.

Anupam Kher as Sujata's shallow spouse and Nandita Das as the fiery lover of Brati are quite adequate whereas Milind Gunaji as the hated cop puts forth a brutally strong performance.

The film won the National Award for the Best Hindi Film, 1997, is a must see for all lovers of meaningful cinema.

Anyone who has 'lived' thru the tense moments of any religious riot in India, can immediately identify with the bus scene in "Mr & Mrs Iyer". Likewise, the actual experience of living in a Calcutta, firmly in the vicious grip of the Naxalite movement, can color your perceptions about the reading of this movie, whether intentional or not.

The movement, which primarily found host in the predominantly communist states of Kerala and W. Bengal, later morphed into various factions and sowed the seeds of separatist tendencies in places like Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. Results have been mixed and less than spectacular mainly posing a big security risk for state governments.

But this film is not about extremism or the violence it ensues. Instead it tries to diagnose the ideological underpinnings at work, individual and collective psychologies of various proponent groups, as well as the impact on families involved and their relationships with each other. It asks in effect: what is the point of fighting for unity, equal rights, justice, etc when the price to be paid is your own family and the very foundations of civil society, regardless if the fight is just or not? Does the end justify the means?

Nihalani has chosen to use family as a metaphor, to essay the sense of guilt, betrayal, resignation and subordination all captured brilliantly in one time and place. The cast is excellent and has delivered well. In one of her best performances so far, Jaya Bachchan is reflective, yet quietly indignant. Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas, Joy Sengupta and Nandita Das in an introductory role form the remaining cast. Though the editing isn't as slick as "Ardhsatya" and the pace slows down several times, the direction is superb as is the cinematography in capturing the prevalent mood of the time.

Indeed, a very good must-see film.

Govind Nihalani's "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa" served as the opening film of a festival dedicated to Indian films held here recently.As such kind of film event is a rare occasion in our country, so is the film a rare gem.

Given its material (which was adapted from a novel by Mahaswati Deva), the film has the potential of becoming overtly political (like Constantin Costa-Gavras' "Z") or expressly melodramatic (like Regis Wargnier's "Indochine").But it is a fine attribute of the film that it provides just enough background for the viewers to become acquainted with the intense sociopolitical events in India (particularly in West Bengal) in the 1970s---a radical outlawed movement, the "Naxalbari," proves to be major headache for the established leadership---and keeps finely checked and nuanced the thoughts and feelings of the characters that the result is a quietly powerful and moving drama of loss, alienation and enlightenment.

The brutal murder of a radical and forward-thinking son causes for the mother to embark on a journey of self-examination and -discovery---asking questions as to the circumstances that led to her son's untimely death, what made her overlook and take for granted her son's "secret" activities, and seeing in her own family the very things her son had rebelled against (complacent, hypocritical, reactionary and bourgeois attitudes and values in modern society).

The film proceeds on a slow and reflective pace so as to be proper to its conversational approach, which is of such a length that the characters gradually open their minds and hearts to the viewers regarding the lamentable family loss and the state of their society in general.Take careful notice of the scene where the mother visits her son's girlfriend, who is also a member of the movement and where mother and son "meet" one another for the last time.

To be distinguished too are the stunning performances, specially those provided by the actors who played the beleaguered mother, the loving aunt and the ill-fated son.

If you have the opportunity, don't miss "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa."