prodosh_bhattacharya

An otherwise tiresome exercise in murder-mystery, itself a rare occurrence in Bengali cinema, this film redeems itself by its occasionally good build up and an intelligent solution to the apparently supernatural deaths. Debashree Roy plays a young orphan brought up by her uncle and aunt in a village town, where her guardians run a hospital/nursing home. The villagers entertain superstitions about witches who suck the blood of young children. Early in the film, an old woman, found crouching over such a child, is badly beaten up and hospitalized. However, while in hospital, she mysteriously dies after falling out of a window. Meanwhile, wherever Debashree goes, dead bodies (of children and adults) are found, with two puncture marks on the throat, and the bodies drained of blood. The girl slowly begins to believe she has become a vampire. Much else is packed in, including the obligatory song-and-dance sequences, investigations into other criminal acts, etc. However, the solution to the main mystery, though the mechanics of the explanation leave much to be desired, is still ingenious and stands out in what is otherwise a Tollywood turkey.

This unpretentious little gem came out around the same time as David Lean's PASSAGE TO India, and has been unfairly overshadowed by the blockbuster. I was charmed by the quiet, sensitive, yet emotionally charged portrayal of how an insecure, aggressive widow of a tea garden manager reluctantly develops an affectionate relationship with an Indian housewife and her family. What I found particularly good was that the Indian housewife, played excellently by Madhur Jaffrey, is no impossible goody-goody, but as much a human being with likes, dislikes and prejudices as the widow played by Deborah Kerr. There is also the sad irony of the grandchildren of the Indian family inevitably leaving their 'Indianness' behind in favour of a British lifestyle. Strongly recommended for those in the mood for subtlety and understatement. And it should be watched with Lean's PASSAGE TO India for fruitful comparisons. To my mind, and I'm probably in a minority of one, THE ASSAM GARDEN is the better of the two films. I once possessed a video recording of it, which is now the property of the Film Studies Department of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Not having read Hesse's novel, I went to see this film during its first and controversy-plagued release in Calcutta in 1976, purely for the music composed by my idol Hemanta Mukherjee. The film was certified by the censors as fit 'For Adults Only'. By Indian standards, I can see why.

Regarding the music, 2 correspondents had flayed Hemanta Mukherjee in the Calcutta daily THE STATESMAN for having vulgarized Siddhartha's quest with two Bengali songs, each from a different, and earlier, Bengali film. True, one can wonder why Bengali in a film which has already used the convention of characters in ancient India speaking English. Imagine Achilles in TROY suddenly breaking into modern Greek while otherwise speaking English. However, the theme song on the river is unexceptionable contentwise. I am a little uneasy about the other song. Let us concede that for anyone who has seen the 2 Bengali films, the songs would come with their own distinct situational associations. This is my problem with the other song, as I had seen the Bengali original by the time I saw SIDDHARTHA.

Watching the film again in the late 1980s at the Penultimate Picture Palace, Oxford, I had to confess to a sneaking sympathy with my cousin, who, in 1976, had dismissed the film as 'pavement philosophy'. The narrative struck me as potentially pretentious and quite unconvincing in its pontifications at times.

The photography, however, is breathtaking,and the cast seem sincere in their performances. Incidentally, with reference to user gabravo123, at the PPP, Oxford, I think a bunch of Bengali students were the only viewers in a single row.Similar to his/her experience? However, the reason why not one of us moved as the closing credits rolled is because we were all mesmerized by the divine voice of Hemanta. For gabravo123's information, the two songs have been available on a 45 rpm disc since the late 70s, only there is no reference to the film on the disc. It is just titled HEMANTA KUMAR. They, I'm sure, are available now on CDs of the singer-composer's film songs. Incidentally, why does gabravo123 mention Rabindranath Tagore? I hope s/he is not implying that Tagore has anything to do with the lyrics, both of which are by the late Gouriprasanna Majumdar.