Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (a 1974 Bengali film directed by Ritwik Ghatak)

Reason, Debate and A Story by Ritwik Ghatak.

(An extraordinary film on a unique theme)

Let me start by saying that this is an extraordinary film, one of the best movies I have seen, or rather I will say one of the best movies ever made. I would say , at least for two reasons if not more, cinematic technique that achieved an intense intimacy with the audience and the adaptation of a complex cerebral theme into a linear time dimension of cinematic expression.

Ritwik Ghatak , has a unique approach to film. His technique is devoid of any influence from any of the great predecessor film director and is uniquely his own, derived from his background on theatre and his understanding of the amalgamation of music, linear time, still photography, moving photography and drama. As you watch this film you would feel that the characters are, in some ways , on the stage with a live audience, acting out a powerful drama . As if the they step out of the screen to talk  to you and you are forced to respond to them, to react very sharply for or against them .Yet they are not, Ghatak applies extreme creative montage with the sound. Imagine the construction of the opening scene ( where Ghatak ,acting as a failed intellectual, interact with his wife) with cuts to the close-ups of the individual actors and the environmental props like ceiling fan, where he artfully applies  background sound to transcend  the drama of acting into a cinema, yet keeping a strong taste of theatre as an ingredient.

Ghatak made his films with very little resource, you can see that in his movies. His cameras hardly move, there were at times he had to use footage which I presume he wouldn’t have, if he had better funding. Poverty cannot push down human spirit, rather at this time it rises to great consciousness and exactly that’s what happened to Ghatak , his artistic sensibility rose. He crossed all the barriers to conceive a new cinematic language.

 Thematically, Ghatak challenged himself to tackle an extremely difficult topic, the confusion of a failed intellectual, self-analysis, self-criticism. The main character, which he himself acted out was concerned about the following

•          Partition of Bengal and the associated angst and disillusionment. The fact that India the freedom fighters fought for and they India they got was different.
•         Importation of foreign ideas (in this case Communist political ideology) without proper Indianizing it .
•         The eternal conflict of classical culture and the popular culture.
•        Economic depression of the times.
•          Exploitation of the goodness and naivety of rural folk.
•         The idea of mother (as lived though by Indian consciousness) ,its pragmatism and humanness.
•         Boy like behavior of adult male as seen through the eyes of the mother.
•         Corruption and breakdown of morality

Ghatak’s character could not bring all these together into a single coherent intellectual plane and figure out a way to live life. He fought , tried to grasp and lost and so gave up, choosing the final path available , that is to escape. He escaped in alcohol and then ultimately with his death.  Yes, the film is pessimistic in that sense , yet on the other hand to give a sense of optimism he chose faith. Faith in his belief of the ‘idea of mother’ as someone who is pragmatic, wise and humane. Someone who is life sustainer (Prakriti in Vedic Sense) and will carry on the responsibility till new solutions are found  out through the intellectual effort of the next generation , his son (Purusha, pure consciousness, in Vedic Sense) .

To achieve this Ghatak chooses a travel theme, as his main character travels through space ( the rural Bengal)  and events , he introduces dialectics by employing new characters, events at various stages.  Here is a brief summary …

Character	Played By	Concept/Event
Nilkantha Bagchi	Ritwik Ghatak	Thorugh he named the failed intellectual as Nilkantha (Nilkantha is the name of Hindu god Shiva, who drank poison that emerged from the oceans to prevent it from destroying everything in the world), the character did not survive
Durga	Tripti Mitra	is the mother and sustainer of new generation , his son Satya
Satya	Ritaban Ghatak	New Hope. Somebody who can find out new solutions are found out through renewed intellectual effort
Bongobala	Shaonli Mitra	The idea of mother (as lived though by Indian consciousness) ,its pragmatism and humanness.
Nachiketa	Saugata Burman	Economic depression of the times
Jagannath Bhattacharjee	Bijon Bhattacharya	a Sanskrit language teacher, has been depicted as a representative of ancient Vedic civilization, classical culture
Shatrujit	Utpal Dutt	Partition of Bengal and the associated angst and disillusionment. The fact that India the freedom fighters fought for and they India they got was different.
Panchanan Ustad	Gyanesh Mukherjee	Representative of rural people, not very educated, but very rich with his own popular culture and heritage.
Leader of Naxalites	Ananya Ray	Importation of foreign ideas (in this case Communist political ideology) without proper Indianizing it .
Police inspector	Shyamal Ghoshal	Bureaucracy with Empathy
Alcoholic person in village	Jahor Roy	Exploitation of the goodness and naivety of rural folk by the urban.
Others At the park	Played by many	Corruption and breakdown of morality
Panchanan Ustad vs Jagannath Bhattacharjee	…..	Boy like behavior of adult male as seen through the eyes of the mother.
Interaction with Local Village Leader	….	Exploitation of the goodness and naivety of rural folk
Throwing stones at Jagannath Bhattacharjee	…	Complete ignorance of the societies classical culture and mocking it as madness. (pure symbolism on the abhorrence people had on Vedic thoughts, after three hundred years of colonial rule...post colonial India)
Nilkantha's encounter with the former intellectual turned underground pornographic novelist, Shatrujit (Utpal Dutt) in an open field	---	an allegory for the Bengali people's own complicity in the dissolution of their homeland and culture through petty self-interest, abandoned ideology and resigned complacency

However above is not a complete list of motifs that he employed in this film to convey the idea of a ‘desire of self-inflicted destruction’. His opening sequence of a frail, elderly villager seeking shelter from burning sun, staring blankly at the camera from a makeshift hut with trio of dancers dressed in black, dancing in anticipation of the old man’s death sets the mood, human frailty.  Yes, Nilkantha did not want to give himself to death by making statements like “slipping is not death” or “ I have to do something”, yet on the contrary he chose death by persistently choosing alcoholism or choosing to pass the night amongst the naxalites who he knew for sure will be wiped out next morning ,by the police. This is the paradox which he settled by choosing death, succumbing to the weight of history, to escape the pain of conflict and his failure, leaving his son, his books as the future to bring together what he could not.

This was Ghatak’s last film.  What did he want, I wonder? Probably he wanted to find some meaning in the political and cultural turmoil of then India, get to a solution and find a way towards the moral existence of this new country and growth path towards economic affluence.