Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sfmag.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!sfmag!rajeev
From: rajeev@sfmag.UUCP (S.Rajeev)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Mrinal Sen at FilmUtsav
Message-ID: <817@sfmag.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Dec-85 20:13:59 EST
Article-I.D.: sfmag.817
Posted: Tue Dec 17 20:13:59 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Dec-85 06:40:21 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Summit, NJ
Lines: 65
Keywords: "Akaler Sandhane", "Oka Oorie Katha"


As part of the FilmUtsav series at the Museum of Modern Art,
NYC, there has been a retrospective of Mrinal Sen's films.
I happened to see two of them; here are brief reviews.

"Akaler Sandhane" (1982) Bengali with English subtitles
Dhritiman Chatterjee, Smita Patil.

This movie feels like a cross between Truffaut's "Day for Night"
and Ray's "Ashani Sanket" because it chronicles the behind-the-
scenes action when a film crew arrives in a Bengali village to
shoot a movie about the disastrous 1943 famine. The film crew
and the actors are thoroughly modern upper-middle class urbanites;
they clearly have a sense of superiority towards the simple village
folks. In any case, they camp out at an old, dilapidated mansion
(which is wonderfully photogenic, like some ruined temple in a
Southeast-Asian jungle) and proceed with their work. However, as
the days pass, the outsiders become less objects of awe than of
resentment: they buy up all the produce, they insult a local
family (this due to a series of misunderstandings). Past and present
become curiously mingled as the city folks are compared to the 
carpetbaggers who devastated the land in the famine years. Finally
the film crew leaves, mission incomplete. 

This is certainly an enjoyable movie. For some unknown reason, the
landscape seems much more green than in Ray's subdued, moody "Ashani
Sanket". (Sonar Bangla, really: makes me wish Ray had done his
"Aranyer Din Ratr" in colour!). Smita Patil is not strained in her
role as the leading lady. The director (I guess it was Dhritiman
Chatterjee) turned in a very creditable performance (in addition
to looking astonishingly like an old colleague of mine, Inder-jeet
Gujral!). All in all, not earth-shaking, but reasonable.

"Oka Oorie Katha" (1977?) Telugu with English subtitles
Vasudeva Rao, Mamata Shankar.

I was disappointed with this movie. I saw Vasudeva Rao in the
National-Award-winning "Chomana Dudi" (Kannada) and felt that he
was a fine actor. Unfortunately, he is given a totally unfocused
role here; he ends up overacting. The story is that of a feudal
and impoverished Andhra village: the zamindar and his cohorts 
exploit the poor peasants. (Does Andhra have an especially cruel
feudal system? This is the second movie I have seen set in Andhra
featuring evil zamindars: the other was "Nishant".) Rao and his
son live in a hovel, eking out a miserable existence by stealing
whatever they can. Rao's credo is that work is the greatest evil;
once you start working for your living, you're doomed; in any case,
there's no point in working because the zamindar will take the
fruits of your labour. All of which are probably true; however,
the movie never makes it clear whether Rao is a charming rogue, a
villain, a monster, a hopeless, desperate person: it vacillates
among all of the above and more. That is the problem with the
movie, in my opinion. The movie does not have clarity: now this might
be because Sen was directing in a language he doesn't speak; however,
I am inclined to blame the source, which I understand is a novel
by Prem Chand (I have never been a great admirer of Prem Chand --
even Ray could not rise above the material in "Shatranj Ke Khiladi").

I also felt that the movie should have been in black and white: much
more appropriate for the desolate landscape and the plot. Mamata 
Shankar looks pretty in her brief role as Rao's ill-fated daughter-in-
law. I think this is, unfortunately, not Mrinal Sen's best. 

				Sri Rajeev
				ihnp4!attunix!rajeev