[jyotirmoy]

Released in 2002, Mondo Meyer Upakkhan is another brilliant film made by Buddhadeb Dasgupta. The tale of a naughty girl is based on a short story by Prafulla Roy.

The location is rural Bengal, shot in the backward rural Purulia district. Lati is a young talented girl whose mother Rajani is engaged in the flesh trade and lives along with her fellow workers in a brothel.  Lati studied for a few years in the village school where her talents were noticed by the teacher. Rajani stopped her going to school as she tries to prepare her for the trade and also the possibility of her daughter to become the mistress of one rich middle aged man Natabar Babu, a very influencial and powerful person of the area. But Lati wants to continue her studies and the prospect of man landing on the moon in a few days time interests her more than the prospect of her becoming the mistress of a rich man.

Ganesh is a taxi driver who is not doing well recently. His first passenger is a family whose arrogant head did not pay the full amount. His second passenger was a young woman migrant who has ran away from her place and was going to the brothel in search of work. She had little money but had something other than money to offer Ganesh. But Ganesh decides to accept whatever money she could give and left sulking and swearing. Soon he is flagged down by a group of people from a nearby refugee camp and a sick old couple is bundled on to his taxi and was told to take the couple to a hospital. When Ganesh asks someone from the crowd to accompany,  the crowd simply melts away leaving him alone to take care of the couple. Ganesh hides the couple in the back hatch of the van & set off in search of a hospital where as there are none, so a journey to nowhere begins. Incidentally his cab is used by Natabar Babu for his secret visits to the brothel to conduct negotiations with Rajani regarding having custody of her daughter.

But things take a different turn when Lati rebels and runs away with her teacher to Kolkata to pursue her studies. Ganesh finally settles down the old couple under a cluster of date palm trees and give them a Ludo to play. Silhoutted against a purple dusk sky the old couple plays Ludo, a game that would take them to blissful oblivion. Parallel to Lati’s act another three young inmates of the brothel set out in their quest for independence. The first human lands on the moon.

Like most of his films Buddhadeb creates  a collage where seemingly unconnected persons are shown in seemingly unconnected incidents, their paths cross many times and with time the seemingly unconnected incidents and dramas begin to connect. In a surrealistic approach typical of the director, a clumsy cat and an intelligent donkey are also present in the film. Unlike Ray’s films where the viewer immediately gets absorbed & involved,  Buddhadeb’s films are different,  where the viewer remains a spectator trying to find his way around what’s happening on the screen. The progress of the film is like a gig saw puzzle in the process of being solved. In the end everything falls in the right places leaving the viewer completely overwhelmed. A very difficult task for a director and script writer.

Ram Gopal Bajaj’s portrayal of Natabar is really praiseworthy so is the performance of Samata Das as Lati & Rituparna as Rajani.

The film had been shown in many festivals including Canadian & Berlin fests. In India it has bagged  a few awards.

[WonderWomanUSA]

Sounds like a good film; it's not available through my DVD service.

Edited by WonderWomanUSA, 02 June 2009 - 09:26 AM.