Sunday, January 2, 2011

Movie Review: Moner Manush (Bengali, 2010)

“Maner Manush” is a biopic about Lalan Fakir, a noted spiritual leader and folk singer cum song-write of Bengal of nineteenth century. He and his disciples had built up a habitat in a forest which belonged to the Thakurs’, the famous landlord of Bengal (the family which produced the great legend, Asia’s first Noble laurite philosopher/writer Rabindranath Thakur). Directed by Gautam Ghosh, this Bengali movie has been targeted towards multiplex-going urban audiences. Mr Ghosh should get applause for choosing the subject as it showcases a historic personality of rural to the present-day audience.

Prosenjit has acted brilliantly in this movie, playing the lead, Lalan Fakir. Before I proceed any further, I must state that I didn’t do any research on Lalan Fakir and will discuss the character in the light of my understanding of the way it has been portrayed by Ghosh in the movie. The movie shows early days of Lalan as a young hindu living in a village with his loving wife and widowed mother. Lalan had a bent towards spirituality and approached Shiraz Fakir, a spiritual leader and singer, wanting to be his disciple. However the fate joined them together after a while when Lalan went down with chicken pox, lost his consciousness and his memory, were floated on the river by his village people assuming he was dead, and eventually had been rescued and given shelter by a Muslim lady.

Lalan received training on spirituality from Shiraz and started wandering across the places. Once he went back to his village and to his wife. But his mother didn’t let him in to the home as he had been staying with a Muslim family. This shows the sharp division between the Hindus and Muslims in the society at that time. Lalan was particularly against this division between people in the society. He preached oneness of all people across religions. In his words, there are only two kinds of human being, male and female; and all other divisions have been created out of ill thoughts of humankind.

Lalan eventually formed a group with the people who were fence-sitters in the rural society sharply divided based on religion (Hinduism, Islam). He promoted a concept of spirituality in the light of a male-female relationship and vice versa. His explanation of complex spiritual ideas using simple analogies taken from human body (and it’s function) and common people’s life, won him accolades from the educated and aristocrat people of the society. However his outlook towards sexuality and his support for open relationship evoked animosity of rural power centers (both Hindu and Muslims).

But like a smart politician Lalan preached his ideologies and protected his clan by winning support from aristocrats (the Thakurs and other landlords) and educated mass; and by building military power to thwart village hardliners.

Prosenjit has been brilliant. Paoli Dam has been good too, in the role of the key female disciple of Lalan. However the actor who played the role of young Lalan was carrying too much urban accent for his rural character. Some other rural characters also couldn’t get rid off their urban accents. I don’t know why it is so difficult to find actors who can portray rural characters with proper accent. Jyotirindranath was OK. The male playback singer lending voice to Lalan was good, but I can’t say the same for the female playback singer lending voice to Paoli (the voice was not suitable for the age of Paoli’s character and singing style was also stiff).

The cinematography is fantastic. Gautam Ghosh has done justice to his name in this department. It has nicely enhanced the overall beauty of the movie as the most of the castes were wearing white or light colored clothes. The greenery of the forests and villages have been captured brilliantly. However, the scene where Lalan and Jyotirindranath were walking through a mastered field, was too close to a scene from Hindi movie Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Application of nature and water has been excellent.

In summary, this movie is about a philosopher cum smart political leader who was excellent at leading his tribe, spreading his message to his targeted mass, forming alliance with bigger powers, building up their own military power and most importantly keep his key members motivated through various ways. It has been praiseworthy effort from Gautam Ghosh.

3 comments:

  1. Before making this sort of comment kindly watch thousands of good movies. Thanks for your effort.

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  2. I just watched this film. I thought is was brilliant in terms of the cinematic narrative and the picturesque backdrop against which the story evolves.organic spiritual intellectual? can i use that word to describe him? the film also does use its female cast well , except in places where lalan is asked by his guru (to explore desire) and he in turn asks kamli to be with kalua. though the film does not treat women as objects of desire but it does not talk about desire of women. for instance, when kamli approaches lalal, as he is aroused i.e. has an erection, he does not engage with her yet, talking about monera cheta or desire orsomething to that effect. otherwise, i think it will go down as one of the finest movies/can I say art? of our times.

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  3. Political leader????No spiritual leader believes in caste,religion & politics.They are above all these narrow things.

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