BHUBAN MAJHI wins over Kolkata

Fakhrul Arefeen Khan's feature film debut “Bhuban Majhi” received largely positive reviews when it released in early March this year. The sensitive, touching tale set largely in 1971 starring Parambrata Chattopadhyay along with Aparna Ghose, Maznun Mizan, Mamunur Rashid, Quazi Nawshaba Ahmed and Waqeel Ahad, had a close connection to Kolkata (India) in its narrative and making, and the audience of Kolkata accepted it with open arms on its maiden screening last week at the city's Gorky Sadan.

Apart from Parambrata Chattopadhyay, who has made a name for himself working in Indian Bangla films, “Bhuban Majhi” also featured music direction by Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya of famous Kolkata-based folk band Dohar, who passed away a week after the film's release in a tragic road crash. The film's screening was part of a programme to also launch the music album of the film in Kolkata, in loving memory of the eminent folk musician/researcher.

Organised by Eisenstein Cine Club and Dohar, the event also featured fond reminiscence of Kalikaprasad by his band members and by Fakhrul Arefeen, who credited the artiste with “Injecting life into my lifeless film”. A representative of the Eisenstein Cine Club also added that the screening of “Bhuban Majhi” was part of their film screening programmes marking India's Independence Day – showing films against oppression and colonialisation. Other films screened during the week were “the Wind That Shakes the Barley” on the Irish War of Independence, “The Battle of Algiers” set during the Algerian War, and Urdu film “Garm Hava” about post-Partition India.

Kolkata High Court Justice Nadira Patherya launched the album as chief guest, and said “I never knew Kalikaprasad in person; I only know him through his music that I have heard, and just from that I can feel he was a good soul.”

Parambrata also spoke at the event, and said he has tried to avoid all memorial programmes on Kalikaprasad because it is difficult for him to be at these events. “We had been friends for 16-17 years,” Parambrata added.

The audience sat through the film (and even a minor technical glitch), arrested by the humane story told with a lot of care. Although the film is set almost entirely in Bangladesh, a small part of it also takes place in Kolkata, in Bangladesh's Liberation War-time. By the end, there were quite a few teary eyes in the auditorium, and heaps of praise for the film. An audience member even asked the director to take steps to release the film in Indian theatres.