After
Chauranga ends, the statistics on screen inform you
that two Dalits are murdered everyday. There are some more numbers on
rapes and other atrocities on the Dalits. Director Bikas Ranjan Mishra’s
debut film attempts to address the caste and gender disparity in India.
Since the 2013 Marathi classic film,
Fandry dealt with a similar subject of a low caste teenager falling in love with a high caste family girl,
Chauranga comes across as a mere shadow in comparison.
Sanjay Suri in a still from Chauranga. Screen grab from Youtube.
The
treatment is very self-conscious and more general. You see a village
and dire poverty, water is scarce, pigs, goats and snakes are abound, a
plate of boiled rice is shared by two teenage brothers. There is one
divide; that of Zamindars from the higher Brahmin caste and labourers
from the lower Dalit caste—the untouchables. Every time there is
progress in the Zamindar’s household like the inauguration of a water
pump or a tractor, coconuts are broken, a male guest’s feet are washed
by a Dalit woman, arti is performed by the upper caste woman.
While
at one level, a teenager boy’s crush on a girl unfolds, at another
level, we see all sorts of sexual exploits by the upper caste. Sexual
perversion is hinted at and sometimes takes away from the central
teenage love story. The constant movement from the low caste household
belonging to a single woman- Dhaniya (Tannishtha Chatterjee) trying to
get her two children (probably the outcome of her compliance to the
Zamindar’s sexual dictat) educated; to the upper caste household on whom
she is dependant; shows the stark contrast in their lives.
The
Zamindar’s (Sanjay Suri) reluctance to send his daughter to school and
his wife, Nidhi’s (Arpita Chatterjee) existence as a mere prop to
perform pujas or worse—Devi sacrificial act to bring down his fever,
effectively display the male, rightful dominance over women,
irrespective of caste. Interestingly, both the women understand this and
try in their own way to overcome the situation by making sure their
children get educated for future escape.
Dhaniya gets her elder
son, Bajrangi (Riddhi Sen) to touch the Zamindaar’s feet at every
opportunity so that his education gets funded. Her constant endeavor is
to get her reluctant and rebellious younger son, Santu (Soham Maitra) to
touch the Zamindar’s feet to help him get educated. The two brothers
constantly face bullying from the two older sons of the Zamindaar. Santu
falls in love with the Zamindaar’s daughter, Mona (Ena Saha) and asks
Bajrangi to write a love letter to her. The plot so far, along with each
character’s daily struggle against oppression, has great potential.
But
when the story goes overboard in showing the Zamindar’s blind, old
father’s sexual perversions, it mixes various subplots and leaves every
thread half told by the end. The pace slackens along with old man’s slow
walk and daily night trips to feed his pet goat. With insufficient time
invested in the two brothers, Santu and Bajrangi, the film loses any
real connect.
At best,
Chauranga comes across as a typical art-house, festival film in its observation of rural Bihar and its grossly unfair social dynamics.
