Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Movie Review: Ganashatru

I am very bad when it comes to reviews: interpretation being contaminated with imagination. Nevertheless, I had a wholesome experience of watching and assimilating Ganashatru (Bengali, English subtitles) at NFC auditorium with barely four to five people around. The auditorium reminded me of yesteryear movie halls and that just added to the environment of watching a film that is also as dated in terms of occurrence though not relevance.

Ganashatru is about a righteous but shaky, good-at-heart but unconfident Dr. Gupta who finds that the temple water in his town (Chandipur) is infested with bacteria and likely to cause a major water-borne epidemic. He sets out to bring this to the public’s notice through a report printed in the newspaper. But his influential brother, a temple trustee will have nothing of it. Firstly, the temple's coffers bring in a lot of money and secondly, Chandipur is being marketed as a religious destination.

There are others who stand to gain or lose if the truth about the temple waters is revealed. And these people are in the process of realizing their gain or loss turn by turn; like the editor and sub-editor of the newspaper, the temple proprietor, the doctor’s family especially his equally righteous daughter and to be son-in-law, the publisher and finally the religious public. The polarity of each ones thinking is brought about through engaging dialog and convincing sequence of events. The public announcement which turns the doctor into a public enemy is smoothly depicted.

I didn’t lose interest for a minute except when cracking open the cover of a mint lozenge. I don’t think I need to rate a Satyajit Ray film but I would it would get a 10 on 10 for content, convincing characterization, flow of events/sequencing of thoughts, intelligent dialog, editing (that avoids boredom), and plausibility of the story’s end.

Good telling
Good listening

Rochelle Potkar

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