BREAKING DOWN: Mishawr Rawhoshyo

2013. Dev was probably at his professional peak. His pairing with Koyel Mullick meant box office gold. Banking on that; Surinder films decided to release their “Commercial” film Rangbaaz starring Dev and Koyel Mullick which was directed by Raja Chanda. That was a time when only one or two major Bengali films released during the Puja window. Thus, Rangbaaz had a competitor. A film-maker who was three films old; all critically overwhelmingly successful and both of them major commercial success. But still; the word was around that Srijit Mukherji makes “Niche” films. And after that; he was coming up with something which was actually quite experimental. There have not been that many successful Novel to Film adaptations in Bengali Cinema as compared to Telugu or Tamil or any other language to Bengali adaptations. Though Feluda was the most successful; it’s critical and commerical appreciation was on decline in the Sandip Ray era. Despite Multiple attempts at a Kakababu film; Tapan Sinha’s adaptation of 1979 as Sabuj Dwiper Raja remained the most memorable one. And yet; the man was there. And as the popular phrase goes; rest was history.

Mishawr Rawhoshyo was the first Bengali film that I saw more than once in theatres; five times to be precise for different reasons.Primary reason being obviously to skip the All India Test Series for a Medical Coaching Institute. And for the first three times; I saw the film in a jam packed houseful theatre. The next time also I witnessed around 80–90% occupancy. The last time I saw it; I remember the occupancy may have been around 30–40% but by then Krrish 3 had probably released or was on the verge of release. Such prolific footfalls meant one thing; the definition of “Commercial” Cinema in Bengali had started to change.And who’s responsible for that?? Well it depends whom you love more amongs those involved with the film. Prosenjit Chatterjee may say it was because of their beloved Bumba da; Srijit Mukherji fans can attribute the success to him. Even Swastika fans can attribute the success to her. But to me; cumulative effort of the entire cast and crew makes the film what it is than one individual. And thus; I have decided to break down the film; almost scene by scene and try to shed light into what probably could have transpired behind the scenes and also try to guess how they pulled certain things off. Since it’s almost going to be scene by scene; it’s going to be long. So, please bear with me.

FLASHBACK SEQUENCE; 1951.

The film begins with an incident of 1951. As all classic flashback sequences; it has been portrayed in black and white. So this lets me with little scope to discuss the lighting and use of color in the frames. But if you see the scene closely; Inside the tomb; where the sarcophagus is kept; the lack of shadows and depth of objects in the frame are suggestive of the fact that the scene was uniformly lit. And this is often done when it’s predecided that the scene is going to be converted to black and white just because shadows from restricted use of light can ruin the image once it’s converted to black and white. So is in the case of creating depth of field for the objects in the frame through lighting. For a clearer picture you can go back to Srijit Mukherji’s Chotushkone. In the song Bosonto Ese Geche ; you can see the use of lights in different angles to give dimesnions to the characters in frame.

But what stands out is the brilliant use of hand held camera; especially when the scene is happening indoors. Also the use of jump cuts when certain actions are taking place help in making the scene more crisp and precise. And the best part is an Egyption guide speaks to his colleague in his native language; i.e Egyptian Arabic. This is often where not only Bengali Film makers but Indian Film makers go wrong in general. Remember Thugs of Hindostan and it’s British Officers???I guess I do not need to elaborate further.

TITLE SEQUENCE

This is a sequence which has all the ingredients a scene needs to be iconic. Starting with the ever exciting Whistling tune as Kakababu’s theme; From a n Extreme Wide shot of the desert landscape; we push in to a Wide shot of a open hood jeep; travelling through the desert. If you are a writer and somehow manage to write these lines; it’s enough to turn you on. Without the music; without previsualization. Also, what needs to be appreciated is the fact that the production could have easily cheated and saved some money and get done with the sequence in somewhere in Rajasthan. May be also they did; but it looks like the Egyption Desert only. The big take away can either be the sincerity they have shown to do justice to the written material or they cheated so well that it’s tough to point out that it’s not Egypt. If the latter; a special pat on the back to the editor Bodhaditya Banerjee.

Now the sequence ends in an interesting note. If at all you have to break it down into subparts; the first is ofcourse the jeep travelling through the desert landscape. Second is Hani Alkadi joining his colleagues at a cock fight. Now this part clearly shot in Egypt without a doubt; if you pause every second of the cock fight; take a screen shot of it; or even play the cock jumping at the other one in slow motion; you will realize there is something wrong with the cocks are actually moving. This is probably due to making of the cocks and their fight in CG. But it’s good CG because when they fight; it’s fast so the discrepancies in their movement are covered up and the wide shots of the cock fighting and the men watching it surrounding them makes it more difficult to make out the fact that the cocks are probably CGI. So Kudos for that. Only goof up If you want to call it is probably the director’s decision to cast some non actors as extras. There is a frame where you can clearly spot the extras looking into the camera. Now it may not impact the viewing experience of the general audience; when some one sits down to analyze it frame by frame either to learn themselves or just to scrutinize; it may hurt.

Now coming to the best part; the second part of the sequence ends with Hani Alkadi taking an aim at the cocks. He points his gun at the cock; a beat to build up the tension and DISHKIYAAOON!!We hear the gun shot. But the scene cuts to probably minutes after; a man lying probably dead on the ground and is carried away.In this case; the way one gun shot is used to indicate two victims is just editorial magic at best. Then wesee Kakababu from behind; he comes into the frame partially. The next shot is something which is probably hard to write. From behind Hani Alkadi; the camera pans from left to right with the harsh sunlight coming right at us against the face of Hani Alkadi creating a beautiful flare. This is something which is hard to write and hard to plan. All that can be done is observe the conditions around you and try to make the most of it. In this case; probably the director got the sunlight in such a manner and decided to make the best use of it. Kakababu in frame with the crutch in his hand; Hani Alkadi in background of the frame. The frame freezes and gets converted into a sketch like image; the title fizzles in. “Mishawr Rawhoshyo”. Undoubtedly; this is one of the best movie titles I have seen in Bengali Cinema in recent times.

Kakababu Introduction Sequence

The next scene is where basically we are introduced to the character of Kakababu for the first time. The best part of the scene is that it has been shot in an actual moving bus. When today the directors and the producers generally prefer to shoot a vehicular scene in a chroma background; it’s extremely brave of the director to shoot in a real moving bus. Even those who have made a short film will know what a logistical head ache it can be. Things can be worse if you are shooting in sync sound. Fourtunately; this film was dubbed. And the choice of shooting in an actual bus helps the lighting of the actors because it gives a better idea of light sources in an actual bus and when it is moving. A closer look also will tell you that there are a couple of POV shots. In the wide shot; when Kakababu speaks to the stranger in the bus; it looks like Kakababu is probably looking at his 5'o clock. But when we cut the POV shot; it looks like Kakababu is speaking to someone at his 2'o clock. May be I am reading too much into it; but for me; it’s a mistake which could have been avoided. Also there looks like a minor error in the continuity of extras; but again; I don’t think the general audience will notice it easily.

This can so easily be the scene where you can’t help but fall in love with Prosenjit Chatterjee as Kakababu forever. Having been a witness films like Moner Manush and Jyeshtoputra in recent times; Prosenjit Chatterjee no where near the top of his game; but the spontaneous wit makes you believe that he is not Prosenjit but Kakababu.

DRAWING cum DINING SCENE

This is the first time we are introduced to Aryann Bhowmik as Santu. Before I proceed towards the scene; one small piece of information.Though in credits; he is “Introduced”; this was actually not his debut film.He already had made his debut in the film Neel Rajar Deshe in 2008 by Riingo Banerjee and the extremely successful Chalo Paltai by Haranath Chakroborty in the year 2011; for which he even got compared to Darsheel Safary from Taare Zameen Par. Moving on; in this scene; basically Santu’s parents advise him to make good use of time he has got after his exams as he watches TV. Kakababu joins in and they learn of a political and military uprising in Egypt or “Mishawr”. Both smile at each other remembering their contribution behind the uprising. What stands out for me again in this scene is the lighting of the room. Often in Bengali films and TV shows(Bengali films during that period; TV show continue with the practise still today); all the rooms are show to be uniformly lit. Being forever middle class; I am yet to come across a room which has a room so well lit that when you click an image; all corners of the room are very well seen. This often makes the image bland and boring and 2 dimensional.

When you see Santu texting his girlfriend(We shall come to that later); the use of a dim fill light across the room and a key light and fill light on his face; along with that a hard but smaller light coming from the point off screen where presumably he has been holding his mobile phone; making up for the light coming from the mobile screen speaks very well of how aware both the director and the DOP Soumik Haldar were. It was not new. It had been done many times in many films around the world for a long time. But if you see Bengali films before Mishawr Rawhoshyo; I am not sure you will find such attention to detail of lighting. The best way to light a scene has always been to light the players in the frame who are going to take your story ahead and let the rest of the frame be filled up with natural light sources(tubelights or CFLS or LEDs if it’s a night scene). And they did exactly that.

Talking of camera work; it’s mostly shot on a tripod but two bits where Kakabau enters the room and heads towards the table and the shot where he walks from the table to the couch; it is hand held and is of good standard. I also liked how subtle the brand placement was in this scene.

The best part of the scene;atleast for me was when Kakababu and Santu hear about the uprising; look at each other; turn to the camera and smile. This shot sets up the Kakababu and Santu relationship for the entire film; rather franchise. Biswajit Chakroborty as Santu’s father delivers an borderline over the top performance. Although lines given to him are also slightly over the top. Tulika Basu as Santu’s mother is better; the lines come across as real and she has nailed those.

Al Mamun’s Request

The next important scene is where Al Mamun; played by ever dependable Rajit Kapur comes to Kakababu with an unusual request. To decipher Egyptian hieroglyphic text. Now this is a classic scenario of exposition; a must have in every adventure/action or even mystery/thriller films. And more often than not; this scenes turn out to be slightly boring; irrespective of the fact that rest of the film is throroughly enjoyable. For me; even James Cameron’s Avatar was a let down when it comes to this part of the screenplay. Srijit Mukherji’s screenplay and the story by Sunil Gangopadhyay had all the elements to make it boring. More so with the director’s decision to stay authentic to the character’s origin and Al Mamun speaking in an accented Hindi and English. But the camera work of this scene and the use of faint background score keeps me hooked. The way camera pans in a circular motion for both the characters; Clockwise for one and Anti-clockwise for the other makes the conversation between the two more interesting. All though you know what you are set for; the joke at the end of the conversation is a small turn off.

Sequences covered in Next Edition: Al Mamun is Chased; Dilli; Hani Alkadi as Sardar; Kakababu Attacked;Santu meets Kakababu at Hospital; Kakababu meets Baba Peer.