Goutam Ghose choses his scripts with care and caution. As is evident in the story of a much-revered 19th century cult mystical poet. Adapting Sunil Gangopadhyay’s eponymous novel Moner Manush on the life and times of Lalan Fakir, Ghose resorts to the writer’s material for the second time in his career after Abar Aranye. “I got a ready text in 2008, when Sunilda’s saga of Lalan was published in the special Puja issue of a leading Bengali magazine. I have adapted the novel, created a plot and stitched it out suitably for a cinematic narrative. I had to translate a lot of finer nuances to make it compatible for a celluloid adaptation and I’ve no qualms in confessing that I took certain liberties in terms of my directorial skills and the cinematic vision. An already conceptualised role gets oxygen onscreen when it is transposed in a fashion that it fits the desirable dynamics of that medium. The profound essence of a book has to blend with the magical and make-believe elements of a movie marquee,” he says.
For the uninitiated, this isn’t a maiden endeavour on Lalan. For the director reminds of a film earlier being made across the border in Bangladesh. However, Ghose was doubly wary of not canning a biopic per se on the non-conformist saintly philosopher-poet and Baulgaan performer.
Incidentally, Moner Manush had opened to a packed house for screening in the competitive section at the recently concluded Iffi filmfest in Goa. The film went on to bag the Golden Peacock (best film) award at the premier 41st edition of the International Film Festival of India. Having released together in both the Bengals, (West Bengal as well as Bangladesh), the movie hit theatres on December 3.
What had initially triggered the director to make a movie on a harbinger of peace, a saviour of distressed souls (who has almost attained a demi-god status) and a selfless, humble Messiah of the masses was the demolition of Babri Masjid and the shocking aftermath of a blood-shedding riot in 1992. “The incident had left me numb and propelled me to think of filming a substantial project along the lines. The moral fibre was low and tension ripped apart the landmass from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. What I had intended then is to bring about a tale of an ordinary man who was one of the pioneering agents of goodwill, peace and an emblem of sacrifice, love, affection and universal brotherhood to essay it and arouse the collective conscience from its stupor caused by violence, mayhem and continuous carnage,” he says.
It’s only a matter of coincidence that only this year in September-end, the Allahabad high court pronounced a verdict on the Ayodhya title suit. Post the demolition, Ghose became busy with his ambitious project on eminent Shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan, in a 90 minute-long documentary titled Meeting a Milestone. So, his dream period piece was put on the backburner for the time being.
To tap a larger cross-section of the Bengali speaking community, spread far and wide across the global map, for instance in countries like UK, US, Australia and the Middle-East — a combined cast and crew from Epar-Opar Bangla was roped in to feature in a wide ensemble of talented starcast. From West Bengal, actors Paoli Dam, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Soumitra Chattopadhyay have been cast. While from Bangladesh, promising actors Chanchal, Champa, Raisul Islam Asad, Zeeshan, Tathoi have been pencilled in. The film is a tied-up joint venture between Rose Valley Productions and Bangladesh’s Ashirbad Films.
What prompted the diretcor to settle for Tollywood hero Prosenjit Chatterjee to potray Lalan’s character on 70 mm? “His pair of deep-seated expressive eyes. They are like a fathomless ocean-bed. It’s true that I initially had to face the flak for choosing Prosenjit as my protagonist, since he hails from a very mainstream film background. My gut-instinct always instigated me to study his supple look that carries an uncanny flexibility to be altered, moulded or modified and dismantled at different intervals of time. I tried to capture Lalan in different stages of his life and accordingly, his look kept changing in sync with his age from a lively, younger fakir singing pensive odes and playing the ektara string and then mellowing down to an old veteran, sagacious hermit, submerged into his self-proclaimed philosophy of life, ingrained with the message of unity, harmony and compassion among human civilsation,” he says.
Thanks to the surrounding setting that relived the Kushtiya village, the original birthplace of Lalan, then in East Bengal and now in Bangladesh. The sets and props are designed by the dextrous artistic vision of reputed art director Samir Chanda. The mystical ambience and the devotional music-milieu on locations immaculately simulated the true akhra (residence) of Lalan.
Incidentally, Lalan’s akhra was infamous for allowing the womenfolk full freedom who stayed over there. The staunch austere purists of the period would however blatantly protest this gender equality status given to the weaker sex on parametres of liberty, citing its consequences as highly detrimental to the society in its long run,” says the filmmaker.
This film is precisely an encounter between octogenarian Lalan and Tagore’s elder brother, Jyotirindranath Tagore. It’s a ballad rather than a biopic, says Ghose. Familiar Bollywood face Priyanshu Chatterjee aptly fits the bill for an aristocratic scion. “He has this suave and charming edge to his personality which lends him a royal heir’s disposition. I thought if I could part his hair, comb it in a different style and dress him up in a regal wardrobe, he would then conveniently pass off as Gurudev’s (Tagore) elder brother Jyoti Thakur,” says the director.
Ghose’s last much-touted venture was Kaalbela, yet another period drama of politically turbulent times in West Bengal, taken recourse from distinguished novelist Samaresh Majumder’s widely read and circulated novel. “Kaalbela was based on seething Naxalite movement. It is more identifiable to me and more recent in history as I had witnessed the upheavals of the late ’60s and early ’70s from close quarters. So, there is an element of time-structure in both the movies and I have a flair for it,” says Ghose.
“Life itself is a long stretch of struggle. And every revolutionised seer had to wade his way through it. Lalan was supposedly an illiterate man.
He was conferred with no formal teachings except traditional moral education via vivid recitations. Yet, he knew that earth is revolving around the sun.
Hence, in a way, he was adequately fed with the lore of ancient astronomy and the path-breaking knowledge of 19th century Copernican theory. This coincided with the young Bengal movement or uprising of Bengal’s renaissance of the late 19th-early 20th century. Lalan had rested his life in the year 1890.
But the departed soul had left his rich legacy of phenomenal philosophy and a band of disciples and faithful followers behind him. Historical records show that another well-known saint from Bengal called Sadhak Ram Prasad was his predecessor form the 18th century.