Bengali film pays homage to Charlie Chaplin’s genius

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Let’s board a time-machine and set it on a rewind mode to flash back to precisely 90 years ago. Now picture this. A man holds a little boy tight and close to his chest. His anxious eyes staring straight out of a film poster which promises six reels of joy embossed in bold letters in its tagline. The maker

claims to have had worked round the clock in the past one whole year for this particular venture and finally got it released in 1921 with the globally acclaimed title The Kid. The man in question is undoubtedly anybody’s guess — Charles Chaplin. While the internationally renowned “kid” is the precocious child actor, Jackie Coogan. Till date, the film has been re-christened as a classic flick and preciously preserved in the library of world cinema.
Cut to 2011, and consider this. A poster with a silhouetted father-son figure walking hand in hand screams for attention across the streets of Kolkata. Or in a rain-drenched movie shot, both seem to be ecstatically enjoying the pitter-patter drizzle in playful mood. Lo and behold! Seems nine decades later, the connection has resurfaced again, thus gaining a new ground of expression and finding a resurrected interpretation through a plausible attempt by talented Tollywood scriptwriter Padmanabha Dasgupta and offbeat filmmaker Anindya Banerjee.
Predictably called Chaplin and billed as a must-watch, this Bengali film in its own little way pays a humble homage to the one and only multi-dimensional performing artiste of the last century — Charlie Chaplin. Currently running at the theatres and lapping up the discerning critics’ favourable votes and loads of audience-appreciation at large, Chaplin stands firm on its strong script and powerpacked acting. “Not only it is an endeavour on our part to salute to that all-time great stalwart who thrived on his own accord in showbiz but is also a great moment of pride for all of us in this industrial fraternity to be able to produce such a deeply moving film with its heart at the right place,” declares Rudranil Ghosh, a distinguished actor of Bengali cinema, who has essayed the eponymous protagonist in the movie.
But this poor man’s “Chaplin” within the film is nothing but an alter-ego to the otherwise struggling, starving character of Banshi Das, who has an eight-year old ailing child afflicted with a terminal disease, to feed and look after. Playing a distressed broke and a petty artiste in the plotline, impersonating Chaplin at weddings, birthday parties and other such social get-togethers, Rudranil feels that this authorbacked role will help him grab a golden feather in his career-cap. “This is like a morale boost. Artistically, it has sufficiently gratified my creative hunger,” he meekly confides
Masked in a stark white face make-up with blinking-popping black kohl-rimmed eyes and ruby lips, Rudranil prances into the movie’s trailer, attired in those quintessential black bow-tied suit, large shoes, the trademark stick and an old Victorian-Brit hat, accompanied with a slouchy traipse. But yes, there’s pain and melancholia in his moist eyes which laid concealed behind his honest toothy grin or a faint ray of mischievous smile like a true blue “Chaplin” loyal. At the very outset, this under-discussed Bangla movie might sound as a loosely adapted endeavour from the original English source The Kid which too was high on sorrow, pathos and drama. Its poster caption had then rightly stated a heart-tugging punchline which said: A picture with a smile and perhaps, a tear.
Donning a stellar role, Rudranil admits that slipping into a Chaplinesque avatar or implicitly stepping into his shoes was never a cakewalk for him. “Essaying Banshi Das’s character has indeed been a seminal experience for me”, confirms the actor. “I had to deconstruct myself, unlearn a lot of things and imbibe aplenty to do justice to this meaningful meaty role. Anindya had indeed given me a free run to ideate, evolve and improvise. But at the same time, he strictly dissuaded me from becoming a tad too complacent with my own performance. He did scrutinise me to the bone,” noted the actor acknowledgingly.
Speaking on the film, Rudranil sums up: “It’s a metaphorical movie, which reflects a philosophy that can transform all negativities into positive thoughts just as Chaplin, the man himself did in real life.”