Remember how Rajesh Khanna , for all his unparalleled stardom, took the backseat for Sharmila Tagore in Amar Prem? In the passionately mounted new version of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Devi Chowdhurani, Prosenjit Chatterjee gladly and without the least self-congratulation, takes the second place to Srabanti Chatterjee who plays the titular role with an intensity that may not burn a hole in your soul, but it achieves its goal.
This is an 18th century epic saga, full of sound and fury, and striking images of patriotic scuffles, shot with an admirable fervour by Anirban Chatterjee. The cinematographer lenses the characters, a bunch of mendicant bandits and the ‘Laal Mooh’ Britishers , in shadowy dark and ominous shades. It is like being there, and yet not being allowed to get beyond the checkpost.
This is not an immersive experience in the way we have known cinema to be. Writer-director Subhrajit Mitra doesn’t want us to “know” the characters. He wants us to experience their conflicts from an evaluative distance, neither judging nor condemning them.
This movie adaptation moves closer to Bankim novel, and away from the 1974 screen adaptation in which Suchitra Sen was magnificent in her dignity as a disempowered woman who rises from the ashes to become the protector and saviour of the poor at a time when the colonisers and feudal landlords gave tyranny a new dimension.
Srabanti Chatterjee tries hard to do justice to a role immortalized by Suchitra Sen and succeeds partially. She fares much better in the emotional moments as compared with the action sequences where she has rough time inducing aggression.
Prosenjit Chatterjee, stepping into the role originally done by Ranjit Mallick, has a lot more substantial role than the original. He plays Profullo’s mentor guide with a mix of reverence and protectiveness, standing just behind her and yet in many ways, navigating her journey from victim to saviour.
Ironically the film works much better on the emotional level,for example Profullo’s bonding with her estranged husband’s second wife Sagar(played by the lovely Darshana Banik who looks like Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali).
The action sequences are diminished by the budgetary constrints. The ships sailing in the ocean look like toyboats in a bath tub. Which is in some ways is emblematic of the lives lived in Bengal in the 18th century where every Bengali was a closeted revolutionary struggling to emerge from an intellectual cocoon.
Devi Chowdhurani doesn’t quite capture the epic canvas of the novel. But it brings a wistful wisdom to the portrayal of the characters; even a British stooge like Haraballabh Ray (Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, making a welcome comeback) is what he is on account of the historic forces that shaped Colonial India.
