Goutam Ghose’s Moner Manush is about life and death. As well as rebirth. Lalan Chandra Kar, born a Hindu, is taken for dead as he’s struck by small pox. His body, instead of being cremated, is allowed to float away in the river. And this is where his rebirth takes place. Miraculously he’s saved by a Muslim family, residing on a distant bank of the river. Thus, in his new birth, he becomes Lalan Fakir.

Moner Manush is a loosely structured lyrical narrative where Lalan Fakir’s conversations with Jyotirindranath Tagore recount his past through a series of poetic flashbacks. And a refrain, in the form of a philosophical question, keeps coming up.

What is the purpose of life? Why are we here? Is the way to redemption through looking inwards? Through a voyage of self-discovery? Or is it by getting away from the self or aham and putting one’s faith in Om, the word that reverberates through the entire universe? This is the basic question that the film confronts.

To visually portray this journey of life, Goutam uses some of his trademark shots — the river, with its constant flow of water. We’ve seen it in Kalbela. We see it once again here. The vast expanses of the Padma, the criss-crossing of canals — Goutam exploits the natural visual richness of erstwhile East Bengal to the hilt.

Another thing, in almost the entire movie Goutam has used daylight very, very sparingly. Inside the Baul akhra, where sunlight comes filtered through the thatched bamboo walls. For the rest, it’s mostly a pale sky, fog and mists. Reflections of leafless trees on the water. Reflections of oars and oarsmen as the boat carrying Lalan and his inner circle of Bauls glides through the water. And then, there are the evenings.

Nobody shoots the hour of twilight better than Goutam. We’ve seen it in the opening shot of Paar where a pair of lights snakes towards the camera in descending darkness. And we are riveted to our seats for minutes, watching that pair of lights nearing us till it passes the camera in the form of a jeep. Goutam adds a wash of greyish blue to these magical twilight shots in Moner Manush.

Of course, there are other elements in the film. Not just lovely visual passages. Lalan through his own life synthesises both Hindu and Islamic religions. In confronting these two religious sects he’s never on a collision course. But through his resolute pacific attitude he neatly sidesteps the verbal minds of both the staunch Brahmin purohit and the mollah.

Obviously, there is a message in it for all of us. Lalan Fakir is the perfect example of how the two religious communities can live in perfect harmony even today, on both sides of the border.

In the final analysis, however, Moner Manush is perhaps not Goutam’s best film. There’s something uneven in the structure of Moner Manush. In the first half the storyline proceeds well, gripping our interest. Towards the end, however, there’s too much of the akhra, too many songs and the movie tends to stall a little. The background singer selected for Lalan is endowed with a powerful voice. But it would have been better if that voice was a little more mellifluous. Also, the dialect spoken by Lalan sounded inconsistent at times.

In the area of acting, I was particularly moved by the zest and passion of some of the side characters. Lalan at a young age and his wife, Kalua the pagla dost of Lalan, the bigoted priest and the native kabiraj-zamindar. I know Prosenjit had prepared really hard for this role but I still feel he was better in Shob Charitra Kalponik and Housefull.

Cinematically, Moner Manush is magical. But overall, there are certain rough edges to it. And perhaps no one is more aware of it than Goutam himself, which is why after completing the edit the thought of re-shooting certain portions crossed his mind.

The premiere

The launch of Sunil Gangopadhyay’s The Fakir, an English translation of his novel Moner Manush on which Goutam Ghose based his film, preceded the premiere at Nandan on Friday evening. “Goutam was the first one to read my novel. I have seen his film and loved it immensely. It touches one’s heart,” said Gangopadhyay, unveiling the book with Ghose, Prosenjit and the film’s producer Gautam Kundu.

“Only Goutam could do justice to a subject like this. I am overwhelmed by Prosenjit’s Lalan and I also liked Paoli’s acting a lot,” said Mrinal Sen, who chatted with Prosenjit before the screening. Pictures by Aranya Sen