How many of you remember Rituparno Ghosh’s iconic work Dahan. The award-winning social drama the mainstream Kolkata audience had lauded in 1997 with all their heart because of its bold theme and brilliant execution. Based on Suchitra Bhattacharya’s story Dahan, the film depicted the societal dynamics and reactions after Jhinuk, a school teacher, rescues Romita, a married woman, from a bunch of ruffians sexually molesting her on a deserted road one night. The men also assault Romita’s husband even as not a single man comes to help the two out in the situation except Jhinuk, who later is hailed by the media for her brave act. The Bengali film continues to be one of the most celebrated works of Ghosh garnering lofty accolades from the bhadraloks in the city while they clink their wine goblets together in spiffy living chambers and fancy clubs together with sinking their teeth into crumb coated fish cutlet. Ironically, for all the bouquets they would shower on Ghosh till date for daring to poke societal conscience with this sharp commentary, this intellectual class actually represents the men in the film who never came to help Romita and her husband while they struggled on the dreadful night.
If you ask me, the Bhadraloks have sunken into a worse kind of drunken stupor now. Or maybe they are suffering from an acute case of selective amnesia that won’t allow them to speak up against wrongs targeted at women in the state, in reality as against movies! They clam up and keep clinking their flutes even when popular filmmakers body shame young actresses in public or when renowned theatre artists cheer for fellow actors who harass their women counterparts. This batch of intelligentsia is also pretty okay with MeToo allegations against senior academicians and famous film directors. Probably the worst is their radio silence over what the women of Sandeshkhali have been going through for a while now, aided and abetted by the autocratic TMC government in West Bengal.
At this juncture it becomes important to disclose the incidents referred to in details. A few days ago, at a Poila Boisakh party, film director Srijit Mukherji casually body shamed young actress Sauraseni Maitra in public saying that she is too thin and needs to put on weight quickly to get roles. While the movie maker whose name has been associated with MeToo cases was trolled on social media, his colleagues from the industry and other noted intellectuals in the city chose to stay mum instead of calling out this insensitive behaviour. After all, Maitra isn’t a big name yet. But then, does that really matter when Kolkata’s creme is known to conveniently avoid opining on controversies!?
Here’s another case of double speak and gaslighting blissfully practised by the bhadraloks of Kolkata. Ace actress Daminee Benny Basu has been speaking out against the ‘social rehabilitation’ of alleged sexual predators in the Bengali theatre circuit for a while. The matter took a serious turn when director Suman Mukhopadhyay cast Sudipto Chatterjee in a play called Tiner Talwar. Though the actor was replaced after the first show, Basu was irked when Mukhopadhyay didn’t speak up about why Chatterjee was shown the way out. While the celebrated actress appreciated Mukhopadhyay when he praised her performance in the successful series Chhotolok, she questioned the director’s silence over casting Chatterjee in his play! This is what she wrote on the post he shared: “ All our growing up formative years we would secretly yearn for a Laal-da approved red letter! You’ve made us rethink and question the pre-existing, the rot, and the unacceptable. You’ve been our hero in re-designing the politics in the aesthetics sitting right here in Kolkata! Then why does it feel unfair when our hearts break now with you choosing radio silence over what matters the most, in terms of dehumanising the struggle of so many women, young girls, and young boys fighting for their rights over their safety in the theater space? Is our safety, our harassment, or abuse not political, ‘bhodro’ or ‘alarming’ enough for any of you to talk about?”
Basu’s pain feels personal almost when you think of the comments West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made about the victim of the 2022 Nadia rape and murder case in which the son of her party leader is the prime accused. Brushing the incident aside insensitively she had remarked, “Has she been raped, or was she pregnant, or was it a love affair?” Banerjee has quite a track record when it comes to reacting to sexual crimes against women in her state, where Bengalis worship Maa Kali and Durga, the embodiment of shakti! Remember the time she passed off the 2012 Park Street rape case as ‘shajano ghawtona’ (fabrication constructed to embarrass her government). In speaking up about the sexual atrocities faced by women in her state though, the CM at least makes thundering faux pas, as against the measured duplicity of her bhadraloks!
Even as this piece goes to print, Facebook continues to carry a heartfelt warning post against abuse and sexual grooming by Ishita Sengupta, who was an MA student in Presidency University from 2011 to 2014. She was was ‘forcibly kissed’ by the same university’s Professor Sumit Chakrabarti in Jawaharlal Nehru University where he was visiting. While the said teacher defended himself with a rebuttal on FB, that the girl’s post has not taken down says a lot about the authenticity of the incident. Speaking up against grooming and abuse, Sengupta’s post is pretty vocal about sexual preying that is institutionalized in the academic corridors of Kolkata, against which not many speak out. In fact, by maintaining a calculated silence about these MeToo cases, such abhorrent behaviour by ‘intellectuals’ is encouraged and perpetrated.
But these educated and entitled elites cannot fathom that one day the pained voices of the sexually exploited naaris will rise against the atrocities unleashed to humiliate and subjugate them. A thousand Rekha Patras will emerge from West Bengal to ensure justice is delivered. Giving a thrust to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on Naari Shakti, it is only a matter of time when not one but many such Devis will revolutionise a movement to ensure that demons like Sheikh Shahjahan are slain! Banerjee and her bhadraloks will still not cheer for such women who will become ‘shakti swaroop’ but rest assured their hearts will cry for the ‘injustice’ meted out to ‘leaders’ and ‘messiahs’ like Shahjahan and his cronies! Perhaps Mukherji will make blockbuster films to dislodge any claims of sexual misconduct against Shahjahan while Mukhopadhyay will write a script to topple allegations of gaslighting by the powers-that-be in the theatre circuit. When TMC Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose cries foul against BJP while forcing to establish that Sandeshkhali is just a matter of land disputes, the bhadralok will calmly switch to ostrich mode or profess their undying ardour for chicken biriyani and egg roll during Durgotsav.
I was watching Rajdeep Ghosh’s Bonbibi – Widows of the Wild, a socio-political thriller based in the Sunderbans. The antagonist of the film played by Dibyendu Bhattacharya draws heavy parallels with TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan who was absconding for 55 days before being nabbed. The film received good reviews I hear from the intellectuals and the audience. But I am yet to find what the Kaushik Sens, Aparna Sens, Suman Mukhopadhyays, Srijit Mukherjis and their posh coteries have to say about the monster that was Sheikh. Guess this hypnotic slumber will snap only by the war cries of many more Basus, Senguptas and Patras, who PM Modi is backing so that they champion the true essence of NaariShakti!
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