Calcutta Corner

Poriborton, the Day After

If the last couple of weeks Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seemed beset by an unending and insurmountable set of problems, this week she seemed to have achieved an amazing turnaround. It all started in Delhi when she was virtually alienated by her allies who went ahead with Pranab Mukherjee as their choice of President in spite of her vehement opposition to his candidature.

Even before the dust could settle on that, at home the Calcutta High Court declared unconstitutional and null and void her proudest achievement so far— the passing in the West Bengal Assembly soon after she came to power of a legislature that would give the farmers of Singur their land back as per her campaign promise. This terrible setback was coupled with strong criticism from Singur farmers who were deeply disappointed.

And if Singur was giving her cold vibes, the people of the hills was turning the heat on her with separatist Darjeeling outfit Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) demanding that the Gorkhaland issue be dealt with on an urgent basis. It looked for a while as though Didi was finally done in for. Wrong. This week, she bounced back. And the way she did it was not by bringing immediate solutions to the problems at hand— these are problems without easy solutions— but by stepping on the gas on pubic relations.

All she did was give the two groups which were giving her trouble— Singur and Darjeeling— a dose of what they were really craving for: a little bit of attention. Immediately after the HC judgment she held a meeting— in full media glare and watched by everyone in Singur— attended by prominent members of her party including MLAs, MPs and Cabinet ministers— in which she announced that the fight for the Singur land would continue unabated. I talked to Singur farmers the day after the HC judgment and then the day after Mamata’s meeting with her ministers, MLAs and MPs. The same people had diametrically opposite views on the two days.

Here is a sample: Shyamoli Das, a farmer from Singur’s Beraberi Village, who lost nearly 4 acres of farmland when it was forcefully acquired by the former Bengal government for the setting up of the Tata factory said, “I had named my Grandson Poriborton because he was born during the Singur agitation when I had so much faith in Didi. But what has she done for us? My land is gone and she has not kept her promise. In fact, after she won the election she has not even visited Singur even once.” But the day after Mamata made a hue and cry over the Singur setback, Das told us, “Didi has always been with us. She is trying. What else can she do? We have full faith in her.”

Even the GJM President Bimal Gurung was seen frowning throughout the last couple of weeks as he demanded talks with the Centre and Bengal on the issue of GJM contesting elections to the Gorkhaland Terriorial Administration (which was formed after the new government came to power). Gurung was finally smiling after his meeting with Banerjee. Sometimes all you need to do to solve big problems, is give people a little attention.

Will Di Support Da?

Pranab Mukherjee seems to believe that too. Whether or not he is privately hurt that Mamata Banerjee is not supporting his candidacy in spite of being a Bengali and in spite of the fact that he has extended a hand of friendship, even calling her “like my sister,” he continues to shower attention on Mamata Banerjee by continually, relentlessly and publicly soliciting her support. However, what is being discussed in political circles is that Mukherjee is doing everything other than directly approaching Mamata and his failure to secure her support is being attributed partially to that. For instance, there was a great deal of speculation about whether or not Pranab would drop in on Mamata either at Writers’ Buildings or at her home in Kalighat during his visit to Bengal last week. In fact, those close to the former finance minister told Outlook that he had really wanted to do so. However, the fact remains that he did not. Perhaps he was afraid of being snubbed. An insider pointed out, “Pranab Mukherjee realizes that all that Mamata Banerjee wants is the right kind of attention. But he is failing to provide her that. His ego is not preventing him from directly approaching Mamata. It is his apprehensions.” In the meantime, the other contender for the post of President, PA Sangma, has already called on Mamata to garner her support. TMC has, however, still not taken a call. Railway Minister Mukul Roy said that the matter would first be discussed in the party and then the decision made public. Which means that Pranab still has a chance. It is felt in political circles that the ice might slowly melt. Another few days and we will know.

The Dress Taliban

Two separate incidents where women were harassed for wearing their choice of clothes to school and college point to the fact that Bengal continues to be plagued by intolerance of different kinds. Yesterday, a teacher at a college in Tamluk in East Midnapore was ostracized for wearing salwar-kameez to college and told to dress “decently” or face the consequences. “What’s the matter with a salwar kameez?” she asked incredulous, but she was told that the dress code for teachers was the sari. In another incident, it was the school teacher who decided that some clothes were just not going to do. She was so annoyed with several of her girl students who wore ‘leggings’ to class she ordered them to take them off, right there in class. What the class seven students objected to most was that there were boys in the class and they said they felt humiliated. The parents of these girls lodged an official complain against the teacher and the state education department promised that it would be looked into.

Hemlock Society

The latest offering from Srijit Mukherjee, the director of hit movies like Autograph and 22shey Srabon, is a film called Hemlock Society. Clearly into experimenting with different genres in each of his movies, here he takes a plot of realism with a linear narrative and injects into it doses of fantasy and surrealism with generous amounts of gothic and the grotesque. The story revolves around a secret organization which claims that it provides expertise on various methods of committing suicide. The protagonist Parambrata Chattjeree (Vidya Balan’s cop companion in Kahani) has this uncanny knack of bumping into possible-suicide-committers, who then are taken to this closed and almost claustrophobic set-up, situated in the make-belief surroundings of a film studio, where the would-be victims are subjected to classroom lectures on assisted suicide. There are classes in tying the perfect noose around your neck, slashing your wrist, blowing your brains out with a gun, or the all-time favourite: jumping off the Howrah bridge.

The morbidity of this is at once emphasized with angst-ridden wall graffiti that closes in on you and deathly-white marble interiors with large posters of famous people who committed suicide— Guru Dutt, Silk Smitha, Kurt Kobain and even Hitler— staring coldly at you as well as dismissed with life-embracing humour. “Jhulon” (which means hanging) is the name of the professor who teaches you how to hang. And the protagonist is called Ananda Kar (both legitimate Bengali names but together the phrase means “make merry”). But you are still rooted to reality with the story of a woman (Meghna, played by Koel Mullick) who finds that her world has crashed around her when her fiancé breaks up with her.

The idea is executed well in parts, poorly in others. For instance, while there is an engagement with the story (and cinematically it has a long-lasting visual impact with dreamlike, deathlike ambiences set against the brilliance of life’s bold colours), the characters do not grow on you, in spite of their terrible, tragic circumstance. Especially the main characters as there is little sympathy for them. However, the side characters, ironically, are much more powerful with their poignant two-bits. Some of the performances stood out: Soumitro Chatterjee as the wheelchair bound former general, Sabitri Chatterjee as Professor Jhulon, Sabyasachi Chakraborty who plays Dhomoni Ghosh, the professor of wrist-slashing, Bratya Basu as the gun-suicide expert, Roopa Ganguly and Dipankar De as parents of the future suicide-committer, Saheb Chattopadhyay as the ditcher boyfriend and Jeet, the actor who plays himself.

SMS Received

Pranab Mukherjee has kept his last promise as finance minister…he promised that the GDP would grow and it did…Gas, Diesel, Petrol all cost more.