Artistically Adult
November 19th, 2008Cast: Churni Ganguly, Kaushik Sen, Tota Roychoudhury, Rupa Ganguly
Bengali film industry has grown up. The tinkering cash register at the box office of the latest film by director Koushik Ganguly, is real proof that now Tollywood is at ease in dealing with quintessentially adult subject matter. Excluding the frontbenchers in need of big screen titillation, provoked by the films innovative marketing, the response of moviegoers of Kolkata is quite impressive, taking in to account the film's theme.
Koushik Ganguly's new film, Shunyo E Buke, deals with the agony of a woman with small breasts. How her newly married life is ruined on the very day of her marriage. The film tells the story of a young attractive lady from an aristocratic affluent family falling in love with a struggling artist. Defying her family objection she elopes just to find out that her newly married husband can not cope with fact the she has a rather small pair of breasts. Her husband accuses her of hiding her deficiency and deceiving him from the very beginning.
The film though sensibly depicts the anguish of a woman with small breasts but fails to rationalize why that woman from the very beginning concealed her "deficiency" to her lover.
The cast lends their natural talents. Roopa Ganguly in the role of Churni's radical feminist friend excels with her natural bold instincts. Kaushik Sen as the husband rationally portrays the queer perplexity, which his character experiences. Churni Ganguly, wife of the film's director, beautifully portrays the soft spoken but adamant woman. The director said, "I have chosen to cast my wife to portray the woman because of my comfort level with her,"
The film had enough excuses to use crass exploitation of female nudity but it doesn't try to manipulate that. On the contrary, the film sensibly and artistically expresses the pangs of the woman judged by the size of her bust and helplessness of the man, delusional with the bulging contours of a female figure.
The marketing of Bengali films has improved recently and the teaser campaign of Shunyo E Buke affirms that. "Bhara buk na buk bhara bhalobasha" which means Full breasts or a heart full of love, read the teaser-posters. It was successful in generating enough curiosity utilizing stereotyped male gaze at women. According to feminist-writer Taslima Nasreen, the poster campaign and the subject of the film reflect "the same old way of looking at women through the eyes of men." Ganguly also dexterously borrowed the title Shunyo E Buke from an elegy written by Kazi Najrul Islam.
Kaushik Ganguly known for his inclination towards relatively controversial subject matters, was primarily a telefilm director. He not only posses a sensitive and penetrating insight in to the female psyche but also a praiseworthy proficiency in cinematic expression, an unique blend which is lacking in most of the Tollywood directors. Like his first film, Waaris, made in 2003, this film also deals with women's emancipation but much daring in approach and tasteful in expression. In the words of the director, "It is a film on the projection of women in our culture as sex objects. I have done that without any titillation or exposure"
