Film Review

Life’s crossings

By

Bhawani Cheerath Rajagopalan

Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Ami, Yasin Aar Amar Madhubala (The Voyeurs)

The film under review is the final in the auteur’s trilogy - Swapner Din, Kaalpurush and finally, Ami Yasin Aar Amar Madhubala. Unlike his earlier films the manner of handling the narrative and the ideas transferred on screen are very contemporary. Giving very little scope to accommodate what he normally portrayed, that is, “delve into the secret world that exists deep in our dreams, and to send signals to the world through images which very often are personal and pure.”

The master craftsman in Buddhadev Dasgupta has neatly brought into the film the  ordinariness of life as lived by the common man, the inroads of technology and the cascading effect it has on our lives, the state as the perpetrator of a tyranny which makes a victim of innocent humans, and of course, the ‘big brother is watching’ syndrome. At the core it is the film which speaks of loss of privacy even if one is well secure inside one’s home. The intruder can be a neighbour or an implant on the wall which one is unaware of!

The laid back style of a struggling youngster dealing in computers and finding solace sharing his fears and foibles with the framed picture of the yesteryears’ screen diva Madhubala, on the wall in his room, is altered. The pace changes when Yasin from his village Behrampore comes to the city (Kolkata) seeking opportunities and starts staying with him. Life gets new colour when a young girl, Rekha (Sameera Reddy), takes up the adjacent room. She dreams of making it to the world of films.

All cordiality is maintained but one day when she seeks their help to put things in order in her room, and leaves for her place of work, Rekha does not realise that her actions in the room are under surveillance. While Dilip (Prasenjit Chatterjee) has a soft corner for her he turns voyeur too. When she discovers the hidden eye implanted on the wall, it is remorse, repulsion and a distaste that overtakes her. There is the fear that her life in the room is no more private.

Into this plot the director brings in the arbitrary behaviour of the police who enter the scene, their voyeuristic traits revealed during the search of the computer in the young men’s’ room. Dilip and Yasin are returning from a business trip and before they can enter their room, the little boy who brings them tea and snacks informs them of the raid. They are now scampering for life. When they try to take rest in a remote railway platform and discuss their plight, unknown to them the man lying on the opposite bench overhears them. He finds a striking resemblance with the ‘man wanted’ sketch that was carried in the newspapers. Like a dutiful citizen he informs the police, who descend on the unsuspecting young men.

Life is never the same again: Yasin is shot dead, Dilip is tortured to extract the statement the police want. They want him to confess that the real name of Yasin is Sayyid, the man wanted in connection with a terrorist attack. But Dilip is unrelenting and the result is that he is beaten mercilessly,

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