Sights & sounds of a dark world

KOLKATA: No, Sisir Sahana isn't cashing in on the slogan that's sweeping the polls in Bengal. Full two years ago he'd scripted the film his second complete with the title Maati O Maanush. Because? "It's about The Soil and Its People," he explains with sincere patience.
As with his earlier Prithvi, Sisir tells own story. Having graduated in arts from Santiniketan and London, this boy' from Bankura has been keen to cinematically harness the visual and performative arts he's grown up with.In his first film he'd encapsulated the agony of an artist in a commercialised world. In his current film he reflects on the perceptions of religion and of politics in our uncivilized world.
The village teacher, a social reformer at heart, agrees to participate in the austere rites and elaborate rituals of the Charak festival held in the scorching days of April. Trouble arises when some hard-headed fundamentalists object to the liberty he grants his born-mute daughter Jhonu. The politicians, forever willing to fish in troubled waters, foment the trouble. The media is forced into soul-searching when the combined forces of the dark brand the young girl daini' and hunt her down like, well, a witch.
It's the failed systems never mind if it's religious or political that jeopardise society, concludes Sisir. "How long shall we blame the stars for woes of a natural world?" poses the film. "If Jhonu is hunted down because she's born on the dark night, it only reflects the darkness that surrounds us," reiterates the artist whose highly sought glass sculptures helped produce the Rs 75-lakh film.
However, despite the sombre tone of the narrative, the visuals that enrich Maati O Maanush are by no means dark. Sisir's celluloid canvas captures Charak in the pulsating hues of red, yellow, saffron, white, green... A man goes on the wheel, village folks bring their ailing children for his healing' touch, he loses grip and the child dies. Who's to blame, superstition or poverty? A journalist files a hard-hitting story from the backwaters, his boss wants high fashion to colour the Nababarsha edition. Who knows what the reader wants?
The impact is heightened because Sisir looks at rustic realities through the trusting eyes of an innocent youngster. And because of non-star actors who don't need workshops and rehearsals because they live the reality that's depicted. Despite the presence of stars like Sabyasachi, Sreela Majumdar and Tapas Paul, it's these people of the soil who steal the show.