The Guerrilla Fighter (1973)
(Padatik)
Country: IND
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Dhritiman Chatterjee, Simi Garewal
Synopsis:
A political activist in Calcutta escapes custody and is sheltered by his associates in an apartment belonging to a liberal-minded young woman who works in the media.
Review:
Recalling the more experimental end of New Wave cinema of the Sixties, such as Alexander Kluge and Jean-Luc Godard, or alternatively the emerging cinemas of Cuba and Brazil, Sen's dissection of the process of de-radicalisation is the antithesis of Ray's handling of similar material in Charulata a decade earlier. The titular figure's confinement separates him from his associates in the movement and little by little, as he is first cosseted by his cousin and then by the woman, he loses his commitment to the cause. (National headlines and marching in the street continue unabated but are jump-cut across the narrative flow.) Finally he craves dialogue over conflict, but is brought short by his father's announcement that he means to strike. Not always easy to follow, this at times phantasmagoric film (the bathing scene) resolves itself into a tantalising glimpse of happiness for two lost souls; the girl, having lost a brother, is a persuasive argument for socio-political accommodation but as so often in Indian cinema the man is powerless to reach out. As the girl's feminist documentary makes clear, it is Society that must change first before you can start imposing rule changes.
(Padatik)
Country: IND
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Dhritiman Chatterjee, Simi Garewal
Synopsis:
A political activist in Calcutta escapes custody and is sheltered by his associates in an apartment belonging to a liberal-minded young woman who works in the media.
Review:
Recalling the more experimental end of New Wave cinema of the Sixties, such as Alexander Kluge and Jean-Luc Godard, or alternatively the emerging cinemas of Cuba and Brazil, Sen's dissection of the process of de-radicalisation is the antithesis of Ray's handling of similar material in Charulata a decade earlier. The titular figure's confinement separates him from his associates in the movement and little by little, as he is first cosseted by his cousin and then by the woman, he loses his commitment to the cause. (National headlines and marching in the street continue unabated but are jump-cut across the narrative flow.) Finally he craves dialogue over conflict, but is brought short by his father's announcement that he means to strike. Not always easy to follow, this at times phantasmagoric film (the bathing scene) resolves itself into a tantalising glimpse of happiness for two lost souls; the girl, having lost a brother, is a persuasive argument for socio-political accommodation but as so often in Indian cinema the man is powerless to reach out. As the girl's feminist documentary makes clear, it is Society that must change first before you can start imposing rule changes.
(Padatik)
Country: IND
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Dhritiman Chatterjee, Simi Garewal
Synopsis:
A political activist in Calcutta escapes custody and is sheltered by his associates in an apartment belonging to a liberal-minded young woman who works in the media.
Review:
Recalling the more experimental end of New Wave cinema of the Sixties, such as Alexander Kluge and Jean-Luc Godard, or alternatively the emerging cinemas of Cuba and Brazil, Sen's dissection of the process of de-radicalisation is the antithesis of Ray's handling of similar material in Charulata a decade earlier. The titular figure's confinement separates him from his associates in the movement and little by little, as he is first cosseted by his cousin and then by the woman, he loses his commitment to the cause. (National headlines and marching in the street continue unabated but are jump-cut across the narrative flow.) Finally he craves dialogue over conflict, but is brought short by his father's announcement that he means to strike. Not always easy to follow, this at times phantasmagoric film (the bathing scene) resolves itself into a tantalising glimpse of happiness for two lost souls; the girl, having lost a brother, is a persuasive argument for socio-political accommodation but as so often in Indian cinema the man is powerless to reach out. As the girl's feminist documentary makes clear, it is Society that must change first before you can start imposing rule changes.