Remember the iconic 1975 Hindi movie Aandhi, set in the backdrop of the Emergency which began the same year, and projected to an extent, the life and politics of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi?
Aandhi was banned a few months after its release because the Censor Board thought it was too hot. Forty-one years after Aandhi, another film, Baghini (The Tigress), based on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s life and struggle, is set to hit Bengal’s silver screens sometime this month to cash in on the assembly election moment.
Baghini has already received the Censor Board’s green signal but there are doubts whether the Election Commission will allow its release. Earlier the director of the film Nehal Dutta had said that it was the result of three years of research on Mamata.
How the Story Was Put Together
According to Dutta, the story has been built from scraps of information that have appeared in newspaper reports and magazine articles, biographies and news video clips. He has, however, cautioned that Baghini was not intended to be a biopic on Mamata. He explained that no known political organisation active in Bengal has been directly named in the film.
The disclaimers notwithstanding, Dutta has conceded that regardless of his attempts to avoid any controversy, the real life comparisons were inevitable as the story is based on material culled from what is available in the public domain.
Release Date Deferred
The producer, Mondal Films and Entertainment, had earlier set an ambitious target of releasing the film on the eve of the Bengal polls which kick off on 4 April. According to Tollygunge film industry sources, Baghini may not be released before or in the course of the elections.
It is learnt that Arup Biswas, a minister and TMC’s minder for Tollywood, has already advised the producer to play it safe.
Previous Attempts
Incidentally, before the 2014 general elections, Tollywood actress and TMC MP Shatabdi Roy made a film mostly based on Mamata’s life. Roy played the lead role, but the movie was not released before the polls. When it was released after the election, the movie flopped: it failed to attract any crowd, even the hoi polloi.
‘No Cinematic Value’
Aniket Chatterjee, who, as a director has several hits under his belt, says Baghini is not likely to be released before the election process is over. Another director said on conditions of anonymity that he has had a sneak peek of the film which “has no cinematic value” and is “simply crude propaganda.”
While Baghini could well be a propaganda flick, there is some agreement across Bengal’s political spectrum that in her previous avatar as an Opposition leader Mamata did indeed show attributes of a fighter. But five years after seizing power, the Trinamool Congress supremo and her party confidantes have shown a propensity towards profligacy in a cash-strapped state. More recently, bribery allegations have been levelled against some of her close associates in the TMC.
Folk Theatre Precedence
In Bengal, plays and films have often been made on political personalities and political subjects. Jatra palas, a traditional but popular folk plays, are replete with subjects such as Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussain and many more.
When Mamata started winning the hearts of the people of Bengal as a doughty, street-fighting politician and subsequently mauled the Left Front, the jatra industry responded by producing a number of palas on Mamata.
Banglar Baghini (Bengal’s Tigress), Banglar Agnikanya (Bengal’s Fiery Daughter), Oi Dekho Aschhe Agnikanya (Look, There Comes Bengal’s Fiery Daughter) were staged across the state’s rustic backwaters.
With Baghini lurking on the fringes of the electoral battlefield, Opposition parties smell a rat behind the making of the film. They said the movie is a crude attempt to influence voters. The CPI(M) leadership is not leaving anything to chance. CPI(M)’s Rabin Deb has taken up the matter with the EC.
(The writer is a former Executive Editor, Ananda Bazar Patrika)
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