A Selective Study in Post-Colonial Bengali Cinema - always yours

11|Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2
Chapter four of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Herbert contains the episode of Binu (the naxalite
nephew of Herbert), and it begins with a quotation from Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, “Oi shuno! Oi
shuno! Bheriro aaoyaj he Bheriro aaoyaj!” (Hark! Hark! The sound of the Drums of War, dear, the
sound of the Drums of War!). This line is actually taken from Rangalal Bandyopadhyay's poem
“Shadhinota Hinotay Ke Banchite Chay” (Who Wants to Live Without Freedom!), that became one
of the greatest patriotic-revolutionary songs of nineteenth century, and as a great poetry of
nationalism, was second only to Vande Mataram in terms of its impact on the people, though now
very few Bengalis would be able to remember the entire poem beyond the title. Now, the parallels
are too obvious to miss. The trajectory of Naxalite movement shares some uncanny similarities with
that of our armed freedom struggle. Herbert takes place in a space time location that still has
memories (perhaps deeply buried within the unconscious, like the memory of Binu's diary was
buried within Herbert's unconscious and it returned to haunt Herbert in his dream) of Bengal
renaissance and the revolutionary nationalist movement. The Central Kolkata residence of Herbert –
Sahebpara (erstwhile white town) is 20 minutes walk from his residence, we are told in the novel
(47) – has been the birthplace of the social, political and cultural awakening of Bengal, something
that has been made obscure to the generations living in post-Independence Kolkata. The novel
draws our attention to that obscurity while quotations from nineteenth century poetry are placed
parallel to the actions that are taking place in contemporary Kolkata. Each quotation, acts like “a
giant metaphor, or analogy” to a corresponding event in the novel in a strategy of montage, we can
say following Keith Cohen (87). And in this analogy there is a heightened contrast between the
coded past glory, and the contemporary pettiness: Herbert is to Bengal renaissance what the times
of the house gecko is to the age of the great reptiles.
Unfortunately these quotations find no echo in the film. The film-maker probably could not
find a way to represent these elements in an audio-visual medium; they are completely discarded in
the movie. Thus Herbert Sarkar is even more historically impoverished in the film than he was in