Noukadubi {Kashmakash} Review

Movie: Noukadubi [Kashmakash in Hindi]
Banner: Mukta Searchlight Films
Release Date: May, 2011
Language: Bengali & Hindi
Producer: Subhash Ghai
Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Star Cast: Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jishu Sengupta, Raima Sen, Riya Sen
Music Director: Raja Narayan Deb, Sanjoy Das
Cinematography: Soumik Haldar 
Art Director: Indraneel Ghosh

Costume: Saborni Das

Genre: Period Drama

Rituparno Ghosh is a master story-teller. No doubt about that. His recent movie Noukadubi which roughly translates to boat wreck is compelling in its approach but it fails to exact the kind of acting the script demands. Raima Sen’s Hemnalini is the only character who does justice to Rabindranath Tagore’s work of which the movie is an adaptation. Riya Sen appeared extremely amateur in the acting game whereas Jisshu Sengupta and Prosenjit were purely mechanical. Veteran actor Dhritiman Chatterjee as the ageing yet adorable father helped prop the movie a notch higher. The screenplay was brilliant and the occasional mellifluous tones of Rabindrasangeet set the mood.

The locations were perfect and in sync with the story but at times you couldn’t help but feel that something about the movie was forced. It is not as spontaneous as some of Rituparno’s other works But  the film is like a mahogany bagatelle board where the shiny ball called love wants to roll into the right pockets but keeps getting deflected by the rusted pins of life. True to the spirit of the original Tagore novel, the four people at the heart of the ‘boatwreck’ first become victims of calamities, social and natural, and then start building new worlds around the remains. Before they are tossed around again.And that’s the beauty of Noukadubi and what makes it veer away from the other Tagore adaptation by Ghosh, Chokher Bali. When the characters here cannot be with the ones they love, they fall in love with the ones they are with. On the surface, this sexless love game may come across as tepid and tame, slow and sombre compared to the roller-coaster passion play that was Chokher Bali, but Noukadubi’s charm lies in the lingering aftertaste, the enduring pleasure in the pain.

Like most Shakespeare plays, Tagore’s Noukadubi, set in the early 20th century, explores mistaken identities leading to misunderstandings and wife-swapping. But while the Bard would use such devices for a romance or comedy, Tagore rustles up a tragedy out of the mayhem. The concept of a boatwreck bringing together a groom and a bride from two different sets of newlyweds may sound preposterous today but Tagore used the event as an excuse to examine relationships brought about by chance against those by choice and compulsion.

The story revolves around four central characters

A tender romance blossoming in Kolkata between law student Ramesh (Jisshu)and his friend’s sister Hemnalini (Raima) a well-educated upper class woman who drabbles in rabindrasangeet as time pass . Their fates are inexorably entwined but yet destiny plays a cruel trick on them., suddenly when his father sends an urgent and mysterious summons from his village home. There, the dutiful son is peremptorily ordered to marry Susheela, daughter of a hapless widow. Ramesh refuses, confesses that his heart belongs to another. But the widow’s fervent plea and in certain measure owing to his own pity he soften ultimately. And he concedes, albeit with a heavy heart. he marries a widow’s only daughter who is as her mother puts it- illiterate but expert at household work.  The wedding takes place with due ceremony. and Ramesh sets out with his bride on a river boat journey back to Kolkata. He barely had a glimpse at his own wife when tragedy befalls.

Soon a fierce storm arises; the boat tosses helplessly and finally capsizes in the churning waters. Ramesh loses his father in the accident. Later that night, Ramesh comes to his senses on a deserted shore under a starlit sky. Some distance away, he finds a woman in a bride’s garb .Her pulse is still beating, and in response to his voice calling ‘Susheela’ she opens her eyes at last. There is no one else in sight, alive or dead. Thinking of her more as a duty than wife he takes her to his home in Calcutta and tries to be a responsible husband.But he misunderstood the little lady as as Susheela who is actually is Kamala (Riya) who had got married to Nalinaksha (Prosenjit), who in turn assumes that his new wife must have drowned in the river. Of course, none of the four people who got married before boarding their boats had, quite incredibly, seen the faces of their partners. Otherwise this whole plot would be dead in the water… way early!

The two move off, take a train to Kolkata, the bride wondering why they were not going to Kashi, but trusting his judgment implicitly.

Hem, his true love, knows nothing of all this. Ramesh has been missing from the evening of her birthday party. They have learnt of his hasty departure from the city, but nothing else. Though she pines inwardly, she is confident that he will return soon.

Back in Ramesh's new home in Kolkata, the facts of mistaken identity gradually come to light. Ramesh writes an advertisement to trace his whereabouts; but he does not have the heart to break this news to the helpless trusting young girl in his care. He puts her into a boarding school instead. and puts his own plans with Hemnalini on hold. Kamala herself is happy with the husband she got on the river banks and gets busy showering her pot of love on him. Responsibility rolls into romance for Ramesh as he begins to enjoy the play of words and the game of names with Kamala. But soon, Hem's would be suitor Akshay comes to know of Ramesh's secret and brings proof positive to Hem. Ramesh, unable to handle such a scandal, seeks hiding in Gorakhpur with Kamala.

Ghosh, a self-confessed Ekalavya of Ray, reprises the playful post-marital dynamics of the Apu-Aparna relationship fromApur Sansar for the Ramesh-Kamala romance, which is clearly the fulcrum of Noukadubi. Almost echoing that famous line Apu asked Aparna, “Can you accept a life of poverty?”, Ramesh asks Kamala here, “Can you live an entire life as my wife?” The joys and jolts of suddenly getting married to a stranger surface again on celluloid beautifully. devastated Hem is brought to Kashi by her father (Dhritiman) to help her forget. There she meets Nalinaksha ,who was practicing doctor and they warm up to each other.

Kamala in the meanwhile having read the advertisement in an old newspaper, realizes the enormity of the lie she has been living, andRamesh has gifted her the ‘mithye shongshar’ out of obligation.  and walks out determined to drown herself in the river. Ramesh returns and finds her suicide note, searches everywhere to no avail. He does not know that she has been rescued by a courtesan and deposited in Kashi under Nalinaksha's mother's care. Kamala now sees her real husband for the first time, but cannot speak up, for he is betrothed to Hem.

Ghosh is a master of chamber dramas and he has made period films before, but over the years he has become more and more ambitious with his script structuring. Even for a small scene he goes to and fro several times in time and space, matching images (the foot plays a big leitmotif here) and emotions, till he has visually and verbally communicated the essence of the moment. But when he punctuates such portions with long scenes, those scenes become tedious and the lines sometimes lose their worth. Noukadubi is only “inspired from Rabindranath Tagore” and not ditto the novel. In the pretext of tailoring the original story to his needs, Ghosh turns the adaptation into a full-blown celebration of Tagore. Besides the yarn itself, the characters express their pain and pleasure by breaking into Rabindrasangeet (Khelaghar bandhte legechhi and Tori aamar being the two main themes). What’s more, they have his photo on the bedside table, and Hemnalini even wishes to marry the poet at one point. The 150-year celebrations of Tagore just got better.

Finally, the advertisement she keeps knotted in her saree is discovered, and the whole truth comes to light. Ramesh finally traces Nalinaksha and arrives at his house. Once Ramesh arrives in the scene as well, the four-way see-saw battle of hearts is hurtled towards a conclusion.

The whole sorry mess raises many questions of head and heart and the validity or otherwise of social conventions.. Unsure whether love wins or circumstances again get the better of the lonely hearts, whether marriage becomes the anchor or it is the flag-off of another stormy boat trip. It is this communal introspection that makes Noukadubi such an enriching ride on stranger tides. We are left wondering whether true love will finally triumph