Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa

Calcutta, the capital city of West Bengal, the eastern state of India. The period is 1970-72. The city is in the grip of a leftist militant movement, popularly known as the "Naxalbari Movement". The "Naxalbari Movement" began in the Naxalbari region to get minimum wages for the agricultural labour, and soon spread to other rural and urban areas of Directed by Govind Nihalani and based on Jyanpeeth award winner Mahashweta Devi's novel, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (Mother of Number 1084), is clearly one of the better films to come out of India in the recent past.

Set in Calcutta in the turbulent period of 1970-1972, when the region was much shaken by the Naxalbari movement, it tells the poignant story of a woman's quest for truth and self realization. The Maoist movement that originated in the Naxalbari region demanding minimum wages for agricultural labor had spread to urban areas in the 70's and attracted leftist intelligentsia and restless student groups. Wanting a new social order, a socialist economy and a society free of all social barriers, these youth took to the streets renouncing the lifestyles of their affluent parents. In the process, however, the movement muddled into dogmatic class-struggle theories espoused by Mao's (since disgraced)lieutenant Lin Piao and adopted violent, even murderous, tactics that completely alienated the bourgeoise and most of the general population.

A struggle that sought to free oppressed villagers from the clutches of feudal landlords soon spilled into urban homes with leftist militant youth rebelling against what they considered the complacent, hypocritical and bourgeois society.

As the film begins, Sujata Chatterji (Jaya Bachan), an upper middle class wife and mother is called to the police morgue to identify her son Brati Chatterji (Joy Sengupta). Known only as number 1084, her son is vilified by his own father, who is more concerned with hushing up the matter. The police refuse to turn over the body, and mother and daughter watch numbed as the son is cremated in a perfunctory public funeral.

The mother, beginning to question the conditions in which she herself lives, seeks out a reason for her son's passion for the revolutionary cause and sense of sacrifice for a proletariat that the family has had no connection with. Her anguish and pained bewilderment are slowly supplanted by her self-awareness andcoming to terms with her own reasons for existence.

This reviewer, never a fan of the over-the-top mannerisms that constituted Jaya Bacchan's acting style, was impressed here by her restraint and economy of movement. The integrity of her performance as the protagonist in this film reveals a sincerity and conviction that may have been unrealized in the Bollywood light comedy for which Ms. Bachhan is mostly known. Govind Nihalani must surely share the credit for tapping this actress's potential.

Seema Biswas, an enormous talent (Bandit Queen, Company), is commendable as the mother of a working class Naxalite, who is also murdered in the same encounter as Brati. Nihalani depicts the two mothers coping with their loss in their different ways, bringing out their class and cultural differences. Seema Biswas, the poor Bihari mother is warmly uninhibited both in grief and expression of affection, while Jaya Bachchan bottles up her sorrow, and is restricted in her display of emotion. While there are no cathartic outbursts,in a climactic scene, Ms. Bachhan suffers a burst appendix at the party celebrating her daughters's engagement. As she clutches her stomach and writhes in agony, her screams evoke a woman crying out in pain during childbirth.

In the novel, the story ends there. The film, striving to bring a more Cinematic closure to the tale, has the woman build a successful Human Rights organization and converting her unfeeling husband to her way of thinking.

Anupam Kher as Sujata's shallow spouse and Nandita Das as the fiery lover of Brati are quite adequate whereas Milind Gunaji as the hated cop puts forth a brutally strong performance.

The film won the National Award for the Best Hindi Film, 1997, is a must see for all lovers of meaningful cinema.

I did not come away thinking that the director wanted to preach Marxism (like some comments indicated), but told a story about some that strongly believed in it. He told the story of those that embrace a movement and by doing so, they have involved their entire family one way or other. The shadows of their sacrifices are long; character Nandini talks about it. The survivors deal with differently -- here the mother is running around her sons memories. She is reaching out to the places that he ever touched. This kind of intelligent film making, simple story lines, characters with depth are not everybody's cup of tea.

I'm not going to say I agree with the story premise but I loved the film, characterization. No actor went for a grandiose performance; dialogues were simple, no punch lines. Hence a very simple film. I would suggest people watch the DVD; the film does a wake some emotions in you.

Performances: What can I say? I have not seen one actor that performed better or worse. Every one lived in their roles, hence the credit goes to the Director. But, I just have to say this... I loved Jaya Bhaduri in Guddi, Uphar, Kora Kagaj ... the lady is natural. She never acts - Amitabh acts -- Jaya just lives in her roles (even in KKKG in few scenes that were not artificial).

Corpse number 1084 is lying in the govt. mortuary, a life-less body which is reduced to a mere four digit number by the authorities and the mainstream. Nobody wants to claim the body, or accept his association with it, except his mother. But why is he so neglected, why do people want to forget him, why was he killed and what sort of a man was he, when alive? The film is the journey of his mother to give, and find answers to these questions and through this, the film tries to capture the story of those thousands youth of Naxalite Movement who dared to dream, and fight for a better alternative, and who were butchered by the the nexus of state, right wing parties, and betrayers and saboteurs present in the left movement itself.

Based on a novel with the same title by eminent Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi, this film tries to capture the Kolkata of Stormy-seventies, when Naxalite Movement was penetrating among the urban, educated middle-class youth.

Sujata(Jaya Bachchan) is the mother of Brati(Joy Sengupta), a brilliant and honest-to-self upper-middle class student, who chooses to dedicate his life to the cause of proletarian revolution and is murdered by state supported goons. Sujata goes through an epistemological journey in search of the reasons for this, and finally, realizing the relationship between her own oppression(in the household) and that of the poor (outside), she decides to resist, alike her son. In the end, the mother feels that each time she offers a resistance to injustice, she gives re-birth to her deceased son again, and gets more closer to him as a mother, a friend, and a comrade.

The film captures everything, and that too perfectly, be it the decadence of Bengali well-off society and artists, the tortures inflicted by police on the naxalites, the ideological deviations of the movement, the betrayals by insiders, the beauty and honesty of the dreams of the naxal youth, and the brutality and ugliness of their cold-blooded genocide by the state,the weaknesses of the movement at that time and its capacity to learn from mistakes; and all this added by masterly performances by Nandita Das(Nandini),Seema Biswas(Somu's mother), Jaya Bachchan, Joy and other actors. Govind Nihlani's direction is excellent and the film surely is one of his Masterpieces.

Above all, it shows that Naxalism is not about some splashes of blood or some crime oriented or mindless killings, but it is about a dream nurtured by a whole generation of 16 to 40, which sacrificed itself for the same and whose dream carries audience and relevance till now. Best Hindi film on Naxalism. 8 out of 10.

Anyone who has 'lived' thru the tense moments of any religious riot in India, can immediately identify with the bus scene in "Mr & Mrs Iyer". Likewise, the actual experience of living in a Calcutta, firmly in the vicious grip of the Naxalite movement, can color your perceptions about the reading of this movie, whether intentional or not.

The movement, which primarily found host in the predominantly communist states of Kerala and W. Bengal, later morphed into various factions and sowed the seeds of separatist tendencies in places like Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. Results have been mixed and less than spectacular mainly posing a big security risk for state governments.

But this film is not about extremism or the violence it ensues. Instead it tries to diagnose the ideological underpinnings at work, individual and collective psychologies of various proponent groups, as well as the impact on families involved and their relationships with each other. It asks in effect: what is the point of fighting for unity, equal rights, justice, etc when the price to be paid is your own family and the very foundations of civil society, regardless if the fight is just or not? Does the end justify the means?

Nihalani has chosen to use family as a metaphor, to essay the sense of guilt, betrayal, resignation and subordination all captured brilliantly in one time and place. The cast is excellent and has delivered well. In one of her best performances so far, Jaya Bachchan is reflective, yet quietly indignant. Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas, Joy Sengupta and Nandita Das in an introductory role form the remaining cast. Though the editing isn't as slick as "Ardhsatya" and the pace slows down several times, the direction is superb as is the cinematography in capturing the prevalent mood of the time.

Indeed, a very good must-see film.

->The movie appears to be slightly sympathetic to the Left-wing extremists(then known as the 'Naxalites'). Nevertheless, an outstanding one ! ->In a country like India where the truth dies a horrible and a silent death,such movies ought to add to the confusion of the 'stupid' common man but at the same time make him realize the extent of his ignorance. ->The best part of the movie is undoubtedly it's direction - a gist of the idealistic,dreaming,competent and willing but certainly with-wrong-basics youth of the 60-70's who were the core of the Naxalbari movement;the muscle flexing,brutality and cunning(well-inherited from the English)of the Government;the always-ignorant,hypocrite upper and middle class;the parasitic and infectious thug-clan in India and many more subtle aspects of a national peril manifest well in the movie. ->All actors have done their sweep well.Especially,Jaya Bhaduri(a rueful mother),Seema Biswas(a persevering lady of lower economic strata),Nandita Das(a dynamic,dreamer-turned-astute extremist) take most of the credit. ->The climax of the movie seems apparently off-track but is not - it relates to all the threads spawned in the first half of the movie.