Chingari (2006)
Director: Kalpana Lajmi
Acting: Sushmita Sen (Basanti), Mithun Chakraborty (Bhuvan Panda), Anuj Sawhney (Chandan Misra)
Women have only three roles to play in society – one, of a Goddess (Maa Kali); the second of the submissive wife and nurturing mother, and the third of a prostitute to cater to the lust factor of men. In all three forms, if you notice, she is serving man in one way or another. As a Goddess she is supposed to be the Maa avatar, thus providing us sinners (read men) with a comfort zone where we are able to sin and repent (hopefully), knowing that we can take refuge in the lap of the ever-forgiving MAA! As a wife and mother she has the looking after to do, of course; and as a prostitute, again its all about men. Never have I heard the sad story of a hooker who indulges in the trade to satisfy her own self. It is always about how pathetically she is trapped and cannot break free.
The above mentioned three-kinds-of-women are not figments of my imagination. This is the main argument of the story which Lajmi has put before us and she tries to make room for woman power yet again (she did it in Daman as well – which was a disaster, if you ask me). The ‘three kinds of women’ are not what Lajmi vouches for – this theory is given to us by the villain of the script and the heroine fights against it, despite the handicap of being a woman - an illiterate woman from a rural village who also is a prostitute. This woman eventually manages to let the three-woman barrier break till there emerges a unified whole, which happens at the end of the movie. What do I mean by unified whole? Imagine this: a prostitute as deadly as Maa kali when it comes to taking revenge from someone who has wronged her and her entire village; a prostitute who has a young child and dreams of giving a good life to the offspring, coupled with freedom and respect; a prostitute who falls in love with a man in a pure sort of a way. This woman is Basanti (Sushmita Sen).
The Story: There exists a very backward district, Rangpura somewhere in northern India (Bihar side) and this is the story of Basanti who lives in Lalbatti (a small place where she lives in a brothel with her mates and touts). At the beginning itself the narrator tells us that the story is in no way unique, but infact, it is a mirror to the state of affairs in most rural areas of India which are still immersed in darkness owning to the ignorance of the general populace. Weird rituals are still practiced such as the sacrificing of an unmarried girl for the dead body of a man. Behind all this, we have only one person who is the head priest of the village and also the head of sorts of the entire district. He does what he pleases, makes his own rules and scares the ignorant villagers with the help of his goons. There can be absolutely no revolt. Apart from this, he is outright evil. He is our villain - a priest dressed in saffron attire, who preaches during the day and visits Basanti at nights. He is Bhuvan Panda (Mithun Chakraborty).
The story is entirely about Basanti’s battle. How she has a little girl, Titali who she is extremely fond of. During the middle of the movie her sole aim is to break free from the clutches of her trade and from Bhuvan Panda to give her daughter the life of a normal, respected person. Then there comes a postman in her life who reads out letters to her other illiterate friends and to her, the only letter that she ever received. The postman (Chandan) befriends Titali and they soon become inseparable. In the backdrop, injustice keeps taking place in some form or the other and you keep hating Bhuvan Panda progressively. Issues such as womens’ rights, ignorance, illiteracy etc. are constantly raised through minor instances in the course of the movie. Very often you see Bhuvan Panda coming to Basanti and beating her black and blue, scaring her beyond belief and telling her not to interact with Chandan, the postman. (Chandan happens to be the only literate fellow in the village, and also the only liberated guy). Then she falls in love with Chandan and he is killed by Bhuvan. Enough has happened to make the dormant Basanti erupt, just like a volcano. When she does, you see the finest acting by Sushmita Sen and you might actually get the chills just seeing her growl in that low tone, with wide open glaring eyes. For the first time, her accent doesn’t seem put on and she looks like the crude prostitute that she is meant to be. Her histrionics are breathtaking and quite shocking.
The end, as you would have guessed by now, is extremely dramatic. A parade of women comes running with dholaks in hands, shouting and screaming, with Basanti leading the group. From the other side, you see Bhuvan Panda and his gangsters walk out towards the party, trying to meet in the center. Strangely, it is an easy battle for Basanti (who by now looks like Durga herself) as she comfortably manages to crush the evil Bhuvan with Durga’s trishul. There’s more - She then sticks out her tongue and smiles wickedly and victoriously, just like the statue of Kali that Lajmi keeps turning her camera to. There is loud music and lots of camera shifting – chaos, in short. And the credits start to roll!
What I thought:
The movie fails to make the desired impact. Sushmita Sen is good, but only in parts. Most of the time she sounds too polished to be the crude, loud sex worker that she is. Her dialogues sound too sugary and her tone is almost always sophisticated – if you want to know what I’m talking about, just imagine her speaking in one of her interviews. However, in a few places she is outstanding.
Coming to Mithun Chakraboty’s performance – he was not bad, but again, he didn’t make me hate him enough. Besides, his role was supposed to be the slightly laid-back performance with most things unsaid, as opposed to Sushmita Sen’s script, where she is made to spell out every emotion and every feeling. The story is definitely good as it touches upon issues of critical importance. Again, it is not good enough. The movie is loud and dramatic with an unconvincing (and predictable) end. There is enough rationale behind the actions of the characters, but it is not effectively represented on screen.
I wonder: Why did Basanti wait so long to let the ‘chingari’ out? If taking over evil were so easy, I’m sure none should exist anyway. And why suffer at the hands of evil, if all you got to do is pretend to be Durga?