The striking fact of ‘Shibpur’ is that the director has been immensely successful in creating and establishing the central character of a woman whose metamorphosis from a simple Bengali housewife to lady mafia gang leader in Shibpur is not only avant-garde but also a reflection on human society and women empowerment.
Shibpur is not far from Calcutta; a place which was transforming at the same time when Bengal was changing: politically, economically and culturally. The 2023 Bengali film ‘Shibpur’ has been conceived by the theatre actor Rajdeep Sarkar to illustrate the reality of a place that played a significant role in many ways.
Shibpur is connected by several roadways and it has a history of its own like Calcutta. In Bengali cinema, such a landmark film will shine forever; director Arindam Bhattacharya created ‘a fiction around reality’ and ‘the characters’ in such a way that each person in the audience would feel connected to the story. The striking fact is that the director has been immensely successful in creating and establishing the central character of a woman whose metamorphosis from a simple Bengali housewife to lady mafia gang leader in Shibpur is not only avant-garde but also a reflection on human society and women empowerment. My grandmother had related stories of women in her time who had to suffer, struggle and fight back with the society during the time of both Partition of Bengal and the ‘80s and ‘90s politics — the struggle for power; I could identify that era through the character of Mandira Biswas, which is strongly played by female lead Swastika Mukherjee.
Hans Morgenthau wrote in Politics Among Nations: “Power is man’s control over the minds and actions of other men. Similarly, the struggle for power is universal in time and space and an undeniable fact of experience.” Director Arindam Bhattacharya perhaps wanted to bring to the screen the element of that power struggle through his villainous characters — local goon Tapan (Kharaj Mukherjee), mob-boss Nepal (Rajatava Dutta), mafia lady (Mamata Shankar), Kana Sikdar (Rajdeep Sarkar), and finally Mandira joining that force to bring justice to her husband’s death.
The end of the film has a revelation of connection between two characters with a twist in the climax in which another character is trapped to keep someone hidden from the society, even after 25 years. Such can be the games of politics. As an author, I enjoyed the crisp storyline and the different take of the director-writer on the relationship and justice; however, in a subtle moment I did feel that the characters needed more space to develop and their interconnected stories required more ‘frames’ for the audience to have a better and stronger grasp on the reasons why certain situations were occurring and to feel the pathos of the dying or suffering characters. Sultan Ahmed (Parambrata Chattetjee) is an experienced police officer who created an impact throughout the story, yet the audience might neither accept or hate the character. But that is the beauty of some lead characters who can enhance a role silently and create a different impact; and it is never easy to show everything on screen in fixed hours.
Yet people did react to the death of Kana Sikdar (Rajdeep Sarkar). Kana was a goon but his character was quite vividly visible, even though his screen-time was less compared to the major characters in the film. But the frames such as his —negative smiles, power hungry look, style of walking, gestures, irrational reasons for murdering people, wrongful treatment of Mandira, remorse for his mother’s broken hand, ruthlessly killing the man who has hurt his old mother and finally getting killed mercilessly in the football field— has well depicted the portrait of a grassroot character, a man who can exist in reality.
I congratulate the director who conceptualised the idea that women could react and revolt in the 1980s/90s and depicted it through the character of Mandira Biswas. In the modern world when women are deciding not to marry...why would it be strange if a lady in the past had chosen the power to conquer the local mafia and goons? Rather that is where the strength may have come to the women in the contemporary world.
Overall, the film has a universal tone of injustice, a fight for justice and the reality of Shibpur. We cannot deny that history is important to understand the present time. These kinds of films are significant milestones both for the Bengali film industry and for people of Bengal who need to break the screens of melodramatic cinemas, love-circles, and learn to appreciate their own stories or the stories of their ancestors. It is a different genre that has been explored by director Arindam Bhattacharya and theatre actor Rajdeep Sarkar for the viewers to enjoy and think about for a long time.
Finally it is a treat to watch the multi-talented Howrah DCP Dyutiman Bhattacharya in action on screen.
Glad that I watched the film.