Chauranga

"Chauranga" delves into a long forgotten subject in Hindi Movies, caste discrimination. The film serves an eye opener to the fact that there are still places where the Dalits (the lower caste) are oppressed against their human rights. The higher caste still exploit them for cheap labour, sexual relationships, and to retain their self esteem, yet they are mutilated, abused, and killed. The film presents a horrific picture of our society; and for its subject, the film remains commendable.

But whatever has been presented, has been done in subdued colors lacking the cinematic charisma for which the viewers might not accept the film for entertainment values. In the central are two teenagers from Dalit community along which the whole story revolves, and for the both the film remains watchable. On a whole, this short film remains a documentation of a society which despite been well made lacks the cinematic frames and is unable to astound you.

Rating: 2 stars out of 4

The first question that you ask yourself before watching any movie is what it is about. If the basic plot is uninteresting, you refrain from watching it. But what happens when the movie is not about what it promised? There are two possibilities: Either the movie is far from what it promised, in which case it leads to disappointment; or the movie supersedes its promise and takes you to a whole new level of awe, in which case you are absolutely blown away! Sadly, Chauranga belongs to the former.

When the premise of a film reads: A Dalit boys writes a love letter to a Brahmin girl, you know there is an explosive content at hand. As viewers, you cannot possibly miss a story of forbidden love. But that excitement fades away when you discover that the movie just summarily touches the subject and doesn't dare to explore it in the unbounded space of creative freedom.

Chauranga tells the story of Santu, an adolescent boy in an unnamed village of India, furtively climbing a tree daily to take a peek at Mona, the daughter of a Brahmin politician of the village. Santu's mother works at his cowshed and has an illicit affair with him in exchange for his generosity to pay for her elder son Bajrangi's education.

When Bajrangi returns to the village for his holidays, he learns of Santu's infatuation with Mona, and upon his request, agrees to write a love letter for him. The mayhem that follows was supposed to be the main plot of the movie but it gets lost in capturing the myriad facets of the caste discrimination and subjugation in India.

While the movie begins with a lot of promise, employing a cyclical sequence of scene development and story progression, it loses its flavor once it tries to highlight the caste hypocrisy in India. It travels many roads but never seems to reach a destination. A few funny, a few shocking scenes pique your interest but it is quickly drowned by the inconsistent story line.

Things do take a satisfying dramatic turn towards the end but by then it has been one sorry dragging experience. You wish writer-director Bikas Ranjan Mishra focused on the core of the script, instead of the subplots. At one point, you feel Chauranga is a tale of forbidden love; at another, you feel it is an exploration of deranged sexual appetites. What is this movie about? This question has been fiddled with.

Yet, Chauranga deserves appreciation for its bold content. Its performers do justice to their characters and the technical elements of the film enhance the viewing experience as well. A special mention of the sound design which uses entirely natural sounds to create tense situations. This is commendable without any doubt. Likewise, the cinematography takes use of natural light and presents a very realistic environment for the viewers. You wish the screenplay too had the same focus as these two departments.

Topics on caste inequality are rarely touched upon in Indian cinemas. In this respect, kudos to Chauranga for taking the plunge. It may not be more than a one time watch, but it certainly has paved the way for similar movies like Fandry and Sairat to be taken seriously.

A healthy 6 out of 10 for Chauranga.

it is great story A fourteen-year-old Dalit boy (Soham Maitra) is growing up in an unnamed corner of India. His dream is to go to a town school like his elder brother (Riddhi Sen) and his reality is to look after the pig that his family owns. His only escape is to sit atop a Jamun tree and adore his beloved (Ena Saha) passing by on her scooter. His unspoken love is as true as his mother's helplessness who cleans the cowsheds of the local strongman's mansion, with whom she also has a secret liaison. When the boy's elder brother comes on a vacation to the village, he soon finds out about his younger brother's infatuation. The learned elder brother makes him realize the need to express his love and helps him write a love letter.

Films about discrimination in general are hard to watch, but not this slow-paced crime-drama by debutante Bikas Ranjan Mishra.

Santu (Soham Maitra) and Bajrangi (Riddhi Sen) are two teenager of a Dalit caste who live with their mother, Dhaniya (Tannistha Chatterjee), in a village dominated by upper caste self-proclaimed politician, Dhaval (Sanjay Suri). As a perfect hypocrite, Dhaval preaches caste discrimination to the outer world, but stoops inside Dhaniya's sari when it comes to his sexual needs, worsening his matrimony in the process. While Bajrangi goes to town to study, Santu roams around during the day observing the departure and arrival of Mona, Dhava;s'd pretty daughter. The scene is rather disturbed as the lower caste families are oppressed and exploited by the upper caste people - the likes of Dhaval and his highly volatile supporters like Raghu (Anshuman Jha).

Nothing substantial happens in the first 60 minutes, as the only things you will see is Santu playing with his contraption, hanging from a tree, ogling at Mona and possibly her developing breasts, whose intricate information he derived from Bajrangi's high school Science textbook. He plans to profess his love to her, and assigns his brother to write a love letter, without realizing that it would come back to bite him in the eye. The focus is largely on Santu's daily inconsequential escapades and Dhaval's parents who seem to be characters straight out of a religious book. There's also this obsession over pigs and their kidnapping and the speculation of them giving birth to farrow, which seems somehow tied to the people's idol-worshiping habits.

Towards the ending, things take a serious turn and the real message starts getting transmitted. That Dalits are oppressed by the dominants by the hour, which is also evident from the closing epigraph.

Tannishtha Chatterjee is wonderful, and I declare her the actress of the year 2016. After showcasing her acting chops in UnIndian and Parched which released this year, I can surely tell her that she's one of the leading actresses in the independent cinema scene. Sanjay Suri and the kids do a good job, but they more or like do what they were told. Supporting cast is fine.

The theme is very relevant to the current times, but I'm afraid the message gets blurred as it seeps through the cracks that are gaps in the film due to the slow pace.

BOTTOM LINE: Bikas Ranjan Mishra's "Chauranga" could be a real depiction of the multi-colored lives we witness in this cruel world, but what it really is is a stream of colors that have become dull due to over-strain. Watch it on a free Netflix plan.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO