{"id":413,"date":"2011-12-29T11:38:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T11:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/landc.wpengine.com\/silhouette\/?p=413"},"modified":"2015-05-05T05:30:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T05:30:55","slug":"narrative-tagores-songs-used-tarun-majumdars-alo-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/narrative-tagores-songs-used-tarun-majumdars-alo-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Narrative Of Tagore\u2019s Songs Used In Tarun Majumdar\u2019s Alo (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alo

Alo (2003)
Cast: Rituparna Sengupta, Abhishek Chattejee, Soumili Biswas
(Pic: Youtube)<\/p><\/div>\n

Alo (Light) <\/em>is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay\u2019s 1938 short story \u201cKinnardal\u201d<\/em> (\u2018The Performers of Heaven\u2019).<\/p>\n

Alo<\/em> is the story of an educated city-bred woman moving to her husband\u2019s ancestral village post-marriage. The interaction between the uneducated, poverty-stricken villagers and the educated woman is the crux of the short story, as well as its film adaptation.<\/p>\n

Majumdar seems to understand that a \u201csocial\u201d (as Ray called them) film like Alo<\/em>, necessitates the use of melodramatic elements. He also understands that in order to reach a larger audience, there must be \u201csimplicity of approach\u201d in the story telling, as Ray puts it.<\/p>\n

As is the acknowledged hallmark of Majumdar\u2019s films, Alo (Light)<\/em> uses Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s songs extensively. While the plot follows the story about Alo as the traditional narrative of causality, Majumdar etches out a thematic quotient to the narrative of Tagore\u2019s songs and poetry.<\/p>\n

He manipulates the \u201clegacy of the theatrical-operatic traditions\u201d (Ray 40) of the jatras<\/em> (rural dramas of Bengal) in Bengali films in the form of songs and dances, primarily focussing on the protagonist. He chooses to introduce the film to the audience with a poem that does not, at all, refer to the central protagonist of the film.<\/p>\n

The credits are rolled out along with the recitation of a section of \u201cDui Bigha Jomi\u201d<\/em> (A Strip of Land). The selected passage is a salutation to the beauty and simplicity of rural Bengal. The sense of calm that the audience settles into is disrupted, as they realize that, it is used as an antithesis to the reality of rural life.<\/p>\n

In his essay on village life, Himu, Shubho\u2019s younger brother, refutes the established notion of the placid beauty of village life, by citing the instance of his chaotic ancestral village, Kaloshdanga. He argues against the impossibility of polarising the rural as beautiful and the cityscape as ugly. In the process, the impossibility of easily formulating valid \u2018absolute ideas\u2019 is argued. The author attempts to follow the dual narratives and establish them as synchronous during the course of the article.<\/p>\n

Alo is introduced twice \u2013 first to the audience, and then to her prospective groom, Subho. The first song used is, \u201c\u09b9\u09be\u09b0\u09c7, \u09b0\u09c7\u09b0\u09c7, \u09b0\u09c7\u09b0\u09c7, \u0986\u09ae\u09be\u09df\u099b\u09c7\u09dc\u09c7\u09a6\u09c7\u09b0\u09c7, \u09a6\u09c7\u09b0\u09c7-\/ \u09af\u09c7\u09ae\u09a8\u099b\u09be\u09dc\u09be\u09ac\u09a8\u09c7\u09b0\u09aa\u09be\u0996\u09bf\u09ae\u09a8\u09c7\u09b0\u0986\u09a8\u09a8\u09cd\u09a6\u09c7\u09b0\u09c7\u0964\u201d (\u2018O my, let me be free\/ as free as the bird in the forest\u2019). The song is from Shrabongatha<\/em> (Monsoon Songs<\/em>), where, Nataraj introduces this song as the one that captures the \u201c\u09a6\u09c1\u09b0\u09cd\u09b2\u09b2\u09bf\u09a4\u099a\u09be\u099e\u09cd\u099a\u09b2\u09cd\u09af\u201d (the unsophisticated restlessness) of the monsoons. Alo and her siblings are not introduced with one of the suave, graceful monsoon songs of Tagore. Instead, the song that introduces them is filled with the spirit of adventure.<\/p>\n

Ha re re re<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n