{"id":6094,"date":"2021-04-29T19:29:01","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T13:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=6094"},"modified":"2021-04-29T19:35:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T14:05:40","slug":"hirak-rajar-deshe-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/hirak-rajar-deshe-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Hirak Rajar Deshe: The Diamond King Had a Great Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Utpal

Utpal Dutt as Hirak Raja<\/p><\/div>\n

Hirak Rajar Deshe<\/em>\u00a0(1980) is a film by our great filmmaker Satyajit Ray. This film is based on the story of the times when kings used to be dictators or ruled their kingdom as despots.<\/p>\n

The king Hirak Raja believed in brainwashing the people who rebelled or posed as threats against him. So to avoid any type of trouble in his rule, he brought a scientist to invent a brainwashing machine which the scientist called \u2018Mastishk Prakshalan Yantra\u2019 <\/em>(Brain Washing Machine).\u00a0The king simplified the Sanskrit name to \u2018Magaj Dholai\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this Magaj Dholai<\/em> machine, people suspected of treason of any form would be shoved in. Once the machine was switched on, it would keep playing the words or rhyme or whatever the king wanted to make the people say in his glory. The machine would keep repeating these lines non-stop and it would soon get programmed into the minds of the people put inside the machine. They would memorise it by heart, and would keep repeating only those lines and they would neither be able to think anything else, nor speak differently. They would totally become the puppets of the king and his ministers.<\/p>\n

\"hirak

Udayan Pandit, the teacher and his students<\/p><\/div>\n

In the whole of the kingdom there was just one person who rebelled against this despotism – the teacher whose little village school or pathshala the king had shut down so that there would be no education for the children. They wouldn\u2019t learn anything. The king knew very well that education would allow them to think and question. That is what he did not want anyone to do.<\/p>\n

But sometimes an evil person may fall into his own trap as well. In the court when all the guests and other kings invited by Hirak Raja were sitting with him, many poor peasants were brought in to celebrate his glory. There was a brainwashed peasant also present in the court and he started reciting the rhymes that had been programmed into his brain. He suddenly emerged from somewhere and started reciting the lines:<\/p>\n

\u201cBaki rakha khajna mote bhalo kaaj na<\/em>
\nbhor pat nao khai raaj kaur dewa chai,<\/em><\/p>\n

Jae jodi jaag pran Hirak er raja bhagoban.\u201d<\/em>
\n(Not paying the taxes is not at all a good job,<\/em><\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t get to eat to your fill, royal tax must be paid,<\/em>
\nEven if we die, the King of Hirak is God.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The king somehow managed to give the two guards a signal to pick the peasant and take him out of the scene.<\/p>\n

\"hirak

Hirak Raja watches as the peasant sings his praise<\/p><\/div>\n

Our Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne were out on an adventure as they were bored being the pampered-with-nothing-to-do sons in law of the King of Shundi. They were also present at the royal court of Hirak Raja with the other kings. They asked the King about the peasant. The king somehow avoided answering the question directly and said, \u201cPoor farmer! He works in the fields no, that\u2019s why he sometimes acts mad.\u201d Both Goopy and Bagha felt it to be odd and started to think what kind of a king Hirak was. The King definitely symbolised Hitler and other dictators from world history.<\/p>\n

In another embarrassing situation for the King, Goopy and Bagha insisted on seeing the mines where all the labourers work.\u00a0 The King didn\u2019t like the request but agreed to show them the mines. There both of them asked the labourers, \u201cTomra ato kaaj kauro kaushto hoye na?\u201d<\/em> (You all work so much don\u2019t you feel tired?). The labourers mouthed the rhymes they had been brainwashed to learn:<\/p>\n

Je kaure khoni te srom<\/em>
\njaino tare dore jaum,<\/em><\/p>\n

Aunahare nai khed <\/em>
\nbeshi khele bare med,<\/em><\/p>\n

Dhonno shromiker daan Hiraker raja bhagoban\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(One who works in the mines<\/em>
\nthe yam <\/em>(god of death) also fears him,<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no sorrow in starving, much eating makes you fat<\/em>
\nContribution of the labourer is great the King of Hirak is God)<\/em><\/p>\n

After saying this all the labourers fall on the feet of the king.<\/p>\n

\"Soumitra

Soumitra Chatterjee as the teacher<\/p><\/div>\n

Ray also used a song by a wanderer who was also a singer to explain the whole kingdom Kotoi rongo dekhi duniya e.\u00a0 <\/em>Hearing this song the king got fire-eyed and ordered the singer to be thrown out in the forest with his hands, legs and mouth all tied up. Here too Goopy and Bagha take up the mission of revealing the secret of King Hirak and saving the kingdom from his dictatorship. They decided to cooperate with the teacher and all his students who want the dictatorship of the king to be finished. They met the teacher several times and made plans with him. The teacher advised them to loot the diamonds from the room where the freshly polished diamonds were stored. So that all the soldiers could be bribed and they could get their help too in this.<\/p>\n

Kotoi rongo dekhi duniya e<\/strong><\/em> (Hirak Rajar Deshe<\/em>, 1980) Lyrics and Music: Satyajit Ray | Singer: Amar Pal<\/span><\/p>\n