{"id":7457,"date":"2023-06-06T07:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T01:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=7457"},"modified":"2023-06-06T07:58:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T02:28:41","slug":"neel-akasher-neeche-a-tale-of-humanism-amid-the-freedom-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/neel-akasher-neeche-a-tale-of-humanism-amid-the-freedom-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Neel Akasher Neeche: A Tale of Humanism Amid the Freedom Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kali

Wang tours the city on foot with his bundle of China silk on his shoulder<\/p><\/div>\n

Calcutta 1930. The opening shot places Neel Akhasher Neeche<\/em> firmly in its time frame. It was the time when India\u2019s struggle for freedom from British imperial rule was rising in a giant wave across the country, and Calcutta was a nerve centre. The camera pans the city\u2019s massive skyline nestling beneath the wide blue sky with a brief narration about the tumultuous period and a lone \u2018Chinaman\u2019, one of the unknown multitudes who fight for survival in the lanes and bylanes. Shots of processions and protests, with the police chasing the demonstrators, place the film in its context and you prepare yourself for a journey that will bring you a slice of the bustling metropolis going through stormy times.<\/p>\n

Films featuring foreigners, there have been many. Movies that have a foreigner as a main character, there have been several. Especially films that dealt with the British colonial period typically would have British characters in major roles \u2013 from Junoon<\/em> to Lagaan<\/em>, there are many examples. However, very few films have been made on immigrants playing the main role \u2013 those who come to India to sell their wares or make a living. Only two films come to mind \u2013 Kabuliwallah<\/em>, based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore, about the relationship between a Pathan kabuliwala<\/em> and a little Bengali girl, made into films by Tapan Sinha (Bengali) and Hemen Gupta (Hindi). And the film under discussion here \u2013 Neel Akasher Neeche<\/em> (Under the Blue Sky), based on Padma Vibhushan Mahadevi Verma\u2019s short story \u2018Chini Feriwala<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Wang Lu (Kali Banerjee) is a \u2018China-man\u2019 or Chinese man who lives in a shanty in a part of Calcutta that is home to several Chinese immigrants. He sells \u2018China silk\u2019 for a living, roaming the streets on foot, bent with a huge bundle of silk cloth slung over his shoulder, calling out \u2018Ch-e-e-naa se-e-elk\u2019. Children tease him for his looks and manner of talking but he doesn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n

Once he chanced upon Basanti (Manju Dey), the khadi-wearing freedom fighter, when she shooed away the children creating a ruckus around him. Hemanta Mukherjee\u2019s chirpy daughter Ranu appears in an adorable cameo here. An instant, unspoken affinity between Basanti and Wang Lu is apparent.<\/p>\n

Wang doesn\u2019t make much from his sales and Maki (Smriti Biswas), the helper girl at the eatery in his neighbourhood, tries to bring him some food stealthily. She is attracted towards Wang, although he rather roughly rejects her advances.<\/p>\n

\"Kali

Maki stealthily brings food for Wang who is unable to pay for his food bills<\/p><\/div>\n

The lovely artwork of a woman\u2019s face in a huge billboard advertisement of \u2018Madhuri\u2019 soap on a street corner reminds Wang of Basanti and he comes knocking one day at her door. Basanti tries in vain to make him understand that she has no interest in his silk. She addresses him as \u2018bhai\u2019, which touches Wang\u2019s heart, reminding him of his lost sister in China. \u201cTum humko bhai bola. Sab humko bhagaa deta,\u201d<\/em> says Wang, finding a sympathetic heart in a city which does not consider him as one of their own.<\/p>\n

This starts a unique relationship of empathy between the two, much to the chagrin of the elite and arrogant husband of Basanti (played by Bikas Roy, referred henceforth as Roy). On Wang\u2019s side, it is Maki who feels jealous and insecure at his growing affection for his \u2018sister\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Kali

The western-attired lawyer, conscious of his elite status, throws Wang out of his house<\/p><\/div>\n

Basanti and her husband are as different as chalk and cheese. She is humble, down to earth, committed to the freedom struggle and wears only khadi. Her husband is fiercely protective of his status among the upper echelons of the city and is thus annoyed at Basanti\u2019s revolutionary leanings. Her growing interaction with a poor Chinese immigrant becomes a cause for social embarrassment for him. The chasm between the couple starts to widen. Wang even saves Basanti from getting caught by the police but Roy wants to hear none of it.<\/p>\n

\"Manju

Wang brings a new year’s gift for Basanti<\/p><\/div>\n

Things reach an explosive point when Wang, dressed in his best festival shirt, brings Basanti a gift on the Chinese New Year.\u00a0 In a brilliantly scripted scene, Sen brings out the wide difference between the attitude of Basanti and her husband towards the underprivileged. Using the staircase as a symbol, Sen places Roy initially in a superior position, who is concerned about how the society and his relatives would view his wife\u2019s affinity for a poor Chinese. \u201cWhy does this street hawker feriwala<\/em> have so much headache for you?\u201d asks Roy, looking down at Basanti standing a few steps below from his elevated perspective. \u201cWhere there is a headache, he is not a feriwala. He is a human being,\u201d Basanti replies, in a lovely high angle shot, the courage of conviction writ large on her face. Roy has no answer to this.<\/p>\n

\u201cStep aside,\u201d Roy says.
\n\u201cNa,\u201d says Basanti, determined to stop her husband.
\n\u201cStep aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basanti steps aside and Roy descends rapidly down the steps, determined to throw Wang out once more. Basanti stays where she is, watching him. The angles change. No words are exchanged but her conviction is so powerful, that a confused Roy stops, turns hesitantly, and slowly begins the climb up. We can sense a change in his perspective which will be apparent later.<\/p>\n

\"Manju

Mrinal Sen uses a change of angles to show stature and a change in perspectives<\/p><\/div>\n

Wang, having heard the altercation, quietly leaves. The Madhuri soap billboard, which served as a symbol of his \u2018sister\u2019 is crossed out with cruel strokes by a labourer \u2013 it has outlived its time. Lyricist Gouriprasanna Majumdar and Hemanta Mukherjee team up to create a classic title song, shot sensitively in the dead of the night in the streets of Calcutta. As a dejected Wang aimlessly roams \u2014 the Church, the Corinthian pillars of Prinsep Ghat, the banks of the Ganga, the Strand Road, Hemanta\u2019s baritone urges you to cry for the unknown millions who sleep under the blue sky, hidden in the dark silence of the night, listen to their story of pain in the wail of the wind, and see their tears in the dewdrops.<\/p>\n

Neel akasher neeche prithibi<\/strong><\/em> (Neel Akasher Neeche<\/em>, 1959) Gouriprasanna Majumdar \/ Hemanta Mukherjee<\/span><\/p>\n