Official Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeMnAMU3rqI
Aparajita Tumi (The Unvanquished) is a complex movie and as such also one with many layers. Layered, not in the way requiring you to peel away one at a time, but instead challenging you to synthesize and enjoy all of them at once. Director Anirudha Roy Choudhury is from the genre of modern makers of Bengali cinema who practice their craft with an eye for the thinking crowd, and this by far is his best attempt in this space. Ultimately, as the name might lead you to believe, this is a film about a wife, mother, lover, daughter – and how a particular set of events initially question but eventually restore her as the unvanquished modern woman.
In a quintessential setting of a Bengali immigrant family in America, replete with the key ingredients in a classic Jhumpa Lahiri book on probasi bengalis – the social gatherings where everyone appears Bengali, loves Ilish mach and fond conversations on Ray and Rabindranath, the framing easily epitomizes the first generation Diaspora experience. The film was shot entirely on location on the west coast of California, aka as the “Bay area” or “Silicon Valley”, where the story is set. Ranajit Palit does a fine job capturing the rugged edges and unforgiving moods along the famous Pacific Coast Highway and in and around the famous city of “Frisco”. But the essence of the film is not restricted, although it is beautifully influenced, by the environment in which the events unfold. The romantic city provides an appropriate backdrop for the moments of carefree connections and meeting again, whereas the ocean provides the moods of a teetering relationship and impending separation. The songs are haunting and lovely, the music appropriate to the build-up, but appeared to overwhelm the visuals sometimes. Too many beautiful things could be distracting, especially if you are middle aged.
The film opens with the betrayed wife, Kuhu, walking out on the marriage and depositing the kids with the parents to get some personal time to gather herself. Always an independent woman, in her thoughts as well as in making choices about her life and love, Kuhu has developed a classic American directness of dealing with things. She is willing to deny herlsef a romantic relationship if it doesn’t assure the stability she seeks, or in telling the “other woman” to get a grip on her thoughts or even in telling her own parents that her marital discord is a her problem she has to sort out on her own. With Padma Priya, we have a Tamilian playing the role of a Bengali girl schooled in America, falling in love with a Muslim Boy from Bangladesh, discussing relationship dramas with a multi-ethnic single mother of three children and an old friend. What confluence of cultures, Tagore would have been happy.
The story unfolds on many fronts. In the immigrant’s dilemma of going back to the people and places left behind, in the longing for the lost days of youthful camaraderie, learning the notes and finding an elusive harmony, and in having to deal with the certainty of death of people we have loved. But the central theme appears to be the “grey” area of relationships, amidst the many societal and some biological pressures on it. The film takes a stance on the subject in the end, after pondering on the fundamentals of how to sustain one comprising of pillars of marriage and offspring, and the question of fidelity of pure companionship versus fidelity in general. This is the where the complexity of the movie lies, and exactly where you have to unravel all the layers at once to find its subliminal message.
(In the spirit of full disclosure, the author claims no authentic knowledge of the subject, and could be biased by insignificant personal involvement in the project. Also in the same spirit, he claims to be objective in his views in spite of subject matter inexpertise and human influences)
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