Art of a storyteller

If there is one movie that would make you change your perspective about Hindi movies on OTT being about violence and volley of abuses only, it has to be The Storyteller. Here is a movie for those who find themselves caught between the dualistic world of haves and have-nots. It is a world which brings a storyteller and story-stealer together, it is rather a plot essentially woven between two of them. It superimposes pretentious sophistication against clumsy artistry with cinematic precision.

This movie based on a short story “Golpo Boliye Tarini Khuro” by Satyajit Ray is a tribute to Ray’s craft of packaging layers with utmost simplicity. Director Anant Mahadevan deserves accolades for casting two of the most versatile actors in India Paresh Rawal as Tarini Bandhyopadhyay and Adil Hussain as Ratan Garodia to play the lead. Tarini is a raconteur in Kolkata who engrossingly captivates the audience with his storytelling but doesn’t have as much passion to write his stories. His art is for art sake. He smoke muses and comes up with absorbing stories and like any Bengali likes his fish. Tarini in his terse Bengali phrases speaks of the ills of society where capitalism rules the roost and art has few takers.

Peresh Rawal has picked up the Bengali accent with finesse neither too loud nor too little. Adil Hussain as a Gujarati entrepreneur has done no wrong to a Gujarati baron Ratan Garodia’s mannerism. Garodia finds a weird treatment to his insomnia inviting Tarini from Kolkata to lull him to sleep with his stories. Here is a cotton baron who doesn’t get a moment of sleep on his cotton mattresses. Reluctant though Tarini agrees for he doesn’t have any other work to quench his artistic faculty with. As a movie-buff watching a mis en scene with prolific actor Paresh Rawal (a Gujarati born) playing Bengali and another accomplished actor Adil Hussain (an Assamese knowing Bengali) playing Gujarati businessman is epic. This role reversal in a movie and the duel between the two artists who can find faults with the other’s projection of the culture he is actually brought on, is a great experiment in its own rights.

Its short compilation establishing the Gujarati and Bengali milieu is aesthetically rapturous. One can make-out that the aesthetic build-up required a slow paced movie which it quintessentially is. Music played by Hriju Roy borrowing from Rabindra Sangeet is gratifying for those who are in awe of serious cinema. Folk songs have been craftily integrated. The song played in background Tere Mere Milan Ki Yeh Raina is originally a Tagore tune. Ethos of Kolkata and Ahmedabad brilliantly captured by the lensman Alphonso Roy.

This movie stands out for its symbolic craft. Garodia has lost his sleep over Saraswati (Goddess of wisdom, music, art and learning in the Hindu mythology) his lost love, played by Revati. Some lines are ironic and takeaways of this artistic treat. Saraswati ko Lakshmi pasand nahi (Saraswati doesn’t like money), what has eluded the Gujarati businessman, he wants to have it by stealing someone’s art and storytelling prowess. The false fame that he earns eventually bites him as the Tagore Foundation catches him selling books in his name which originally is Tagore’s classic work and Saraswati rebuffs him for his dishonesty. Garodia (Adil Hussain)’s lines have punching similes. “Neend byaj jaise hain. Maut ko door rakhne ke liye zaroori hai. Yeh byaaj main nahi bhar paa raha (Sleep is like interest you pay to keep death at bay, I cannot pay this interest any more). His obsession for plagiarism turns chronic when he apes Tarini’s habits, consuming even fish which is forbidden at his home. It is typical of pseudo-intellectuals who keep works of Tolstoys and Picasso without having understood what these classic pieces of art stand for. Fish is a catch at Garodia’s home stealthily brought by Tarini, little does he know he himself is a catch for Garodia. Hilsa, the cat steals fish from the owner’s tank and eats it, akin to his owner who buys Tarini’s storytelling to steal it. How symbolically woven is the Garodia home, someone is stealing while someone is being stolen.

The one area though where the storyteller takes a wrong turn from his muse is neither in Tagore’s world nor would Ray ever have his ‘aparajito’(Undefeated woman) be pictured as a sidekick whose only reason to stand in the frame is the depiction of leading men’s obsession and flings. The two women Revathi (playing the Gujarati businessman’s love interest Saraswati and Tannishtha Chatterjee (librarian) in her brief encounters with Paresh Rawal, have very little screen time.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal”, Tarini’s killing punch lines to let Garodia know he knew how he used his art to earn fame. “Nakal ke liye bhi akal chahiye” (You need intelligence to even copy something) resonates with every art lover that borrowed garments never suit well.

Now for a film aficionado, out of the two prominent characters - Tarini and Garodia, who is the protagonist and who is antagonist. I would say neither, in fact art is the protagonist in this story. In a society you have Tarinis who can be accused of selling their art and you have Garodia’s who strive to buy art to sell it off as their property, but art stands out. You may have bludgeoning corrupting influence of the capitalist era but art survives amid all odds. The storyteller may pass away but his art will live on.