Samayer Chhayaguli Movie Reviews

Samayer Chhayaguli/ Schatten derZeitis a German film made in Bengali (with a smattering of Hindi too) directed by the Oscar winning German director Florian Gallenberger. It is recommended viewing for film buffs largely for the novelty value. It is indeed a crash course on the German film sensibility and use of cinematic idiom. However, as a film, I am sorry to say that it is a huge letdown. It is too melodramatic a love story spanning sixty years in the lives of Rabi and Masha, the protagonists who fall in love in their childhood, working in a carpet factory (that exploits little boys and girls for cheap labour, and abuses and robs their innocence) and try desperately to unite amidst all odds. Masha becomes a nautch girl at a brothel; Rabi makes it big as a strapping youth brimming with confidence in his carpet-making skills. Rabi fails to connect with his childhood love, even as he keeps returningto the Shiva temple on full moon nights where Masha too comes awaiting, but the circumstances make them star crossed lovers who pine and yearn in vain. Rabi does find Masha, sometime later, when Masha is married to somone else and so is Rabi! They desperately engage in adultery as they find comfort best in each other's arms. Destiny makes their togetherness last only for a brief period of time. They are again set apart. A revelation, after a few years, makes Rabi hopelessly seek out Masha, with a renewed desperation and a crescendo of longing. He succeeds, but this time Masha cannot articulate her true passion and Rabi's offer of a lifelong bonding meets with a rejection. However, when they are both past their prime, they again meet, albeit as a brief interlude, and it is actually from this very point that the narrative unfolds to us in flashbacks. The film boasts of an excellent cinematography by Jurgen Jurges, impressive editing by Hansjorg Weissbrich, robust soundtrack by Gert Wilden, Jr, and a typically handsome mounting as seen in the best of films from Europe. The cast includes Soumitra Chatterjee, Sova Sen, Satya Banerjee, Biplab Dasgupta, Tumpa, Sikander, Tilottama Shome, Irrfan Khan, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Prashant Narayanan.

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