Aamar Shohor, Aamar Kolkata!!!

You want your cities clean and green; stick to Delhi. You want your cities, rich and impersonal; go to Bombay. You want them high-tech and full of draught beer; Bangalore's your place. But if you want a city with a soul: come to Calcutta.

-- Vir Sanghvi 

Prologue

I was born and brought up in the Kolkata of the 90s. I have been away from Kolkata since 2005, when I went to college in Jodhpur. Now, settled in Delhi, since 2010, Kolkata is the place that reminds me of my childhood and a peaceful stress-free life-- but is today's Kolkata the same as "my Kolkata". I doubt it. The trips back home nowadays often puts me in a strange conflict, between today's Kolkata and my Kolkata.

I have often complained that today's Kolkata is trying to ape Delhi and Mumbai, and not doing a good job at it. However, the truth is, my Kolkata is 15 years older now, and as I have evolved, I am sure my Kolkata has also evolved and gotten "contaminated".

The prologue, seems to have turned into a rant. 

As you read this post, it may seem like being a post about one's first love, who has now changed and moved on. While I, as many other Probashis like me, am still stuck in time and expect her to also remain the same, innocent girl I fell in love with.

The present post will try to balance between these two Kolkatas- my Kolkata and today's Kolkata.

Kolkata, as a character in movies

Kolkata in movies has always been depicted in a particular manner. It is the city of romance, culture and people who love their sweets and fish. 

Why am I trying to describe it-- let me just borrow the words of the "son-in-law of Bengal", Mr. Amitabh Bachchan-- he beautifully introduced Kolkata (which was itself a character in the movie) in Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta, as the city "striving for a change, and yet happily stuck in the adda at coffee house, the undying faith of Kali baari, football in the maidan and rossogolla's sweetness". I have extracted the entire intro speech here for added effect 😀: -

This is possibly, the best description of what I feel about my Kolkata. It is a city which is the comfort zone.

Another lesser know movie beautifully showing Kolkata is Ayushman Khurana's only flop in the last 5 years-- Meri Pyaari Bindu. Ayushman plays a Bangali boy called Bubla, who has shifted out of Kolkata and goes back to meet his parents. There he meets his childhood lover, Bindu (played by Parineeti Chopra), after years. Bindu is now married, and has a daughter. The climax sequence, where its raining and the melodious "Maana ke hum yaar nahi" (sung beautifully by Sonu Nigam) plays in the background, while Bubla just looks at Bindu and smiles. The smile depicts the acknowledgment of the present and sweet memory of the past. Enjoy the song

 

Various bengali movies-- Belaseshe, Praktan and Maach Mishti and More-- takes us back to old North Kolkata, which goes to the probashi memory, rather than how Kolkata is really today. Probably, thats the reason, why I have been drawn towards these movies.

A stark contrast to above movies, would be Kahaani, where Kolkata was again a character, but not the lovey-dovey one, but the real one. It showed Kolkata as a normal city, without delving into the cultural spin. However, the climax with the Durga Puja, and ladies playing shindoor khela, in a split second, took us back to the beauty of Kolkata.  The violence that just concluded, beautifully subsides into the background and the colourful spirit of Durga Puja takes over, with the melodious Ekla Cholo (in not such a good rendition by Amitabh Bachchan) plays in the background.  

Kolkata from the eyes of the "outsider"

While the above movies were based in Kolkata, the next two movies, I will talk about, are probably closer to my current predicament. 

Namesake, is based on the novella written by Jhumpa Lahiri. The story is about the journey of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguly (played by the indomitable Irfan Khan and Tabu). They are both pure bangalis, north Kolkata folks, who have shifted to US, in search of greener pastures. As they start a family and continue living there, they always feel something missing. Unknowingly, this feeling gets transferred to their son, Gogol (played by Kal Penn), who is born and brought up in the US. Initially, he is embarrassed about his Bangaliness, but after his father's death, he realises his "internal conflict", breaks up with his "white" girlfriend and goes and marries a bengali girl (hoping to find common bangali-ness). Eventually, by the end of the movie, he gets divorced with the "good bengali girl" and finds a sort of balance between his bengali identity and his actual status as a US citizen. 

Finally, I come to the movie that I have related most with. It is made by a modern great, Shoojit Sircar, who has shown the funny idiosyncrasies of a bangali on screen, without reducing them to cliched caricatures.  In Vicky Donor, the Bengali father and his obsession with "phish" is perfection on screen. 

Coming back to the movie I wanted to discuss-- Piku. This movie released at a time, when I was in a similar space as the protagonist, played by Deepika Padukone. Only difference, she did not sell her home, and I did. 

The emotional aspect aside, this movie perfectly sums up the the longing of being back home, yet knowing you can never be back, for Delhi is home now. Another reason, for a special place for this movie, in the song Bezubaan, my school, La Martinere, is shown-- this is where Piku's mother used to teach. Enjoy a trip of Kolkata through Amitabh Bachchan's cycle ride.

I will sign off with two songs, which sums up this post-- sorry to my non-bengali readers-- both are in bangla. The first one is from Praktan, which is a romantic song about Kolkata.

 

The other song is from the movie, Bong Connection, whose storyline is the sum and substance of this post. 

To conclude, I borrow the famous dialogue (with suitable modification) of Naseeruddin Shah from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na--

You can take a Bangali out of Kolkata, but cannot take Kolkata out of a Bangali!!!