tulkalam - a re-review

Mithun Chakraborty is here to stay. He has injected Bengali mainstream cinema with generous doses of adrenalin in the name and style of the action film, a relatively little known factor in Bangla Chhobi. Tulkalam (A Reflection of Today) is another classic example of how an ageing star can pull the crowds as the lone crusader who fights for justice and fair play for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the poor and the women. Directed by Haranath Chakraborty, also a box office churner, written and scripted by the late Anjan Choudhury, Tulkalam sets the box office on fire solely through the action antics of this 60-ish import from Bollywood.

"Toofan comes once a year, but when he does, everyone is trapped," is a famous one-liner from the film. There are others too, and whenever there is trouble, Toofan (Mithun Chakraborty) appears like an angel from heaven to bash up everyone from a drunken husband beating up his wife to hired goons of local politicians till they turn their tails and run for cover. His attacks are so aggressive that whole cars take sudden somersaults in the air, goons fall like ten pins on the wayside and a pretty girl Gauri (Rachana Banerjee), young enough to be Toofan's daughter, falls in love without expressing her feelings in so many words or any duet song-and-dance number. The romantic angle is completely sidetracked in favour of Mithun's action scenes that are peppered with nonsensical one-liners that spell magic for the clapping and cheering audience.

The story is sketchy because that is all it demands, a single-line story of a village and a slum within it threatened by the bogey of industrialization that intends to snatch their fertile lands away from them. The hint at the Singur-Nandigram disaster is clear though no names are mentioned. The scene opens with two rival politicians vying with each other in their land grabbing and slum demolition tactics with imported industrialists who are ever willing to invest in these lands at the cost of the peasants and the poor people of the slum. One of these appoints goons to bash up or kill anyone who comes in the way, including the honest politician who is murdered because of his honesty. Gauri, his daughter, is determined to find who his killers are. In this scenario arrives Toofan and begins to set things right for the peasants and the slum dwellers. The politicians' conspiracy to eliminate him are nipped in the bud no thanks to his body language comprised of beating up everyone in sight black and blue. So, they try another tactic. They trap him in a false rape-and-murder charge till the 'murdered' girl walks in and drops a bombshell. It appears that Toofan is a CBI officer sent fro Delhi to uncover the unjust land dealings. There is a lot of satire woven into the scenes such as one where school children are deprived of their mid-day meal because the rations for the day have been diverted for the birthday celebrations of one of the politicians' brother-in-law's son. Or, a scene where the hospital staff, including the doctors playing ludo on an unofficial bandh day.

The trademarks of masala are all there – homage to minority Muslims, songs that are a collage of old folk and popular numbers sung in groups, an item number and a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour in the name and style of one of the politician's brother-in-law portrayed brilliantly by Rajatabha Dutta. Dutta's stupid antics, bumbling demeanour and tall talks juxtaposed against the 'strong and silent' image of Toofan in close-up, offer the right balance of entertainment with a purpose – a jingling box office. Mithun has little to offer as an actor because all he does is bash up people in medium and long shots and look very grave, solemn and silent in the close-ups. It is one of those unexplained ironies of celluloid history that a talented actor like Mithun delivers a box office hit in a film that hardly needs him to act!

The technical side does not deserve mention because it is not important either to the quality of the film or to its box office value. Specially scripted dialogues for Mithun by NK Salil (who is also credited for 'additional screenplay') is another attraction for the masses. Is Tulkalam a good film or is it a bad one? It is entertaining the 'tapori' public right across West Bengal and that is what will motivate the producer (Pijush Shaha) to put money in another film, right? And if the tapori public is paying for the ticket, who care about aesthetic excellence? 'Good' and 'bad' are relative terms, especially in cinema, where subjective responses differ.

Shoma A Chatterji is a freelance journalist who specialises in cinema and gender. She has won the National Award for Best Writing on Cinema twice.