During my latest trip to Vasaipaikar, a remote village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, I had relaxed chat with Sk. Rajak Ali, who is the leader of the local wing of the youth Congress. A die-hard fan of Rahul Gandhi, Rajakbhai is a fourth generation Congressman. He is very proud of the fact that his granddad, inspired by the call of Mahatma Gandhi, had served more than a year in prison during The Quit India movement. With the CPI(M) led Left Front receiving a huge but unexpected thrashing at the hands of the grand opposition alliance – the Mahajot – of the Congress and the Trinamool Congress and the fact that the Lok Sabha constituency of which his village is a part had a elected a Congress candidate by a huge margin Rajakbhai was naturally in a very jovial mood.

“I must say that we owe a lot to Phatakesto for our sweeping victory!” Rajakbhai smiled and seeped his tea.

“You mean, Phatakesto, the MLA and then minister!”

“Yeah! He is the man.”

“How is that possible? The last film was released almost two years ago!”

“You see that film opened the eyes of the people here. People just loved the way the goonda turned MLA bashed up the corrupt cops, politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats black and blue. Phatakesto really became the peoples’ superhero.”

I found it hard to believe that a pot-boiler featuring a middle-aged gangster who turns into the cleanser of the entire system of governance can have such an influence. After all I have been brought up on a diet of debate and arguments regarding the power of cinema or its lack of it. I’ve known that for sure even the venerable Sergei Eisenstein’s masterpiece The Battleship Potemkin had extremely scant impact in creating actual upsurge or rebellions – the film was indeed made after the Russian Revolution. And being a practising filmmaker for all these years have made me even more sceptical about the real power and influence of cinema or all arts for that matter.

“There have been so many films in which the bad politicos, cops and others have been bashed up by heroes like Amitabh Bachchan to Bengal’s very own Boomba (Prosenjit). What’s so special about Phatakeshto?”

Suddenly, Rajakbhai got a bit more animated, “Yes! He is the boss! His films gave us courage to stand up against the misrule. Do you remember the ‘scene’ where Phatakesto exposes the corrupt ration-dealer and gives him a huge thrashing? Our local ration dealer was exactly the same. He regularly embezzled the supplies. As he was in league with the local Left Front leaders, he got away with all his misdeeds. One day, when the film was still on at our local cinema hall, people queued up for their subsidised rations. The dealer started giving out meagre amounts citing lack of supplies as usual. Some hot headed young men grabbed him by the collar and started to beat him up shouting Phatakesto’s dialogue,”Saala! Maarbo ekhane… Laash porbe shamshane!!. (B*****d! I’ll thrash you here…Your corpse will land in your funeral pyre!!).”

“Well, that did it! Suddenly the floodgates were opened. People flayed the ration dealer and started looting his shop and warehouse which were full of rice and kerosene. The rampaging mob went to his two-storied pucca house and broke his expensive furniture and TV set. The Panchayat Pradhan and some other cadres tried to pacify the mob. They were heckled and roundly abused. Soon the cops arrived and resorted to a lathi charge. Calm was restored for a while but as soon as the cops left people barricaded the dealer and the leaders once more. Ultimately the dealer was made to do 30 sit-ups in public. He was also compelled to pay a fine of Rs.90,000. Only then he was freed and permitted to carry on his trade.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yes, I’ve read about the ration riots too. But what’s the connection with the Lok Sabha votes?”

Rajakbhai broke into a smile,” You see after that incident the Left leaders lost all prestige and stood naked. People lost all fear and started questioning them and abusing them about their failures and corruption. To see these b******s cringing in shame and embarrassment was a sight for sore eyes!  Naturally, when the Panchayat elections were held after a few months the Left were trounced and we came to power. The trend has been consolidated in the Lok Sabha elections. Some ordinary left supporters too have voted in our favour this time. The winds of change are really blowing. I’m so happy!”

“I see! But what happened to the fine and the goods that were looted?” I asked.

“Oh! The rice and the kerosene could not be recovered. The police and the ration dealer registered cases of rioting and looting against me and some others. The case is dragging on but I’m sure we’ll win as nobody will testify against us. Anyway they are too demoralised right now. The money was distributed among the poor. The local youth club which was at the forefront of the protests bought a colour TV also. All’s well and hearty except for little problem…”

“What’s that?”

“Hmm… after this entire hullabaloo about the PDS rations, the ration dealer gave up his dealership claiming it was impossible to run a ‘profitable’ venture on ‘honest’ terms! For more than one year people from our village have to procure their rations from the dealer of the next village. We don’t have so much influence over that area, so some corruption is still going on but it’s much reduced scale… Jai Ho Phatakesto!”

PS: Since cases such as the one above relating to ration riots are still sub judice I’ve changed the name of characters and the location involved.