Love is an expression which can be uttered through different moods of mind. It could be vocal, vibrant and even violent. But love also can be silent, where a thread of silence can bind the motion of love keeping the flow alive. Director Srijit Mukherji deals with this “silent love” in his experiment to portray this basic human feeling on a different canvas with a never told narrative. “Nirbaak” (Bengali) or “Speechless” is one of the best experimental movies happened in Indian cinema in recent times.
Watch This Title
Samson Gomes (Anjan Dutt) is a loner for the world but a self-lover. He loves himself the most and finds the shadow of his wife and even mother in himself. He kisses his own reflection in a mirror and even satisfies his lust. Samson sits in a park alone on a bench beneath a big tree. Here comes the woman (Sushmita Sen) who sits on the same bench with Samson and shares her grievances of life with him in a silent mode. Samson cuts his birthday cake alone and dies in an accident on the same day falling and hurting his head while having a shower inside his bathroom.
The thread of silent love continues with the tree in the park and Sushmita. The tree is in love with the woman. It showers its feeling for the lady with the movements of leaves and even ejaculates a white liquid watching the curves of his lady love, sleeping on the bench. Rahul (Jissu Sengupta), fiancée of the woman comes to Kolkata from another city and the flow of love streams into a love triangle. The tree disrupts Rahul, every time he tries to express his thoughts for the woman while sitting in the park. The closeness by the man and the woman ignites lustful jealousy in the mind of the tree. But the tree dies an untimely death in a powerful storm in the city one night.
Sushmita enters into a connubial life with Rahul and finds a jealous female partner in his life. She is Bingi-Rahul's female dog, who is in love with Rahul. The dog out of jealousy starts tantrums and makes disturbances in their life. And once, when she finds the woman alone in flat, attacks and bites her. Rahul and Sushmita decide to keep Bingi in Rahul's mother's place. And they face an accident on the way to Rahul's mother's place as Bengi opens the door of the car to jump outside. Sushmita dies on the spot and Rahul goes into a coma.
Mritunjoy (Ritwick Chakraborty) is a caretaker of morgue who brings the body of Sushmita. After seeing her face he falls in love with the corpse and imagines her as his lover. A group of goons ask Mritunjoy to hand over his lady love's body to them for Necrophilia. Mritunjoy denies and he is killed brutally. His body enters into the same morgue when his lady love's body is taken away for identification and it defines separation and the “love thread” ends its journey.
Anjan Dutta as self-obsessed Samson Gomes is brilliant and director Srijit Mukherji brings out his best with a powerful narrative. Jissu Sengupta has matured significantly with time as a cerebral actor and put up a powerful performance. Sushmita Sen as the protagonist “love thread” of the movie tries her best but somehow overshadowed by the powerful presence of all co-actors including Ritwick Chakraborty. But the dog Bingi is just outstanding and the director brings out the best from her and I thought that episode of the movie with Bingi has the power and strength to become a full-length feature itself.
Film making is an art which is done by the means of some technological tools. And an art does not care about any theory but follows the artistic instincts. “Nirbaak” is a hard hitting experimental movie which rarely happens in Indian Cinema. It might be surreal in some aspects but tries to bring out the eternal meaning of love in a different way dictated by a master director. A movie like “Nirbaak” creates its own audience by the virtue of a powerful and pristine thought and a brilliant directorial approach which is well ahead of time.
