I have to start this with C.V Sreeraman. He was a Sahitya Academy Award (Indian Literary award) winning writer whose stories have fascinated movie directors for years especially for their visual style of narration. Vasthuhara (The dispossessed) is such a story which included many insights from his work-life dealing with refugees and got the director G. Aravindan interested. The movie won the Best Malayalam Film of the Year at the Indian National Awards and for good reason.
Venugopal (Mohanlal) who hails from a village in Kerala, lands in Calcutta. He is part of a government initiative to recruit refugee families with able-bodied men who will be given support to start over as farmers in Andaman. In Calcutta he is acquainted with a Bengali lady Arathi (Neelanjana Mitra) who is in search for a job for her daughter Damayanthi (Neena Gupta). During his conversation, Venugopal realizes that the lady might be the widow of his uncle who had left his village many years ago. He takes a trip back to the village to ascertain the identity of Arathi and see if he can help her lawfully inherit her deceased husband's property. Aarti refuses any monetary support from her husband's family but is happy that someone at last has recognized her as part of the family. Venu makes time from his office duties and gets to know his aunt and cousin sister. During his brief posting in Calcutta working on the rehabilitation of refugees, whether Venu is able to do enough for his uncle's family is the rest of the story.
The history of immigration forms the backdrop off which the fictional characters bloom. And the communist in Sreeraman could not have left the plight of the refugees totally to fiction. There are heartwarming accounts of their living conditions and suffering which find their way into the story line.
Mohanlal, like in many of his other films, has portrayed multiple emotions giving utmost care to the subtlety they need and all this without breaking a sweat. And yet it is Aarti played by Neelanjana Mitra who stands out the most owing to her composure and dialogues. Neena Gupta gets to play the rebel who displays a more tender side as the narrative unfolds. The cast includes Padmini and Shobana in smaller roles.
The video quality in Youtube is not very great, so one may not have the liberty to go into the details of camera work and images. The colour pallette used and the lighting are very realistic.
There were dialogues in Malayalam, Bengali and English. And it was strange to note that when the Arathi was speaking of her troubles with Bengali accented Malayalam, the resulting pain on the viewer is immense. In a way, pain finds it easier to traverse across languages. I would consider Venu's fellow lodger (played by L Balakrishnan) without any dialogues as a director's touch.
The background score was masterly for the obvious reason that it was composed by Salil Chowdary. The music is uplifting and emotional at the same time. A movie is an amalgamation of the many forms of art which came before it. And here is a fine example of one which makes us want to go back and explore the individual pieces. This movie makes me want to read other short stories of C.V Sreeraman, read-up more on the history of partition of India, watch other movies of G Aravindan, listen to Salil Chowdhary and it goes on. “Vasthuhara” is as painful as it is beautiful and as informative as it is creative. When a director of this caliber is at its helm, the outcome could be anything but a masterclass.
