![]() ![]() What they do know, however, is that the friendship they have forged is all they have got. The boys, of course, are oblivious to the gravity of the situation. The young protagonists of Dostojee (English title: Two Friends) stand by each other even as narrow-mindedness begins to gnaw into the vitals of their little hamlet - and the nation. The reverberations are felt in this the last subdivision of the state of Bengal. ![]() Unbeknownst to the boys whose friendship knows no divides, it witnesses rising communalism in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition and the subsequent chain of events that rocked the nation in 1992-93. The village where Dostojee unfolds is on the border between India's Murshidabad district and Bangladesh's Rajshahi. The film celebrates the positivity inherent in the world of children while it lays bare the unreliability of fickle adults without succumbing to convenient binaries for the purpose of conveying its overarching humanist message. Its salutary symmetry and distinct timbre define Dostojee more than anything else. ![]() The film's design and the filmmaker's vision draw strength from the deft synchronisation of setting, language and the amateur actors' performative instincts. They lend Dostojee unwavering credibility. Locals play key onscreen roles in the film. Besides the young protagonists, the two communities they belong to and the sleepy village they call home are the key narrative components in the diligently crafted Bengali film that premiered on Tuesday at the 65th BFI London Film Festival.ĭostojee posits friendship and humankind's capacity for empathy as a bulwark against bigotry but does not lose sight of the harsh reality that surrounds us. As disarmingly simple as it is unerringly authentic in its evocation of the time, place and culture it is located in, Dostojee, written, produced and directed by debutant Prasun Chatterjee, is a piercing, poignant story of two eight-year-old boys in a Bengal village caught in a fast-spreading climate of religious intolerance. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |