A world away from home

Shoma A Chatterji 

Is home a fluid concept that chooses to flow with the tide and with the ups and downs of life? Meenalap spells in out in its own way. The film roughly translated from the Bengali as “fish monologues” or “fish musings” is a 20-minute feature film directed by Suborna Senjutee Tushi from Bangladesh. She obtained a PG Diploma in Film Direction and Script Writing from FTII Pune. Meenalap won the Grand Prix award as the best film in International Short Films category at the 14th Eurasia International Film Festival in July last year.

“Meenalap is filled with struggle dotted with hope”, says the director. The film places Pune as the backdrop. Here a Muslim couple from Bangladesh lives in a tiny room, which appears more like a shanty. They work in a garment factory nearby. The wife is expecting her first child. The love between the couple and the sense of contentment they enjoy is treated with feather-like, subtle strokes that enrich the texture of the film. They share a narrow bed on one side of the tiny room while at right angles to the bed stands a sewing machine that adds to their income. The couple take away the leftover pieces of cloth from the garment factory on their way home and these are used by the couple to stitch their baby’s clothes and also other clothes for children to sell in the market. Titas Dutta and Promito Dutta portray the husband and wife beautifully without the use of much dialogue yet expressing themselves eloquently through body language.

  Says Suborna Senjuti Tushee, “I am a cultural activist and began as a journalist in Dhaka. I. worked as a copywriter in the advertising sector and was also involved in group theatre. After my post-graduation in Economics, I worked as a television anchor, a programme-writer and script-writer.”

Meenalaap tells how the couple miss their homeland where the river water fish is tastier and fresher than the fish they eat in Pune. Their ignorance of Marathi language adds to their sense of displacement but does not take away from their way of communicating with neighbours and colleagues. One scene shows the wife driving the two-wheeler with the husband riding piggyback with his tummy sticking out. The garments they have stitched are hidden under his shirt!

The small room and the tiny area used as a kitchenette boasts of a gas connection for cooking while the sewing machine forms an outlet for boosting of the income they will need when the baby arrives. The husband also owns a two-wheeler that they ride together while travelling to the factory and back. Small telephonic conversations between the wife and her father in Bangladesh spell out her sense of isolation from her family while the husband keeps wondering what has happened to his mother’s cell phone as she has not called in a long time. The art direction is so good that it enriches the characters of the couple and also brings alive the environment of the factory.

The film begins when the wife is around three to four months pregnant while it closes with the advent of Ganapati pooja that comes around August as the chanting of the Ganapati aarti floats on the soundtrack when the couple make their long drive to the factory. Thundering monsoon sets in and we find the young wife standing at the door, exposing her bare tummy to the rains. The sound of the sewing machine, usually used by both of them during the night, hums on the soundtrack like music added to the ambience of togetherness. The film closes with a beautiful twist.