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Cinema
'Dharm' - A Masterly
Take On
Religious Bigotry Vs Humanism
A review by
Subhash K. Jha
Film: "Dharm"; Cast:
Pankaj Kapur, Supriya Pathak, Daya Shankar Pandey, K.K. Raina, Hrishita
Bhatt, Krish Parekh; Director: Bhavna Talwar; Ratings: ****
 To
miss this movie on the true meaning of religion is a crime for any cineaste.
How much poorer one would be if one allowed this penetrating masterpiece to
pass by without a standing ovation!
Debutante director Bhavna Talwar paints a map of the human heart in
confident, bold, vibrant but gentle strokes.
Varanasi, the city of holy dreams and unholy nightmares and the clash
between old world values and new world connivances, has seldom been captured
with such exquisite and tender splendour.
Straddling this world of colossal pain and redemption, as defined by the
individual's desires and emotions, is Pundit Chaturvedi (Pankaj Kapur).
Pot-bellied, bare-torso, Chaturvedi is a symbol of religiosity who could
easily have become a parody in lesser hands.
 In the
first half-hour of this tightly-wound homage to the aroma of incense on the
angry ghats (banks), the director establishes Chaturvedi's rigidly
ritualistic world as qualified by the priest's own dormant, tolerant take on
humanism.
The dawn scenes depicting the unruffled priest striding briskly through the
gallis (lanes) of Varanasi with huffing disciples in tow, as he's accosted
by a sneering, conniving opponent (Daya Shankar Pandey), are designed in
vibrant colours bringing alive the predominance of ritualistic religion in a
city that's submerged in subtexts.
The dramatic focus of the plot emerges when a baby is abandoned at
Chaturvedi's doorstep triggering off what can only be called a conflict
between religious compulsion and the individual conscience culminating in
one of the most rousing and radical denouements on religious bigotry and
communal prejudice put on screen.
The narrative is driven deftly forward by a powerful script (Vibha Singh)
and an editing pattern that embraces austerity at a time of tremendous
dramatic excesses in the plot. What truly holds up this taut tale and
rescues it from becoming perched on the ruinous precipice of polemical
pirouette is the debutante director's vision.
Talwar's vision encompasses both acute sensitivity and immense compassion.
The pulls and pushes of an ancient religion that remains dynamic in spite of
its dark decadence, emerge in scenes that are written not to impress us with
drama but to underscore the spiritual underbelly of the plot.
Note the tangential appearance of a sub-plot where a girl from the priest's
family (Hrishita Bhatt) elopes with a foreigner. Here, as in several other
lucid passages depicting the clash of the modern and the revered, the
narration refuses to be judgemental. Instead we get to see the city in all
its tender splashy splendour without smirk, sob or sigh.
Above all, "Dharm" works because it is at heart, a humane story. My
favourite scenes in the film are the ones within Chaturvedi's domestic
domain. The bonding that grows between the priest and the abandoned
five-year old (Krish Parekh) is warm but sparing. You watch the
father-foster-son relationship grow through a play of heart-warming emotions
that don't assail your senses.
There's a similar holding-back in Chaturvedi's scenes with his devoted,
docile and yet assertive wife, played with rare compassion by Supriya Pathak.
Brahminical arrogance meets a compassionate world-view in Talwar's
extraordinary portrayal of humanism, kinship and tolerance.
The debutant director's penetrating take on how grim it is in the land of
the divine and the crass, wouldn't have worked were it not for Pankaj in the
central role. As the head priest caught in a terrible dilemma that questions
his entire ethos and commitment to society and religion, Pankaj ceases to be
an actor once the camera switches on.
The supporting cast is extremely supportive.
No assessment of "Dharm" can be complete without saluting the
cinematographer S. Nallamuthu, art designer Wasiq Khan and the theme song
sung by Sonu Nigam. All these add an extra dimension to this extraordinary
film on the passing forth of an era and culture as seen through the eyes of
a god-head who finally believes reform is the only religious order worth
pursuing.
Let's stand up and applaud the director of this reformist mellow drama. "Dharm"
could've been screechy, preachy and jarringly sanctimonious. Instead, it
affords us a look into the soul of a wounded civilisation.
It is an old fashioned typewritten transcribed screenplay (reminiscent in
many ways of Yash Chopra's four-decade old "Dharmputra") written in words
that are meant to reach into the remotest corners of the stoniest modern
hearts.
"Dharm" leads you into the light without making a song and dance of the
process.
Really, you can't miss this.
June 11,
2007
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