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Cinema
Akash Kusum
- Up in the Clouds
Mrinal Sen made Akash Kusum (Up in the clouds) in 1965. It is the only comedy film directed by the eminent filmmaker in his entire career.
Akash Kusum was on the longings of a middle class executive to rise in stature and greater social acceptability. Soumitro Chaterji played the central role in this movie. Aparna Sen, Subhendu Chaterji, Jnanesh Mukherji, Sova Sen, Haradhan
Banerji were the other performers. It is unlike the films one associates with Mrinal Sen. A rather
straight-forward story with not much novelty. It spawned a Hindi remake made by Basu Chaterji called MANZIL featuring Amitabh Bachchan with slight alterations.
Soumitro, a middle class executive, falls for Aparna Sen. Soumitro's friend, Subhendu Chaterji, owns a good flat in Calcutta and Soumitro makes use of most of his friend's possessions viz, telephones and the flat itself. Soumitro introduces himself as the owner of the flat of Subhendu to Aparna, and also makes the mistake of inviting Aparna Sen's parents (Haradhan Banerji and Sova Sen) to the house. Certain scenes remains etched in memory. When Soumitro Chaterji goes to a saree shop with Aparna Sen, and saying he has forgotten his wallet back in the office, rings back and starts blabbering something with no one at the other end of the phone, was a hilarious sequence.
Soon Subhendu Chaterji's mother comes to Calcutta to stay with her son. Another hilarious sequence was when a phone comes to Soumitro from Aparna Sen in front of Subhendu Chaterji and his mother, Soumitro tries to evade Aparna on the phone with some lame excuses (like he has come to attend the phone while he was shaving, and which i.e shaving is now half done).
Soon Soumitro's lies gets exposed. One day, Haradhan Banerji, father of Aparna comes to Subhendu Chaterji's house (which Soumitro has claimed as his own) and meets Subhendu's mother. She tells Haradhan that Soumitro is the bosom friend of her son (Subhendu) and comes there everyday, and that Soumitro actually stays elsewhere. Haradhan returns home and tells Aparna that Soumitro is an imposter - a cheat. When Soumitro comes to meet Aparna at her residence, Haradhan commands Soumitro to leave the house and never try to meet Aparna again.
The last scene was quite memorable. When Soumitro is leaving the house as Haradhan commanded, while at the gate he looks back and sees Aparna on the window, and soon both starts waving at each other, knowing that their relationship is ending.
In Akash Kusum, Mrinal Sen used jump cuts and freeze shots a la Truffaut, and he was promptly accused of gimmickry.
Mrinal has always been critical of Indian film critics. It started from Akash Kusum. Sen has always made economical usages of still Photographs in his films. In
Akash Kusum in a situation where Soumitro realizes that all his efforts are in vain, at that moment Sen makes use of a still photograph. When darkness slowly fades in Gyanesh Mukhopadhay says " He he he he ...
aaro kichu taka chai je sir" (with a mischievous laughter, Gyanesh Mukherjee demanded more money). To depict such a cruel situation aptly, Mrinal Sen was able to arrive with minimal cost and this he considers an achievment. He could not have depicted it in any other way. Reviewing this sequence and the film as a whole, the Bengali daily
Anandabazar Patrika wrote "This is not a moving film. This is a still film." Proves that a little deviation from set norms in Indian filmmaking is bound to bring criticism to its maker.
Mrinal Sen gave Subhendu Chaterji his first break in movies in this film.
– Subhajit Ghosh
August 17, 2000
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