TALNAM BAMI (THE FESTIVAL)

India, 2005, 74 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Dhananjoy Mandal.

The Festival is a brief Indian film, emotional and affecting, especially as it focuses on children out in the monsoon area of India, the children in the rain, suffering the social and economic effects, starving. The location is Bengal and the jungle atmosphere.

The film focuses on a forthcoming festival and the children hoping to participate – but prevented by their parents, and their wealthy relations not inviting them to join in.

The children dream about the feast – waiting, dressed, and people passing by.

The film has elements of folklore – but is also, with its focus on children and family and folk festivals, an ethnographic film as well as an entertainment.

1.A folkloric film? Ethnographic film? The combination of these elements?

2.The monsoon setting, the continual rain? The children in the rain? The social effects, the economic effects? People hungry, not able to get food?

3.The location, Bengal, the jungle atmosphere, the huts and the village, the various houses, the rivers? The roads and paths? The mud? The town? The audience being immersed in this locations with the characters? The musical score – the Indian instruments, melodies, sounds?

4.The title, the boys looking forward to the festival? Gopal and the information, preparation, asking every day, not being invited?

5.The focus on the two boys, Gopal and Nepal, at home, with their father, their mother caring for them, scolding them? Their looking for the palms and the fruit, collecting them, diving into the water, carrying them to Aunt Joti? Trying to sell them? To get some money? The children playing together, at home, eating, playing in the mud, washing in the river? With their friends? The world of the children?

6.The mother, her constant care, scolding the father, his age and starting a family? Having no food, no money? Friends providing? The cooking? The father, smoking, going into the village? Getting some food?

7.Aunt Joti, the daughters? Wealthier, more comfort? Not giving any money to the children for the palm fruit? The possibility for invitations to the festival?

8.The festival itself, the theme, the rituals, everybody in the village being invited? Gopal and his not taking any money so that they would be invited?

9.The day of the festival, his dream, the feast? Waiting, dressed, his friend passing by and telling him to come, his refusal? The crowds of people going to the village, all passing by, not inviting Gopal?

10.The world of the adults, their preoccupations, insufficient regard for the children? The contrast with the children’s world, play, work, hopes and dreams?

11.The sadness of the ending, for the boys, for Gopal – and for the audience?

12.A glimpse of a way of life in the remote areas of India?