MEMORIES IN THE MIST

India, 2005, 120 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

The Bengali cinema is the exact opposite of Bollywood. It is not bright, loud, musical and colourful. It has the tradition of one of the nation’s most celebrated film-makers, Satyajit Ray. Prolific director, Dasgupta, was a disciple of Ray but takes the tradition into a combination of the realistic and the mystical. There is a great dignity and beauty in the seriousness of many of the Bengali films.

Memories in the Mist turns out to be a ghost story, not in the sense of eerie spookiness. Rather, the ghost, one might say the haunted spirit of a father who is restless until he is reconciled with his widow and son, enters into the real world, interacts with his family in a naturalistic way (and all is filmed as if it were all real). The effect of this is profoundly moving.

The father, who had long since been left by wife and son because of his affair with an actress, narrates the story, tells us about his son and his wife. He is able to be with his long-suffering wife who realises that she acted too hastily and judgmentally in leaving him. He is able to meet his son and be delighted in the son’s willingness to forgive.

In the meantime, the son, a very good and kind man, is being spurned by his own ambitious wife who finds a career in writing (and breaking the Guinness Book of Records) American travel guides in Bengali. She also has her own secrets and burdens her husband with them. But, he has been strengthened in his quiet expectations of himself by his encounter with his father and looks to the future with the two children in hope and love.

A troupe of wandering actors recur during the film bringing song, dance and the tones of Hindu religious mythology. An old flute-playing man and his associate also recur at key times during the man’s childhood and his present crises. These give the film the mystical tone while the ghost (whose themes of repentance and reconciliation are spiritual) enters into the real world.

A fine and moving example of east of India film-making.

1.The impact of Bengali cinema? The traditions? Serious, elegant, with dignity? So different from the Bollywood films?

2.The Kolkatta settings, the modern city and streets, transport, homes? The different classes? The workplaces? Country estates? The lake and the sea?

3.The beauty of the colour photography, the wide screen? The musical score? The insertion of the songs – and their religious meaning?

4.The blend of reality and fantasy? A realistic ghost story? The narrator? The events, the transitions, the presence and absence of the father? The invitation to the ghost to join the world? His coming into the world to make reparation and reconciliation?

5.The flute players and their wandering through the story, during the father’s childhood, in his crisis? The troupe of wandering actors, their make-up and presence, the performance? When the father was a boy? Taking his son with them on an excursion? The nature of their performance, dance, religious meanings?

6.The opening, the vistas of Kolkatta? The old man following his son? His being seen and not seen? The old man’s needs, to see his son, to tell his story? Visiting his wife, the explanations? Visiting his son and the discussions? Repairing and reconciling? The flashbacks to his early life, his work as a doctor, his wife, his relationship with the actress? His wife catching him, her reaction? The son shooting his father, wounding his hand? The mother and son leaving, the doctor returning and finding his family gone? His pondering his situation, crashing the car and his death? The insertion of the various flashbacks, the cumulative effect, especially with the final crash?

7.The portrait of the wife, her elegant life, expectations, relationship with her husband, with her son, her being hurt, her anger, leaving? The old man’s description of his wife and what he had done to her? Her later life, her ill health, looking after the grandchildren? Her husband’s ghost coming, their discussions, her admitting the harshness of her decisions?

8.The son, his life, a kind man, saving the thief, urging him to go back, saving him later from the mob? His wife despising him, her phone calls, brother in New York, going to New York, her verbal abuse? His work, his love for the children, tenderness towards him, singing for them, the little girl drawing on his back? The encounter with his father, their discussions, going to the shop, buying him the shirt, his father’s disappearance? Forgiveness? Remembering? Hearing the story, the reconciliation for his mother? His relationship with his wife and her books, going to the shop and getting the collection, their sexual experiences, his wife’s disdain, her brutal revelation that the children are not his, her leaving? His tenderness with the children, their love for him?

9.The ambitions of his wife, going to New York, unable to travel, watching the videos, writing their travel books, her return, her working at the desk all the time, the letter from the Guinness Book of Records? Her spurning her husband, pity, telling him the truth and going?

10.The actors, the mythologies, the Indian legends? The children and their songs?

11.The ordinary life in Kolkatta, the extraordinary experience of the ghost? Religious beliefs in the afterlife, purgation? Eternal rest?

12.The overall impact, a film of beauty, the message of being what we are, the message of forgiveness and reconciliation?