Chorus (1974)

This is a typical early Mrinal Sen film. Bold, brash and hammering home his political philosophy. The difference is in the treatment and the screenplay. This film uses the idiom of the absurd theatre to make its point - typical of Mohit Chattopadhyay's plays . Thus we have Robi Ghosh, in many a disguise, acting as the "Sutradhar" and delivering the political message. The film juxtaposes this stylisation and caricature with neo-realism and documentary sequences to say that the "Gods" or the capitalists really have feet of clay. there are too many people, too many problems and too few solutions. Ultimately, the film predicts the rise of the masses wheen the ruling capitalists will have to run and will become ineffective in the face of the upsurge that is waiting to happen.

The allegorical treatment and stylisation notwithstanding, this is not a subtle film. None of the early films of Mrinal Sen were. It is an out and out political film meant to deliver a communist message. It predicts and even adulates anarchy. Still it is a film that makes you think and the collage of events, often unassociated, helps put through the underlying message. There was little scope of acting in this film and all the actors play their bit parts well. What is pleasing is the music by Ananda Shanker and Prashant Bhattacharya. Editing is also good, holding the film together and not letting it's basic theme lose its way among the myriad incidents. This is a film for the thinking individual, no matter that, at the end of it all, you are still unimpressed and still think that the philosophical content is too immature, too simplistic. Camerawork by KK Mahajan is outstanding.