By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Buddhadev Dasgupta
Starring: Mithun Chakraborty | Rahul Bose | Sameera Reddy
Original language title: Kaalpurush
Country: india
Year: 2005
Running time: 120
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438888/combined
Bruce says: “Sumanta, a young man, has filed a report on local corruption and is taken to task by his boss. ‘Who isn’t corrupt in this country?’ the boss asks. When the young man insists he followed through perfectly on his assignment the boss tells him, ‘You’re always a failure.’ Intermittently George Bush appears on television saying ‘America is an idea. America is a dream. America is a vision.’ The young man goes home to his wife Supirya (Sameera Reddy) who has become indifferent to him. She is determined to go to the US. She tells her husband he is a failure. George Bush is on television again talking about the American dream.
“How much can a man take? Who can he turn to? In MEMORIES IN THE MIST Sumanta turns to his dead father who deserted his mother and him when he was eight. Since Sumanta never had a relationship with his father, the conversations serve a dual purpose. His father helps Sumanta understand what happened during his childhood and how to accept himself as an honest man in a difficult world. The flashbacks to Sumanta’s childhood are cut in such a way that the viewer is in suspense for a long time about whether his father is living or dead.
“Sumanta has wonderful relationships with his daughter and his mother. His wife tells him, ‘I loved you once. I thought you would be someone.’ She does leave for several weeks in the US. Her brother did not take time off work as he promised so Supirya spends her vacation watching videotapes about America in her brother’s small New York apartment rather than seeing the real thing. When she returns to Calcutta she begins writing American travel books in Bengali. She cranks them out at an alarming rate without telling her husband what she is doing. He discovers later that she is a published author and has won an award for writing the most words on America in a single year.
“An interesting scene places Sumanta in a brothel where he is determined to have sex but comes to realize he has no interest in sex with a prostitute. ‘I’ve had the urge for so long and now I’ve lost it,’ he tells the young girl who thinks he is strange when he only wants her to dance. By the time Supirya leaves him, he is secure in knowing who he is: a loving man and a good father. George Bush is still on TV, talking about America and what it can offer the world. MEMORIES IN THE MIST is a strange and lovely film. 3.5 cats.
“MEMORIES IN THE MIST was shown at the 2005 Woodstock Film Festival.”