The film starts with the staging of Rabindranath Thakur’s
Chitrangada. Chitrangada being the only child of the King of Manipura dresses
like a man and is heir to the throne. She sees Arjun in action and falls in
love with him. Knowing Arjun will not love her in this form and he thinks her to be
a man(Kurupa), she receives a boon from Madan Dev, Hindu god of love, and
transforms herself into a beautiful feminine woman, Surupa. Arjun does fall in
love with her and the two gets married.
The protagonist’s story runs parallel. Laced with interludes
and preludes and series of dilemmas Rudra wishes to undergo sex change
operation to adopt a child which he couldn’t have otherwise with a lover of the
same gender. The gender change decision was not an easy one and it had to be
done technically to satisfy the lover who is strongly inclined to have
children. Rudra goes through emotional queries from parents and lot of physical
pains and eventually agrees to undergo the process. But by the time Rudra
metamorphoses through more than half of the procedure, the lover leaves him for
a ' non-cosmetic, non-plastic' girl. Rudra, betrayed and pained, wanted time before the final leg of the
operation. The illusionary counselor, in the end, helps him choose what he
actually wants, and Rudra aborts the final operation of sex change. He takes
off the implants, chooses to stay a man and goes back to his newly draped home to an ever
loving mother and an anguished father who expresses himself much later but what
a way!
The film is touching with moments that would stay
with you. If and when you come with terms with the theme of same sex
relationship, you will understand how sensitively challenging it was for the director
to choose a tabooed script like ‘Chitrangada’. Rudra, the lover, the
girl from the theatre group, the parents and the illusionary role of the counselor
are all well thought of and well presented. Having said that, the film has technical
flaws which can be overlooked f you are a Rituparno Ghosh admirer. The film may
not have the class of Rituparno’s earlier films like Utsab, Badiwali, Doshor,
Raincoat, Abohoman, Unishe April, Titli etc., but it touches out hearts for the
subtle treatment of the daring theme that might have gotten all over the places
if not have taken care of well. The film
is filled with beautiful shots. I loved every time the father, the mother and the
son come into the frame. I loved the equation between the father and
the son; I liked the part where Rudra gets jealous when his drug addict lover
flirts with a wannabe photographer. The humorous interpretation of how Madan Dev is perceived as modern age
cosmetic surgeon is quirky. I liked how the angst of a father eventually expressed in a
never seen before love.
Dipankar Dey and Anushuta Majumder were
natural and excellent. Jishu Sengupta plays the vagabond, drug addict
lover with a never seen ease. Anjan Dutta stringed the film
sequences into a beautiful garland. It seemed as if Rituparno as Rudra
was just playing himself. I didn't find anything different and
outstanding about the music. In bits the instruments were used nicely
though. 'Chitrangada" is a story of life of a different kind of
protagonist – a protagonist who is a man with womanish mannerisms, who
truly loves a bisexual man.
Looking beyond the gender bias, ‘Chitrangada’ is a story of hope, love,
wish,
wish fulfillment, heart breaks, pains, miseries, love lost, and a wish
to chose
your gender. ‘Chitrangada’ is a story of a crowning
wish – wish to choose and tell your own story.
