Review : Hazaar chaurasi ki ma

HCKM is Nihalani’s adaptation of Mahasweta Devi’s novel “Hazaar Churashir ma” (originally written in Bengali). Set in Calcutta in the early 70’s HCKM is an emotional story of a mother’s awakening to her son’s beliefs after his death. This is a well-told tale, but seems like it wants to say more, and can’t get the words across. Poignant, yes. Mind-blowing, no.Sujata Chatterjee is an upperclass Bengali woman, a bank-officer, with 4 adult children out of whom the youngest, Brati (Sengupta) is her favorite. She no longer sees eye-to-eye with her philandering husband (Kher) of many years, and their relationship now is one of aloofness and discord. She wakes up one morning from normal life to get news of Brati’s death. His body is in the police morgue, corpse number 1084. Brati was involved in the Naxalite movement and was killed in a skirmish with anti-Naxalites/policemen. His family is now called to the morgue to identify the body.

While Brati’s father (Kher) and his brother hasten to cover up Brati’s connection to the Naxal movement and prevent his name from being published in the paper, to avoid “dishonor” to the family, Sujata is plagued by pangs of guilt at not having known her son well enough, or sensed his thoughts and concerns. She tries to find out more about Brati’s beliefs and his need to join the movement. In this quest, she meets his friends, and girlfriend (Nandita Das) who is also a Naxalite. She also meets the mother (Biswas) of Somu, one of his friends and comes to know of the incident which lead to Brati and Somu and their friend’s deaths. In this process, she becomes aware of the world around her, and senses it’s hypocrisy. Gradually she steps out of her traditional boundaries, and questions the mores and customs which culture and society force on her.

One of her dialogues which caught in my mind, runs like this (don’t remember the exact words) : “Why would I not do what was expected of me ? That was what I was taught, that was how I was brought up. (They said) a woman must serve, her family, her parents, her children, always someone.”

Although the film does not offer any moments of ephiphany, it beautiful depicts the love between a mother and her son, and gives voice to some strong truths. Bachchan is an immaculate actress, and she is supported ably by Kher, Sengupta and the rest of the stellar cast. Direction is good, but the script and the narrative spine could have been tighter.

Still, highly recommended.