Plot: An expatriate couple return to rural India to make a documentary film on folk theatre. Raw beauty of the nature and the innocence of the people captured their imagination, but soon they become embroiled in the unlikely yet frighteningly real nexus of power politics and the innocence of folk art. Central to the story is the poor artist who is callously used by the local power brokers for their own ends, supported by corrupt connections with the local police. Notions of principle and morality are redefined by personal interest and ambition, while trust is obscured by the urge for self-protection. The traditional culture remains unaffected, kept safe within the bounds of tradition, but the criminality of ambitious men extends from petty corruption to rape and murder. The film ends in ambivalent tragedy with the weak suffering for the nefarious interests of the strong. Ultimately two constants remain: the enduring invulnerability of the people’s culture, and the inhuman delusions of wicked men.
Kaler Rakhal is a visual delight in which the richness of the Indian landscape is complemented by the richness of the folk culture with all its colour and vibrancy. It is adorned with a dozen of beautiful songs. But one is led to wonder, along with some of the characters in the film, how long this culture might survive in face of the march of globalisation.
Director’s Note: Some curious outsider/s enter in to a world of different values, culture and sentiments and the synergy created out of the exchanges and encounter, is the final result of the film. I firmly believe that the purpose of the camera lens is to investigate the human nature and the social phenomenon, my earlier films reflected the same conviction. I do not disown the entertainment value of Cinema. This time again story of ‘Kaler Rakhal’ unfolds on a vast terrain of beautiful Rural India and the ‘recreated cinematic reality’ offers best of the colours, sound and of course music and songs, as was in my earlier film ‘Mahulbanir sereng ( Songs of Mahulbani )’.
As Mr. Sekhar Das says, in this film Param and Rudra will be seen in different avtars for the first time, they are not playing their usual characters that they used to play in their regular tolly flicks. Rudra is playing a female lead here.
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