CLERK is a very simple film. And I strongly recommend trying and understanding it in layers. Before I even start dissecting let me warn you that all the ‘layers’ are not perfect and may be for this speck in the otherwise perfect moon, we go on to question the film more. It urges you to question, think and construct stories. Why Biplab (Prosenjit Chatterjee) only talk of ‘lost-love’ to his fantasies? Why the next-door neighbor, Tuli is not fleshed out in the character’s entirety? Why the maker (Subhadra Choudhury) didn’t choose to draw the side characters in bold strokes? The questions will never cease. And thank God for that!
CLERK is the most original film I have seen made on a subject as unglamorous as this. The protagonist, whose name Biplab (meaning ‘revolution’) is in sharp contrast with his docile and composed character and sluggish social life. And this disparity becomes all the more evident when Biplab, on his return to his squalid room at the end of his day, surrenders himself to his fantasies. And with what exquisiteness! He carefully lights up candles around the room which in turn lights up numerous posters of ‘Bollywood beauties’. His stolid day-face turns into a treasure trove of myriad expressions. He smiles fleetingly. He assures. He gets hurt. He flirts. In short, his soul is set free through the big black telephone’s tangled wire, through which he imagines he is talking to the actresses and romancing them. The bathtub, the nights, the big black telephone, they all become a character. Similarly, his mundane days are metaphorically represented by the monotonous tippet-tap of the typewriter in his office. Subhadra Choudhury, very cautiously, has fleshed out these characters instead of neighbors and colleagues. And Sirsha Ray’s camera constantly oscillates seamlessly between the drab days and spectacular nighttime of the protagonist.
The director has also constantly referred to an aquarium fish (Black Molly). It almost appears like a leit motif. It appears to be a symbol for a cyclical life. The fish is associated with the hooker when she first meets the middle-aged family man, the same man and his wife and finally to their baby named ‘Duniya’ (meaning world) and also to the seemingly happy ending of Biplab’s story who sells aquarium fish in a village with his pretty neighbor (Anindita Bose). The meaning loses sometimes with so many different links. But I think that it talks about life in general. Adulteration doesn’t let the fish survive in the first case (the hooker and the man). When the same man is living with his wife and they have a baby together they go to buy fish for a new aquarium. And beginning of a more settled life for Biplab brings forth his new job of aquarium fish seller.
Tonmoy Chakraborty has done a fine job by authentically portraying Biplab’s office with peeling paints and political posters. Equally he has shown excellence in putting together Biplab’s room with lighted candles, old empty liquor bottles substituting as vases and the ‘wall’ adorned by black and white glossy posters of the heroines. The same appreciation goes for the bath-tub set up. But his lackadaisical nature shows through the flat treatment of the ‘peeping Tom’ neighbor’s bedroom. It was an eye-sore.
But one always wonders that whether the monologues of Biplab could have been spice up a little and if audience could share Biplab’s vision and peek into his mind and not only inanely look around the screen waiting the protagonist to finish off his ramblings. Moreover, Biplab was never shown how, in the first place, he established this bond with the Bollywood heroines. Did he watch film clandestinely? Or read about them from a magazine? Why was he never shown buying posters from the street? However silly or little it may sound, these could have reduced the tediousness of the narration.
Before I round off, I am amazed by this bold step taken by Nitesh Sharma of Bangla Talkies. In the recession ridden economy, he dared to produce an experimental film. This ONE BIG STEP will be a huge leap for offbeat film makers bent on to innovate the conventional language of cinema. CLERK is not for all and it is not made for ALL. So viewer discretion is required. All in all, CLERK does not conform to any genre, and its narrative pattern is different too. It is not all gloss, glory and hype and not for the children of fast films.
