Immigrant experience on celluloid: The Namesake

Mira Nair is an all time favourite film director of mine - but Namesake, which I just watched, turned out to be more than just another good film. I found many layers of meaning in the film which for me went well beyond only the immigrant story of a journey, loss, identity etc. What was special for me was the artistic use of Bengali language, script, idioms, Kolkata, music, ethos and culture. I found echos of Ritwik Ghatak's cinema that Mira Nair has herself acknowledged. The music was not Rabindra Sangeet - which I feel would be very easy to fall back on but would not have an universal appeal beyond Bengalis - but bhatiali, baul gaan, modern Bengali songs and Hindustani Classical. The two deaths in the film - the scene where Gogol shaves off his hair in America after his father's death and then when along with his mother and sister performs the last rites at the banks of River Ganga in Kolkata at Babughat - are experiences that many of us have been faced with. Again the recurring image of the idol of Goddess Saraswati being immersed in the river is symbolic and has shades of Ghatak. All in all the film is well made, poignant and will reach out to all immigrant individuals and communities and all Bengalis in a very special way. And of course, not to forget the reference to Fulton fish market - which I'm sure will strike a chord with Bongs around the world.

It's a coincidence perhaps that earlier last week I was at a seminar organised by the British High Commsion at Chandigarh on illegal migration to UK from Punjab and the need to curb this trend and saw another film on the topic of immigration - another side of it. Delhi based film director and producer Savyasaachi Jain's documentary Shores Far Away was one of the highlights of the seminar. This film also deals with immigration - the dark and ugly side of it. The director talks about the thousands of Indians who are smuggled across Indian borders to Europe every year. He goes into the heartland of Punjab - villages near Jallandhar - from where most of the illegal immigrants hail. The route is fraught with danger, they face hardships on the way and are often duped by unsrupulous agents - and yet they keep going in search of what they feel is a better life. The directors speaks to many of these illegal immigrants in Hamburg, Vienna, London, Birmingham and other places. He interviews families in villages of Punjab who are waiting for many years hoping their loved ones will come back, but have no information about their whereabouts. On the way to Europe many of immigrants freeze to death, get killed or face imprisonment. Some of those interviewed actually speak on camera about their hardships and try to send a message back home to young people not to follow in their footsteps. This film is very intense too and all the more disturbing because it's all true. In many villages of Punjab, immigrating - even illegally without papers - is very much a way of life. Some months ago, Naseeruddin Shah's directorial debut film Yun hota to kya hota too had dealt with the humane aspects of immigration. That was yet another sensitive potrayal of the subject!!!