Rajat Jayanti (1939)
Director: P.C. Barua; Writer: P.C. Barua; Cinematographer: Sudhin Majumdar; Editor: Haridas Mahalanobis; Cast: P.C. Barua, Pahadi Sanyal, Bhanu Bandyopadhyay, Sailen Choudhury, Dinesh Ranjan Das, Indu Mukherjee, A.H. Shore, Satya Mukherjee, Biren Das, Molina Devi, Menaka Devi
Duration: 02:10:32; Aspect Ratio: 1.467:1; Hue: 325.851; Saturation: 0.007; Lightness: 0.355; Volume: 0.099; Cuts per Minute: 6.289; Words per Minute: 70.909
Summary: The simple-minded Rajat (Barua) loves neighbour Jayanti (Menaka Devi). He is advised on how to court her by his streetsmart cousin Bishwanath (Sanyal) and Bishwanath's friend Samir (Bandyopadhyay). Bishwanath and Samir try to get Rajat's miserly guardian Bagalcharan (Choudhury) to loan them money so that Samir can make a 'European-style art film'. The guardian is admitted to the clinic of a doctor Gajanan where he falls into the clutches of two professional crooks Natoraj (Indu Mukherjee) and Supta (Molina Devi). Supta wants Rajat and they try to kidnap him...
Release date: 12 August, 1939 (Chitra)
censor certificate
New Theatres had been primarily established as a 'bhadralok' enterprise, self-consciously meant to produce a kind of cinema that would serve as iconic self-representations of the 'bhadralok' culture and ethos. This is despite the fact that not all films that NT prodiced were popular, successful or cultured (in the affective sense of the term as one understands in the context of the 'bhadralok' ideology). However, from time to time, there were acknowledgements within this very movement of the fractured nature of such self-representation, and attempts at positing a regional cultural hegemony that is distinctly inflected by both colonialism and capitalism were often met with scathing critique. Barua, one such critical figure, brings this tension within the NT 'bhadralok' project and its inherent gaps to the foreground in 'Rajat Jayanti'. The spoof begins at the very outset with the revered NT logo succeeded by the smiling cartoon of a baby elephant. This gives way to the opening credits which are a series of mock portraits of all the main cast and crew, with exagerrated features and actions, often surrounded by or playing with toys, and humorous depictions of gender role-reversal. In fact, the idea of role reversal, for both men and women, will become a nascent leitmotif in the film, used deftly as a tool of laughter and also as a critique of the vaunted industriousness of the Bengali 'bhadralok'.
The very first words launch the critique and also establish the comic mode in which it is operating: 'This has not worked, this is not working, this cannot work. It should not work, it is useless.' Before one notices the clock, it is possible to think of it as even a comment on the 'bhadralok' project itself.
Ironically, Pahari Sanyal's character is looking to open a film company, the new pet project of the 'bhadralok' made iconic by New Theatres. He does not have the money and needs to borrow it from Rajat's rich maternal-uncle - rather, con the uncle into investing in the venture. The advantages of the venture he enumerates are: education, employment, two of the major concerns of the 'bhadralok' project which are intricately connected with one another.
"Here, the very refined Rajat (Barua), practices homeopathy, and desperately hopes to gather enough courage to propose to the 'girl' (Jayanti). Barua mocks the projects towards masculization of 'young Bengal' (whom he ironically refers to as 'purish singha')..." - Madhuja Mukherjee, 'New Theatres Ltd. : The Emblem of Art, The Picture of Success', National Film Archive of India, Pune, 2009
"Barua also seems to comment on the emergent cinematic styles as he posits 'himself' (or the protagonist Rajat) in bracketed off sequences, that is, in pleasing romantic settings, located within obscure studio landscape and lighting. Instead of fulfilling the desire for romance, Rajat is often ridiculed for his inability to perform the expected and such scenes become ironic comments on both the aesthetics as well as the concerns of the Bhadralok." - Madhuja Mukherjee, 'New Theatres Ltd. : The Emblem of Art, The Picture of Success', National Film Archive of India, Pune, 2009
At the same time, the central romantic premise of the narrative, the relationship of Rajt and Jayanti, is the framing structure of this critique and in a way comes a full circle at the end of the film.
"[Barua]...uses popular modes (like 'shong'), and exaggerated performances by respectable elderly gentlemen to criticise Bhadralok sophistications, sense of 'style'/fashion, and notions of self-importance." - Madhuja Mukherjee, 'New Theatres Ltd. : The Emblem of Art, The Picture of Success', National Film Archive of India, Pune, 2009
The song itself is important. It is a preamble-piece written for a wellness centre/ health club called 'Maabhoi Ambal Home' ('The Fearless Home for Indigestion') which is a central motif in the film. Through the image of the gentleman's health-club, Barua is launching a critique of the enterprise of the bhadralok, including attempts of 'body-building' as a new domain of masculine self-expression.
The health club is the best option for wellness and health and not a change of scenery because that will be deemed as 'too expensive".
The exaggerated expressions at the beginning of the scene is meant to be anti-climactic when one learns that the topic of contension is in fact gardening.
Despite the complaints in the earlier scene, the real fight takes place about who needs to apologise as both refuse to accept that the other has done anything wrong. The ensuing fight is thus more significant because of its underlying absurdity, especially because the people concerned are the upper echelons of bhadralok society - the traditional zamindar and the nouveau riche lawyer.
It becomes more absurd when attempted murder is brought into the equation as the lawyer is almost run-over by Rajat's car. However, it must also be mentioned that it is obvious that the zamindar almost pushes the lawyer in front of the car in the confusion - perhaps, an ironic comment on the fractures within the bhadralok himself?
Such a fall-out can only complicate the already complicated relationship between Rajat and Jayanti. Rajat is as usual non-committal about it because he cannot think of which side to take in this scenario.
In two scenes one after another, he perfectly agrees with the standpoints of both his uncle and Jayanti, thus, neither agreeing not disagreeing with anyone.
Bishu, the most practical of the lot, is perfectly clear about his priorities and hence his standpoints.
More of Bishu's directness is revealed as he tells Jayanti that he has come on Rajat's behalf. In fact, with his frequent denunciations of Rajat, the film-maker Bishu is Barua's mouthpiece in his critique.
Yet again, taking advantage of Rajat's inability to take a stand, and using his excuse for a film company, Bishu takes off with the car when Rajat and Jayanti are supposed to go out on a drive.
Bishu has come to meet Rajat's uncle at the Maabhoi Ambal Home and this is where we get to see the famed health-club for the first time too. The walls are lined with posters of proverbs underlining the need to take of the body for general good. The scene is comic and that is heightened when the owner of the concern Dr. Gajanan enters accompanied by a man carrying weights for bodybuilding.
The lawn of the club is where all the training happens and where men of all shapes and sizes gather under the tutelage of the Home. As the camera tracks along the line of old men working out we chance upon Rajat's uncle who had been waxing eloquent about the place.
Bishu has caught onto the one fact that captivates him the most - how Gajanan has managed to convince all these rich men to part with their money. His point of view, again perhaps standing in for Barua himself, is critical of the whole project, even dismissive.
The very next shot of Jayanta administering homeopathy medicine underlines how far removed he is from this whole enterprise of body-building and masculine self-expression. Bishu comes in voices the criticism of the uncle's obsession with fitness he has just witnessed. The song is in the traditional 'kirtan' mode, restricted to religious or devotional themes, and its use here for a flippant subject is used as a tool of ridicule and sarcasm.
The friend comments that there are no true producers in Bengal who value art or talent - all everyone wants is profit. This is of course a pressing concern for Barua himself who had often spoken out against the slow start of a proper film culture in Bengal. If Bishu is one aspect of Barua the film-maker then the friend is another aspect - the one which eschews sarcasm for direct criticism of the film industry in Bengal. In a speech delievered at the last Faridpur Film Conference, 29-30 January, 1939, (retrieved from the Amrit Bazar Patrika of the time) Barua stated: "In our country Cinema is still a novelty-in remote villages, the silver screen is still a magic performer. In the big cities, the novelty is wearing out fast and the mere fact that somebody talking on the screen does not entertain the public now-a-days. In a couple of year’s time, the pastime value will definitely be on the wane..Unless the products of the film industry keep pace with the public demands, and unless the producers realize this change in the mentality of the public, in the very near future the industry will have to face the problem if a huge outlay of money with a support growing lesser and lesser."
In fact Barua also asserted that not everyone could become producers despite having money, something he foregrounds here when the film-maker Bishu unknowingly brings three con-artists posing as producers to the uncle. In fact, in the same Film Conference Barua had commented: "If I were asked by a producer- ‘How would you go about it?’, I would say that I would find out what the public should have and then, give them that- “a sugar-coated education” in the form of a picture. If you accuse me of assuming a complex of superiority- of taking it for granted that I am in a position to teach and preach- well- then I have to say that I am. Otherwise I am not worthy of being a film-producer."
The con-artists are seemingly manifestation of the fractures within the 'bhadralok' self-identification that Barua seeks to critique. In fact, Supta mentions the word 'bhadralok' while enumerating the list of material things required to be given entry to that elite order of being - a title, a car, expensive clothes, a house in an upscale locality.
The friend's comment about the song being entertaining is of course tinged with the 'sugar-coated education' metaphor we have already referred to.
Both the friend and Rajat are outsiders to this world of the bhadralok: the enterprise performs its daily charades with them as the audience. As the uncle takes the newcomers around on a tour of his house, the pretensions of the bhadralok self-representation are foregrounded through the exaggerated claims and demands of the imposter zamindar and his daughter.
painting purchase
The invocation of the Swadeshi movement to justify the zamindar selling shares to the uncle at a much cheaper rate is significant. The claims of brotherhood heighten the comic critique of the bhadralok enterprise started in the previous scene, while at the same time underscoring the empty nature of such a gesture when Supta immediately moves to the topic of the family jewels and, eventually, the heir apparent Rajat.
The fact that the zamindar readily agrees to pay for the Ambal Home will obviously consolidate his standing with the elderly gentlemen.
Yet another sequence of Rajat bracketed off by a typically romantic setting - in this case, one of separation. Traditionally the protagonist inhabiting this space would be the voice of the song but yet again Rajat does not perform according to expectations. Bishu's entry and his subsequent singing is both intrusive and a comment on the aesthetics of such a setting.
Immediately after, Bishu terms declarations of love as necessarily fascist, evoking Japan and Mussolini in the process. What is striking is his claim that love cannot be achieved through democratic means.
The way Supta refers to Rajat as the future heir to the property makes it evident that the reassurances she had been offering her father about thinking of a new plan were not empty gestures. Also, Rajat's inability to grasp romance is clearly not restricted to Jayanti alone because he reacts much the same to Supta's eloquent pleas.
Despite what he says, Bishu is equally worried about the impasse Rajat and Jayanti's relationship has reached post the fall-out between the two elders. However, the uncle has been quite taken in by Supta and her father's elaborate ruse.
It is an ironic opening for the scene to find Rajat under the bed, in search of something though it might also seem he has taken refuge under it. Bishu has taken matters into his own hands to goad both Rajat and Jayanti into action which explains why he has gone and told Jayanti about Rajat's impending marriage.
It is possible that Jayanti's reluctance to let her father mend the relations between the two houses is in part because of what Bishu has told her about Rajat and Supta.
The uncle's unrelenting assertion that Haranath had agreed to Rajat and Jayanti's relationship because of their money and not because Rajat is capable of anything, manages to shake whatever confidence Rajat had managed to muster.
The limited and mercenary nature of bhadralok aspirations is something none of these three can deny. However, what is interesting to note is the reference to Devdas when talking about Rajat's failed love-affair. Barua himself had directed a much appreciated version of the story, both in Hindi and Bengali, in 1935 and who would come to being regarded as being synonymous with the the figure of Devdas himself for the Bengali audience in the 1930s. With the situation somewhat similar - that is, warring families - the reference to Devdas is a way of highlighting the thematic similarility but more so a strikingly ironic moment of self-reflection.
Both Devdas and Rajat are indecisive, their reactions, reasons, and compulsions are at times on certain similar lines too. However, Devdas is situated in a particular socio-political context of a changing nation, an angst-ridden drifter in a world of insurmountable odds, while for Rajat the complications are much more localised.
Supta and her father suggest insurance fraud with the old family jewels in their attempts to 'help' Rajat's uncle.
The uncle's insistance that they should come in a go off to sleep because it's late makes it clear that he has already accpeted Supta and her father's plan to stage a robbery in the house.
In fact, the uncle captures Samir, who had attempted to run away, and puts them in the room together asking them to go to sleep.
Rajat, having woken up, inadvertantly foils the uncle's plans to rob his own jewels in order to falsely claim insurance as suggested by Supta and her father. Having been stopped from carrying out his plan, the uncle is justifiably annoyed, coming up with a series of prepostrous reasons as to why he was on the ledge of the roof.
All three are convinced that the uncle has gone insane, especially Bishu who has been hoping that the uncle would be the benefactor he needs to get his film company going.
Being essentially a good person has made Rajat question the fact that perhaps the root of all his problems lies in his innate goodness. Jayanti, on her part, accepts that and maintains that he should not change. Unlike all the other bracketed off romantic sequences thus far, this one is rife with the tensions that are threatening Rajat and Jayanti's relationship. For Jayanti, she cannot accept completely the fact that Rajat is mostly so impassive and pacifist. Her declaration that cowards deserve their sorrows is testimony to that. In many ways, this is a crucial point in their relationship. It has outgrown the comic interlude that it had been hitherto restricted to and will now become one of the central conflicts in the narrative.
Rajat slowly walking away to the melancholy strains of the violin is intercut with close-up of a crying Jayanti, one of the first depictions of grief in an otherwise comic narrative.
Having had their first plan foiled, Supta and her father are attempting to come up with a new one to fool the uncle. It is revealed that their third accomplice is none other than Gajanan, the famous founder of the Maa Bhoi Ambal Home.
The healthcare home that stands as a symbolic referent of the bhadralok project of self-fashioning is merely a front for various criminal activities. The revelation of Gajanan as an accomplice of the two swindlers and their haggling over share of profits is both deeply humorous and extremely ironic.
The uncle and Supta's father have their plan foiled again inadvertantly by a drunk Bishu. However, the risks in this case are higher because Gajanan's capture might expose them too to everyone. They quickly depart, taking advantage of Bishu's inebriated state and the fact that no one will believe him.
The cheque Bishu receives suddenly from the uncle next morning may seem like divine intervention for him but is clearly a way to distract him from the events that have transpired the night before.
The ploy seems successful because Bishu decides to leave the very next day. Till now he has come across as forthright and practical and his absense can only signal further problems in the already strained relationship of Rajat and Jayanti. He warns Jayanti about Supta and her designs on Rajat, an indication of the complications that are about to arise due to Supta's presence.
Rajat's discomfort with romantic overtures and conventional romantic gestures is something Supta easily takes advantage of, confusing him and inviting herself into Rajat and Jayanti's day out. It is not clear, however, if Rajat has understood Supta's plans.
Rajat attempts to dissuade Supta one more time but is again thwarted. Instead, Supta suggests they call each other by their first names.
Rajat's bewilderment is further augmented by Supta's familiar behaviour with him in front of Jayanti.
Supta's song, a traditional love song about apprehension and thrill of falling in love, is intercut with close-up shot of Jayanti who is obviously angry at the former's presence there. This is crucial point in the Rajat and Jayanti relationship; Supta's presence will invariably bring conflict.
Bishu's absense has other implications as well. Supta's father and Gajanan/Raghu are relieved that he will be absent as they plan a new assault on the family jewels. At the same time, it is ironic that Gajanan refers to the earlier attempt as a 'favour' when it is evident immediately after that it was a ploy to augment his share of the profits, albeit under the guise of security measures.
Supta's efforts to hold Rajat's attention continue.
Supta's claim that everyone dances is interesting not simply because of her attempts to seduce Rajat. In fact, a new idiom of modern dance, shorn of traditional forms of most dance aesthetics had already begun to emerge in the public sphere of the time, borne especially by cinema. Mostly a bhadralok invention, this new idiom found patronage among the bhadramahila especially and went on to define film dance in Bengali cinema till the 50s.
Jayanti walks in on Supta and Rajat and sees only the latter, unaware as he is of her presence, enjoying it - paving the way for misunderstandings and anger. Her leaving quietly is indicative of that.
It is possible that Supta had been deliberately keeping Rajat occupied the night before to facilitate the robbery. Nevertheless, Rajat's confusion and his general complacency regading the jewels make him an obvious suspect for the police who rightly think it's someone from the house itself but end up suspecting the wrong person. The uncle attempts to cover it up but for entirely different reasons.
It's a running gag through the film that people around Rajat treat his homeopathy with utter disregard, using his medicinal acohol for getting drunk or inducing sleep. Earlier it would be Bishu doing it and now the old servant of the house seems to have joined ranks too. However, in this case, despite being drunk or because of it, the servant has managed to catch Gajanan in the act.
Rajat's attempts of unmasking the robber obvious remain unsuccessful since he is still unaware that his uncle is one of the people who has hatched the plan. However, it does not seem that their evasive tactics has given rise to any suspicion in Rajat's mind.
Unlike Rajat's uncle or her father, Supta is far more retrained and calm in her reaction. Instead of attempting to evade or run away like the other two, she seemingly accepts Rajat's revelation and suggests they should go in search of Gajanan.
Throughout the narrative of the film, Jayanti appears only sporadically and right from the outset she is let down by Rajat in some way or the other in every single scene - be it, the botched declaration of love in the beginning, the doomed boat-ride or the dance episode with Supta. Here, yet again, she is waiting for Rajat to pick her up in his car, unaware that the latter has probably forgotten all about it after the revelation of Gajanan as the thief. Her close-ups, used throughout the film as mostly reaction shots, to Supta or Rajat himself, is for the first time used to express her own desires and hopes regarding their relationship. Her disappointment, immediately after, is thus rendered more tragic and poignant.
Bishu's sudden arrival creates possibilities of resolution of conflict. Indeed, Jayanti almost confides in him, making her displeasure and hurt known.
The confrontation at the Maa Bhoi Ambal Home does not go as planned as Supta and Gajanan lock Rajat in a room, as had been their plan all along ever since Rajat had revealed he knew about the thief.
However, Rajat's uncle, on the other hand, having suspected something was wrong, had made sure to remove the box of jewels to a safer location through his servant, something that was cryptically referred to in the scene before the last. It is indeed a sudden revelation that he had had the father-daughter duo checked and had found out that they were cheats. With the major part of the latter half of the film concerned with the complications in Rajat and Jayanti's relationship due to Supta, the resolution of the plot, signalled by Bishu's return, takes sudden, unexpected twists.
It is an interesting use of the space of the health-club as the three sit and plot robbery and even murder, all with a comic undertone. The critique of the bhadralok self-fashioning that had started through the space of this masculine health-club and body-building rituals, reaches a climactic moment when this same space is seen as being used for criminal and dangerous transactions. At the same time, the gender roles are complicated here. Supta's father and Gajanan, though suggesting murder, are themselves afraid of doing anything by themselves while Supta has clearly emerged here as the central cog in this dynamic, making the important decisions and taking all the vital calls.
Rajat absense has only served to further cast aspertions on him and his relationship with Supta. So much so, that even Jayanti's father is willing to let go of their fight to resolve the issue.
Rather than kill him, the three decide to drug Rajat in order to get their hands on the receipt of the missing jewels which they think is with him. They are mostly petrified themselves and so they do not realize that their plans are unsuccessful even before they have been put in motion as the servant quickly replaces the fallen cup of tea with a fresh one.
Rajat has undergone a startling transformation during this time. Unlike the earlier Rajat, unsure, afraid and prone to nervousness, this Rajat is calm and composed. He tricks the three, locks them inside, knocks out the guard outside and escapes, in a completely uncharacteristic display of bravado and tact. Rajat embraces the very masculine idea of the self prevalent among the bhadralok that Barua seeks to critique. The shot at the end of this climactic scene where Rajat takes off his coat in warning, resulting in the servant running away, is a nod to this transformation.
However, the transformation that had begun in the previous scene, cannot be completed without confronting the person he had been most afraid of since the beginning - his uncle. One can see an immediate role-reversal when each of the two begin to behave like the other used to at the beginning of the film. Taking advantage of the bhdralok preoccupation with appearances and shame, Rajat forces his uncle to make amends with Jayanti's father.The scene makes it very clear just how much of a leadership role Rajat has assumed suddenly.
Since the central conflict in the narrative had been Rajat and Jayanti's relationship, its resolution is tied up with a final sudden twist - Jayanti and Bishu's marriage.
Instead of anger or sorrow, Rajat's reaction is more of shock, as he looks at both of them, gives a sad half-smile and walks out.
A few days have perhaps passed and it is the first day of the Bengali New Year, traditionally an auspicious day. Jayanti and Bishu's wedding is still two months away. It starts off on a less than auspicious note with there being some tension in Rajat and Bishu's hitherto easy relationship regarding the impending nuptials. Bishu attempts to goad Rajat into reacting but somehow their easy camaraderie is no longer there.
Instead of their earlier scenes where Rajat has primarily tried to confess his love for Jayanti in various unsuccessful ways, there is a marked departure in him now. He insists he wishes for Jayanti to be happy, though it isn't clear at first if he has completely accepted her decision. He, however, betrays no resentment towards them. It is Jayanti, however, who is testy throughout, even becoming angry eventually.
The first of the next month, and the nuptials are just a month away.
The ashtray full of cigarette butts, as a hand stubs another one in their midst, is fairly associative shot. Bishu is clearly extremely worried about the unavoidable wedding.
As already seen Rajat seems to bear no resentment, attempting to be his usual self with Bishu.
Jayanti is irked by Rajat's calm acceptance and his lack of reaction. Thus when she forbids him to visit her constantly, he is at first shocked by this rejection, the reason for which he probably cannot instantly comprehend. Yet, when he does, he walks away again.
His feelings for Jayanti have clearly not diminished, but instead of confrontations Rajat seeks to move far away from the problem. This is clearly in order to avoid the wedding the day after. And yet, he tells Bishu that he will come for their wedding.
His concern for Jayanti goads him to talk to Bishu. In a stock move of love triangles, one of the players prepares to depart for the sake of his friend. Bishu's reluctance to say anything is in part due to his obvious annoyance with Rajat's detached reactions.
It is a scene reminiscent of their first romantic scene of the film, the same secluded closed space, and the use of close-ups. In a uncharacteristic break, Rajat bluntly admits to Jayanti he can not be present in their wedding. While he had been hitherto unable to 'perform' the role expected of the 'hero' in such closed romantic spaces, in a nod to emergent cinematic tropes and the bhadralok aesthetics they emerged from, the resolution of the plot happens only when Rajt is able to finally 'perform' such a role, admitting his emotions, albeit hesitantly.
Consequently, Jayanti admits her feelings immediately, urging him to go and talk to Bishu. With this resolution having been achieved finally, the film shits back to the comic mode it had operated in. His claim and subsequent attempt to punch Bishu marks both these movements. While the earlier Rajat would not have attempted such a feat and such a confrontation, it is balanced by rather inept and comical way in which he attempts it.
In a further departure from his character, instead of taking any help from his friends, Rajat vows to manage everything himself.
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