The fondness in his eyes allures me,
I crave for the ballad of his flute,
They steal my heart in a flash…
This tune is the focal point of the lyrical saga called ‘Jhumura’. The folk art forms of rural Bengal hardly get significance in the so-called sophisticated crowd of metropolis, but once in a while those sublime crafts draw urban attention by their sheer magic. This is how the story of ‘Jhumura’ unfolds.
Two young journos visit Purulia (in rural West Bengal, India). Their sole aim is to compile a research on ‘Jhumur’, the famous folk art form of Purulia. ‘Jhumur’ is a form of folk music, a speciality of Purulia. In most of the cases, the men perform Jhumur songs along with the dance of nautch girls. They are called ‘Nachni’. The singers are popularly termed as ‘Rasik’. The historical account of Jhumur has always witnessed a relationship between Rasiks and Nachnis which can’t be defined in words. The thread of the relationship is the divinity of music. So even if the Nachnis never get social recognition, but the heavenly tie-up between the Rasik-Nachni duo exists through ages. The performers of Jhumur are locally called ‘Jhumuira’. And the narrative of the film evolves from the fictitious village named ‘Jhumura’.
The two young Calcuttans Riwk and Sahana reach Purulia and there they come across an elderly couple. They are traditional Jhumur performers. On their account, Riwk and Sahana discover an unheard tale of love, hatred and compassion that commence with the tune of Jhumur and culminate in the serene locale of Purulia.
The narration of the elderly couple includes two village folks Kanchan and Kusum and their blooming romance. They are from two different stratas of society and so their love-story is threatened several times by many odds. How they meet, get separated and again re-united, that’s the essence of the film’s narrative. But the way in which the effortless narrative is treated in the film, that enthrals the most. There is an exquisite game of time and space throughout the film. A mystic time-traveller holds the chord between two eras.
Cast: Samadarshi Dutta, Sohini Sarkar, Sabitri Chatterjee, Kuchil Mukherjee, Gopa Sengupta, Parthasarathi Chakraborty, Debapratim Dasgupta, Sourav Chakraborty, Pradip Kumar Chakraborty, Tania Kar, Suchandra Chandra, Soumya Chatterjee, Shankar Dey, Indra Lahiri, Swarup Dutta
Cinematographer: Mrinmoy Nandi
Editor: Amitava Dasgupta
Audiographer: Subhadeep Sengupta
Music Director: Pijus Chakraborty, Subrata Das, Bramhakhyapa
Art Director: Asish Adhikary
Writer & Director: Anindya Chatterjee
Producer: Manoj Roongta
Other Kaahon updates on Jhumura:
