Herbert (film)
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Herbert is a 2005 Indian Bengali-language
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by veteran theater director Suman Mukhopadhyay. It was based on Nabarun Bhattacharya's 1997
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
winning novel of the same name.


Plot

The story starts with one Herbert Sarkar cursing a group of people who just left his house. Herbert Sarkar is a forty-year-old crank, a self-proclaimed mystic who can speak with the dead and that is how he earns his living. Later that day after a heavy drinking spree with his friends, Herbert slits his wrist and commits suicide. The very next day he becomes the center of Police investigation as a posthumous bomber. Through a non-linear story telling and Nabarun's typical magic reality, the quixotic life story of Herbert is revealed. Herbert Sarkar was the son of a wealthy Bengali film director. His family included his simpleton mother, film director father, and the family of his uncle, aunt and their two sons, Dhanna and Krishna. His father dies shortly after one of Herbert's birthday during a shooting with his mistress, Miss Lily. Tragedy strikes again, and his mother also dies due to accidental electrocution. With all his property being enjoyed by his uncle's family, Herbert becomes the errand boy of the family who is ridiculed by everyone and is the butt of jokes of the neighbors due to his eccentric and unusual behavior. While his cousin Dhanna uses him to write the cheats for him to pass the exam, his elder cousin Krishna loves Herbert and his son Binu too, who is fond of "Haru Uncle". Krishna slowly introduced Herbert and Binu both, to the world of
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
and idealisms of
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, Mao,
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
,
Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
etc. and takes them to the screening of movies based on revolution stories. But soon, they leave as Krishna gets a job in a college as professor and leaves with his family. While leaving he hands him a copy of "
Ten days that shook the world ''Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1919) is a book by the American journalist and socialist John Reed. Here, Reed presented a firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution. Reed followed many of the most prominent Bolsheviks closely ...
" and tells him he has left his books in one of the house's rooms, for him to read. A few days later, a new family moved in the neighborhood. Herbert soon befriends the Banalata (Buki) and eventually they develop feelings for each other. But true to his tragic luck, Buki also moves out as her father again receives a job transfer. During this time he finds a trunk full of occult books and a human skull in the house, which belonged to one of his ancestors. Herbert starts reading all the books and soon take interest in the subject. The film moves a few years in future and Binu comes back to Kolkata with his father to get admitted in Presidency College during the 70's. While studying, Binu becomes a part of the Naxalite movement against the then Congress Government in West Bengal. Binu spends a good amount of time hiding from the police force while the police kill the rebels mercilessly. One such night, Binu visits Herbert with one of his friends. When Binu is about to leave, Herbert urges him to stay the night since it was the latter's birthday. But citing an urgent work at hand, Binu leaves and is shot at night by a police informer. On his deathbed, Binu tells Herbert of his diary and where he has hidden it, behind the photo of goddess Kali in the prayer room. After a dream including Binu, Herbert claims that Binu has revealed the location of the diary to him in his dream and that, he, Herbert is able to communicate with the dead people. Herbert becomes a local sensation. He sets up a roaring business called "Dialogues with the Dead" for three years and for the first time in his life, earns money and the respect of others. However, his luck runs out when the International Rationalist Society declares him a fraud and threatens to turn him over to the law unless he closes shop. They soon visit Herbert, revealing that to be the very first scene from the movie. Unable to find any clues or motives behind the blast, Police Department declares this a fool's act by reading lines from the suicide note of Herbert. At the end, it was revealed that Binu, during his last visit with Herbert, hid a few hand grenades, smuggled from Albania, inside Herbert's sleeping mattress and though he planned to return and take those out, he was shot on that very night. After Herbert died, to get rid of everything related to him, Dhanna sends the mattress along with the dead body for cremation. Once inside the cremation chamber, the grenades catch fire and explode, killing many people, an incident that turned him into a posthumous bomber. Suman Mukhopadhyay http://www.sumanmukhopadhyay.com/html/herbert.asp


Cast

*
Subhasish Mukherjee Subhasish Mukherjee ( bn, শুভাশীষ মুখার্জি) is an Indian Bengali actor. He is a well-known actor in Bengali cinema. He generally appears in comedy and in supporting roles. Some of his well-known films where he acted ...
as Herbert Sarkar * Neel Mukherjee as Binoy Sarkar (Binu) *
Lily Chakraborty Lily Chakraborty, (born 15 January 1972) is an Indian Ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or od ...
as Jyathaima *
Sabyasachi Chakraborty Sabyasachi Chakrabarty is an Indian actor of theatre, films and television. He is best known for portraying iconic Bengali detective characters, Feluda, and Kakababu. Personal life His parents, Jagadish Chandra Chakrabarty and Monica Chakrabart ...
as Police Officer *
Bratya Basu Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury (born 25 September 1969),Bratya Basu(collected plays), Ananda Publishers, 2004 also known as Bratya Basu, is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor and a politician who is serving a ...
as Dhanna *
Kabir Suman Kabir Suman (born Suman Chattopadhyay; 16 March 1949) is an Indian music director, songwriter, singer, composer, politician, and former journalist.
as Interrogating Officer at Hospital *
Shyamal Chakraborty Shyamal Chakraborty (5 February 1944 – 6 August 2020) was an Indian politician who was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2008 to 2014 from West Bengal. Life and career He belonged to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was a member of t ...
as Rationalist Society Member *
Debshankar Haldar Debshankar HaldarSpelling according tTelegraph Calcutta (or Debshankar HalderSpelling according t or Debsankar HalderThis spelling has been used in Nandikar'website.) is a Bengali theatre actor with a long career in Bengali theatre groups such a ...
as Herbert's father, Lalit Kumar *
Chandan Sen Chandan Sen (born 26 February 1963) is an Indian Bengali-language stage, television and film actor, playwright and director. Career He started acting in Bengali theatre in 1977. He joined ''Natya Anan'' theatre group as a creative director and ...
as Koton * Supriyo Dutta as Surapati Marik *
Kanchan Mullick Kanchan Mullick is an Indian Bengali film and television actor and politician. In addition to the television show ''Janata Express'', Kanchan has also acted in movies like ''Mahakaal'' and ''Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona''. He is also a Bengali theatr ...
as Gyanban *
Biswanath Basu Biswanath Basu (or sometimes Biswanath Bose) is an Indian actor who appears in Bengali films. Filmography ;Key ;Films Television Apart from doing films, Basu has also appeared in many television serials. References External links * ...
as Gobindo * Joyraj Bhattacharjee as Young Herbert * Anindita Das as Buki * Shankar Debnath as Somnath * Taranga Sarkar as Koka * Bimal Chakraborty as Binu's father * Subratanath Mukherjee as Herbert's Uncle * Senjuti Roy Mukherjee as Herbert's Mother * Kalyan Chakraborty as Police Commissioner * Anindya Banerjee as Rationalist Society Member


Critical reception

This film received excellent reviews from both national and international critics for its script and directing style. * New York Times: "And now for something completely different. “Herbert,” a mad, messy and frequently amazing epic from India, features many of the qualities you expect from Bollywood: garish verve, dizzy excess, punishing duration, wild leaps in narrative tone and structure ... Movies are very much the point of this film: allusions to classic Hollywood and Indian cinema abound, and the energy of the French New Wave courses through the madcap plot. This is, rather incredibly, Mr. Mukhopadhyay’s first film, and it exhibits the passionate, more-is-more abandon of an artist bursting with welcome (if exhausting) enthusiasm onto the scene." * MOMA: "Rife with allusions to classic Hollywood and to directors from Satyajit Ray to Jean-Luc Godard, Mukhopadhyay's debut feature is an astounding, encyclopedic parable: part magical-realist fable, part allegory of
cultural imperialism Cultural imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" often describes practices in which a social entity engages culture (including language, traditions, ...
. Shot in flashy reds and twilight blues that recall the Technicolor of MGM musicals, this wittily self-reflexive film features a remarkable lead performance by Mukherjee as the film's visionary madman." * The Hindu: "Suman Mukhopadhyay, in his complex narrative style, uses Herbert brilliantly as the pendulum, which moves back and forth in time, capturing a period and juxtaposing it with its ideology and social ethos. Thus, the film not just covers the life of the protagonist, but also the city which has travelled through the times, governed by different ideologies. In this highly stylistic film, Suman Mukhopadhyay uses some brilliant techniques which gel amazingly well with the narrative." * The Telegraph: "Mukherjee employs a range of cinematic, dramatic devices in the film. Flash-forward-flashbacks (parents, childhood) to Brechtian alienation (father behind movie camera). And strong influences of several European masters, especially Fellini is clearly evident. But despite such 'educated' references, somehow he never lets his ideas or storytelling become 'alien' or elitist. Maybe because he manages to keep his film grounded, rooted to our own culture-specific milieu, utilizing all its banal characteristics, colloquialism and linguistic slang (profanities bit too excessive though) with passion and flamboyance." * The Statesman: "In Herbert, the film, literature meets theatre meets cinema to lead to a form that's a delicious carnival - a never-ending series of snapshots that continually push and threaten to rummage the fragile membrane that separates the world we know from what remains unknowable."


Censorship

In spite of bagging utmost praise from a number of film critics, 'Herbert' faced a strong censorship in terms of its screening in Nandan, the government-sponsored film and cultural centre in
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
. After Nandan withheld its screening in 2005, a signature campaign was organized for 'Herbert', as a protest against the censorship order." Suman Mukhopadhay, the director of 'Herbert' said "Nandan’s preview committee had objected to the film, saying it will send out wrong signals to audiences. But they didn’t explain their position in writing." After a barrage of protests, it was eventually screened and ran for three weeks. The film has since gone on to achieve cult status, as much for its aesthetic merits.


Awards

This film won the following awards: * Silver Lotus for the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of severa ...
, 2005. * Audience Award at the
Dhaka International Film Festival Dhaka International Film Festival ( bn, ঢাকা আন্তর্জাতিক চলচ্চিত্র উৎসব) is a biennial film festival held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1992, the festival was initially organized on a ...
, 2006 * Lankesh Award for Best Debut Director in Bangalore, 2006.


External links

*


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert (2005 Film) Bengali-language Indian films Films set in Kolkata Films directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay Films based on Indian novels 2005 films Best Bengali Feature Film National Film Award winners 2005 directorial debut films 2000s Bengali-language films Magic realism films