In response to Srijit Mukherjee’s Hemlock Society

This film, a much earlier one to Chatuskon, has the same preoccupation with Death as the latter film. There is an eros of thanatos ( the death drive) in Mukherjee’s films, often. That is, love of death, as opposed to affirmation of life, or eros. Death as pervasive, death as the final arbiter of life. “Maranare tuhun mama shyama saman” or “moron bole ami tomar jivan tori bai”. Death the great  Beloved, death the great shadow and tragic reality. I see an obsessive return to the theme of death in Srijit Mukherjee’s films, each return, an outstanding film, though.

Hemlock Society does not have the grimness of Chatuskon. It is redeemed by the love story, the concentration on youth and the inevitable beauty of the heroine. The closing song set to Raag Yaman, also gives a note of upbeat joy, of life triumphing over death. The car too, Parambrata driving over Hooghly bridge, also suggests motion or dynamic flow, and modern technological innovation that facilitates exits of all kinds. 

I am stunned that a young film maker thinks so well, so brilliantly, and is able to transform some of the deepest intuitions of life into a gripping story, interesting and empathetic dialogue and outstanding cinematography. A work of Art, indeed, a consummate fusion, a melody that stays and moves.

I thought that the ending cheapened the sustained exploration of death in the film. In my opinion (and my opinion, only), the film would have been more artistically restrained, more tailored, had it ended with the scene between Koyel and Parambrata in the hospital. That would have prevented the somewhat comic closure of the end. After the telling of Koyel’s story, it was not necessary to engage with the story of her boyfriend. There was no need to make him out as a comic figure, nor give added emphasis to the evangelical side of Parambrata’s (Ananda’s) character. The unitary focus of the film was lost for me that way. The scene with the TDS issue, was great, though. A slice of real life, as opposed to the finished perfection and seriousness of artistic enterprise.

The acting was outstanding. Parambrata seems to reach a maturity in Srijit Mukherjee’s films, that I don’t recollect seeing elsewhere. Koyel plays the role of the sophisticated Meghna perfectly.

The bit about Siddhartha Ray’s electrical engineering degree from Jadavpur is also interesting.

Srijit Mukherjee is one of the greatest film makers to come out of Bengal, and also India. He rivals both Satyajit Roy and Rituparna Ghosh. However, if he repeats the death motive too often, then he will stand the risk of over repeating himself.

I know this is a  comparatively older film, but revisiting it was great. One of the lines that Ananda speaks, of how the ideal woman of his dreams, combines  knowledge of ‘Feluda, Derrida and Neruda’ is  hilarious to a degree that I will remember it for a long time.  Intelligent, well read and wonderful film maker.