| The film is set
in 1943-44, when famine struck Bengal during the
British rule in India. It was a man made famine. As the
British government cornered the civilian food supply for
its armies, the people starved. The famine claimed the
lives of five million people.
The story takes place in
a small village where the famine
affects the lives of the families in different ways.
Gangacharan, an educated
Brahmin, has recently arrived to settle in the village
with his wife. He decides to teach and conduct religious
ceremonies in exchange for being supported by the
villagers. The villagers readily agree. His wife, Ananga,
is a sensuous woman. She is sensitive, giving, and
devoted to her husband.
The distant World War II
changes the village. Gangacharan is only little more
informed than the villagers. He knows that Japan has
taken over Singapore but he has no idea where it is. As
a few aeroplanes disturb the peaceful sky, the word
goes around that the war will result in a scarcity of
rice. The price of rice soars as the traders hide their
stocks to make huge profits.
To eat, the villagers are
reduced to animal-like existence and forced to beg
for food. Gangacharan, shrewd and stingy, has
managed to keep himself supplied with food but it may
not last long. Ananga offers to work for food but
Gangacharan is shocked at the idea of her doing manual
labour. Soon, he is forced to change his views and
Ananga goes to work with other village women.
A man with a burnt face (scarface)
offers a married village woman – Chutki – a bribe of
rice to go with him. She refuses but later the hunger
drives her to agree.
Ananga offers her gold
bangle to Gangacharan to exchange it for rice. As he
goes to a nearby village to in search of rice, she goes
into the forest with Chutki and another woman to look
for wild potatoes. Not used to manual labour, Ananga
sees a flower and goes for it. The village women find
some potatoes. A man tries to take Ananga; Chutki kills
the man with the bar she used to dig out the potato.
But Chutki herself would
rather live in dishonour than die of hunger. Once again,
she joins the scarface despite her revulsion towards
him.
An untouchable-caste
woman dies of hunger; the first starvation death in the
village. Gangacharan, breaking the taboo, picks up her
hand take her pulse. He feels obliged to give her a
proper cremation.
Even as we learn that
Ananga is pregnant, we see the villagers leave in search
of food in silhouettes. The screen is filled with a
statement – "Over five million died of
starvation and epidemics in Bengal in what has come to
be known as the man-made famine of 1943."
|
