View of BIOSCOPEWALA: A SAGA OF LOVE AND CULTURAL CONFLICT (A Classic Revisit to Tagore’s Short Story Kabuliwala)

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal, ISSN NO. 2456-1037

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Vol. 06, Special Issue 08, (ELL-2021) November 2021 IMPACT FACTOR: 7.98 (INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL)

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BIOSCOPEWALA: A SAGA OF LOVE AND CULTURAL CONFLICT

(A Classic Revisit to Tagore’s Short Story Kabuliwala) Dr. Archana Singh

Assistant Professor, Department of English, BPD Govt. P.G. College North Bastar Kanker, Chhattisgarh

Every remarkable art always stands close with immortality. Writers never die, they breathe in their writings and in readers’ memories. Born on 7^th May, 1861 the Bard of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore has inspired generations of people through his writings, poetry and thoughts. Tagore was much ahead of his time and his works are loved not only in India but abroad also.

Tagore’s “Kabuliwala” is an immortal creation. The short story is set in 20^th century India is about the loving father-daughter relation between kabuliwala Rahamat with Mini beyond the borders of race, religion and language. The story goes like this, Kabuliwala aka Rehmat comes to Calcutta (now Kolkata), and leaving his family especially his beloved daughter Rabiya back in Afganistan for livelihood. He sees the reflection of his own daughter in Mini and develops a very affectionate relation with her. On a tragic twist, Kabuliwala is arrested on account of stabbing a person who owes his money but denies repaying the money. Eventually he remains in the jail for several years. On the day of Mini’s wedding, Kabuliwala returns from the jail, he goes to Mini’s house to meet her and finds Mini in bridal dress. But Mini is not able to recognize him and shies away. Mini’s father understands Rahamat’s feelings for his daughter and gives him some money to go back to Afganistan to meet his daughter. “The master storyteller Rabindranath Tagore has tried to show the hidden pain from the character of Mini and Kabuliwala. This story is heart wrenching and beautiful.”¹

Almost a century later, “Bioscopewala” has been made by the director Deb Mukherjee. “Bioscopewala” is an adaptation of Tagore’s “Kabuliwala”. The movie starts from where the short story “Kabuliwala” comes to an end. Keeping in mind the gap between young movie lovers and the rich heritage of literary creation, the director has given a contemporary and modernized spin to the story. In Tagore’s short story Kabuliwala comes to India to earn money but Bioscopewala comes to India because of the fundamentalist Talibans, who set ablaze his theatre and bioscope and tortured him and his family. To save the life of his family Bioscopewala fled away from Afganistan to India. In Tagore’s short story the protagonist sells dry fruits but in the movie he becomes Bioscopewala, who goes around and shows Indian Hindi movies to children. As Talibans are against showing movies, singing and dancing, his profession incited the rage of Talibans eventually forced him to leave Afganistan. In the movie the director chose to show the profession of the protagonist to be a bioscopewala instead of kabuliwala because Afgans are known for their love and bonding for Bollywood movies and its actors and actresses. Before Taliban overthrow, India and Afganistan had a strong relationship based on historical and cultural links. Presently Afganistan is war stricken and terrorism overshadowed every aspects of economic, social, cultural and political life.

Tagore’s short story revolves around the friendship of Rahamat and Mini but the movie “Bioscopewala” is all about the female character Mini. A shattered and disturbed Mini, a documentary film maker returns from Paris to India to collect her father’s body remains that dies in a plane crash while going to Afganistan. It’s a mystery for Mini that why her father was going to Afganistan. On coming back she finds an old man living in her house. The presence of old man annoys her very much as she is busy in unfolding the mystery of his father’s going to Afganistan. While trying to solve the mystery she comes to know that the old man is none other than her dear friend Bioscopewala, the truth thrills her and the mystery resolved that her father was going to Afganistan to bring Bioscopewala’s daughter Rabiya back to India. Moved by her father’s letter that he had written before boarding the plane, now she decides to fulfill her father’s last wish and goes to Afganistan to know about the whereabouts of Rabiya and to bring her back. She reaches Afganistan and moved by the war-stricken pictures of Afganistan. On finding the tomb of Bioscopewala’s daughter Rabiya, all her hopes to reunite father with daughter wither away.

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal, ISSN NO. 2456-1037

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After coming back to India she shows her own picture to Bioscopewala as grown up Rabiya.

This gesture of Mini helps bringing back the lost memory of Bioscopewala.

The movie is all about father-daughter relation and affection, about fading memories and changing perspectives, about the sense of loss of family and home that is caused by migration. Mini’s father, though not very much shows his affection for Mini but understands Bioscopewala’s feeling for his own daughter Rabiya, whom he left back in Afganistan. He not only allows him to mingle with his own daughter but also tries to bring Rabiya back from Afganistan to India. Like the short story, in movie also Bioscopewala showed Mini’s father a tatty piece of paper with a charcoal print of two same tiny hands, which was his daughter’s and Mini’s but in the short story only one hand of Rabiya has been shown. Symbolically this denotes that Bioscopewala’s affection for Mini is just because she reminds her of his own daughter Rabiya back in Afganistan. Unlike the short story, in the movie the loving relation between the Bioscopewala and Mini has been depicted. Firstly Mini does not like the old man being at her home but later on when she tries to unravel the mystery of his father’s going to Afganistan she comes to know that the old man in her house is her own Bioscopewala with whom she spent very joyful and memorable events of her childhood. In the movie, Mini’s relation with her own father is shown very stressful. Her father never expresses his emotions for Mini but understands Bioscopewala’s feelings for Mini and by all means tries to help him. It is Mini’s love for Bioscopewala that invokes her to help him as the fatherly love that she had not got from her own father, but received from Rehmat, the Bioscopewala. The sweet glimpses of her childhood with Rehmat still fill her with joy and happiness that she calls her boyfriend tells him about the Bioscopewala. In the end of the movie, Mini with her boyfriend goes to Afganistan to find out his daughter Rabiya. When she finds the tomb of Rabiya, she presents herself before the bioscopewala as his grown up daughter that helps bringing his memory back.

Thus the story of “Bioscopewala” is a beautiful saga of love between two fathers and their daughters. Through the movie the director also wants to convey the message that beneath religious hatred and communal disharmony we all are one. The director has converted the story of kabuliwala to the story of bioscopewala, he changed the profession of the central character to show the cultural conflict in Afganistan. India and Afghanistan had a strong relationship based on historical and cultural links. Afgans have a great liking for bollywood movies. In the words of French-Afghan author and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, “All Afghans have a special bond with India and Indian films. The reason being the countries’

cultural connects.”²But Afghanistan has been seeing wars and violent clashes in the post modern era, starting from the Cold War period to the recent second time take over by the Taliban terrorists. The turbulent Afganistan gave rise to cultural conflict. Talibans have banned many things in Afganistan and means of entertainment is one of them. Nobody is allowed to listen to music or watch movies. Rehmat Khan showed Indian movies to the public of Afganistan and raised Taliban’s anger eventually he lost his makeshift cinema hall in his small Afghan village in a vicious attack by Taliban militants. To save the life of his family he runs away from Afganistan to India and meets Mini as he finds reflection of her own daughter Rabiya in Mini. Keeping in mind the cultural conflict of Afganistan and the religious hatred prevailed all over the world, the director very beautifully gave a contemporary turn to the immortal story of Tagore without disturbing the very soul of the story “Kabuliwala”.

Some relevant issues have also been drawn by the movie like how the childhood is destroyed by living in the shadow of war. Many people have to flee from their own homeland just to escape from the horror of war and what kind of difficulties they have to face in the new place where they have to live like refugees. Like in “Bioscopewala”, one female character is forced to go to Soanagachhi area to sell her body. The film also draws our attention to the fact beyond religious hatred, we all are one and humanity is the best virtue above all religions. The war destroyed the beauty of this world. Shrishti Negi of News18 said that, "In a rising atmosphere of cultural intolerance, hate and violence, director Deb Medhekar’s “Bioscopewala” promises hope and manages to convey the more heart-warming emotion of humankind.”

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal, ISSN NO. 2456-1037

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1. https://www.haloofbooks.com/kabuliwala-by-rabindranath-tagore-book-review/

2. https://www.deccanherald.com/content/268778/an-afghans-love-hindi-films.html

3. https://www.hindustantimes.com/movie-reviews/bioscopewala-movie-review-a-sparkling-danny- denzongpa-and-the-power-of-cinema/story-