Indulge Kolkata turns 7: Srijit Mukherji opens up on tracing the life of Chaitanya Dev in his Christmas release, Lawho Gouranger Naam Re

Feels great actually. It’s a new date, a new festive season, so I feel great. In fact, this happened because Dev and I had a chat right after Tekka. I said, “You are coming with Raghu Dakaat next Puja, and on Christmas, you are coming with Projapati 2, so when do you want me to come?” Dev told me to release on Christmas, and I agreed since I thought it would help us all if the Puja releases were minimal. Although removing myself wasn’t that helpful because ultimately four films were released, the crowding was still there. Anyway, so I shifted to Christmas and now we are on the cusp of a December 25 release.

There are three timelines. One timeline is where a woman filmmaker is making a film on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, where she has cast a reigning superstar as Chaitanya (Ishaa and Indraneil). The second timeline is around Girish Ghosh writing a third play after Chaitanya Leela and Nimai Shonyash on Gouranga, where he casts Nati Binodini as Chaitanya (Subhashree Ganguly and Bratya Basu). The third timeline is the actual timeline where we see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s life unfold.

I have always indulged in nonlinear storytelling. I love playing with multiple narratives across multiple timelines. Obviously, when multiple timelines are separated by more than a century, it becomes something like a Jaatishwar (which spans across 150 years). Chotuskone was one generation. This film spans across 500 years. So, you have three timelines instead of two. This structure fascinates me. The theme’s credit goes to producer Rana Sarkar because he insisted that after Jaatishwar, we must do a historical fiction, and he is not only a devotee of Lord Jagannath and Chaitanya but also an authority on Chaitanya’s life and times. So, when Rana narrated the story, I was fascinated, and that is when I decided I didn’t want to tell the story in a linear format. For the last six years, the project faced several pauses, and finally, we are here.

From a historical point of view, we do not have conclusive evidence pointing towards anything regarding his demise. There are several theories, and we have explored them all in this film about his disappearance. More importantly, the biggest message is one of brotherhood. He was a strong proponent of anti-war sentiment, a stance that angered sections of the royalty and the military. Also, the concept of equality beyond caste, creed, and religion did not sit well with many. He had followers who had converted from Islam to the Vaishnav tradition. The idea that you cannot discriminate between two people based on anything is the message that moved me.

Also, discovering Chaitanya through the eyes of Binodini has been fascinating. Nati Binodini plays a very vital part in the second timeline. Chaitanya’s emphasis on non-discrimination resonated deeply with Binodini, a nautch girl from the red-light district. She relates to the societal class distinction and moralistic value judgment of the society. Cutting through that is the message of love and complete submission to God. This shared belief is what unites Chaitanya and Binodini, which is why, when she enacted him, she got into a trance. I have tried to capture this moment, where the two timelines converge in a unifying act of total surrender to the Almighty.

All three timelines have their musical soundscapes. The modern musical soundscape has soft rock, pop, and contemporary Bengali music. Chaitanya’s timeline has a traditional kirtan and sangkirtan soundscape with a contemporary twist to make it cinematic and palatable to modern audiences. The overall choice of tune, instruments, and ethos is devotional, derived from the kirtan sangkirtan traditions of Bengal, which are still alive and kicking. We have Padma Palash, an established voice of kirtan. The final timeline has the maximum number of songs.

Indraadip Dasgupta has taken care of the Binodini era, and Jayati Chakraborty has been absolutely magnificent in her renditions. And the way Subhashree Ganguly has emoted to Jayati Chakraborty that is cinematic.

Subhashree was my first choice back in 2019, but she was pregnant at the time, and the period she needed to return to shape did not align with our schedule. So, then we chose Priyanka Sarkar. Then I decided not to do it because there were so many Binodinis being announced; I did not want to do Lawho Gouranger Naam Re amidst that. Then, by some divine intervention, Subhashree also got on board. The way she performed, everyone literally stopped in their tracks on set.

I’m a huge whodunnit fan, so Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes are among my favourites. While reading about Arthur Conan Doyle, I came across a couple of court cases in which he had helped overturn the court verdicts that had wrongfully convicted two people. These involved George Edalji, a Parsi gentleman, and Oscar Slater, a German Jew. In both cases, the author applied investigative methods similar to those used by Sherlock Holmes. Then, I started writing, and it soon became part biopic and part courtroom drama, where you see the last 25 years of Conan Doyle’s life. I pitched it to the Arthur Conan Doyle estate, and they loved it and commissioned the project. They are part-producers. Then we started talking to others, and it’s now an Indo-British co-production. The entire cast and crew will be British, and it will be entirely shot in Britain. It will be my first British-English project.

The cast of Emperor vs Sarat Chandra will have Abir Chatterjee, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Mimi Chakraborty, and Divyani Mondal. We will reveal who plays Sarat in due course.

It’s again a very non-linear treatment. So, when Pather Daabi came out in 1926 (also celebrating 100 years), it was banned by the British within six months. Sarat Chandra had to fight the British for his freedom of expression as a writer to write a historical novel, which obviously did not portray the British favourably. That struggle and journey was as much a part of history as the content of the novel, also against the British, which is why the title.