Bancharam Elo Phire
Introducing Bancharam – the character. He is an aged Bengali man residing in a rural area. A person who was gifted a land by a zamindaar and he turned it into a beautiful garden that bore fruits. When the zamindaar died, his son wanted the land back but Bancharam refused to give it back. Thus started a constant tiff between the zamindaar and Bancharam. They tried to murder Bancharam in ways that would appear that it was an accident but every time Bancharam got saved and he continued to live. One by one all those people who had their eyes on his Bagaan (garden) died but Bancharam survived!!
This is the story of Bancharam. Often people in Bengal jokingly call aged people as ‘Bancharam’ – esp. those who survive all health ailments!
So this is a sequel Bancharam.
This time the Promoters want his land to make an IT hub. Since his land is in a good position so the promoter is hell bent to get his land. Bancharam is shown living with his younger brother…he is much younger because in rural Bengal areas, girls get married very fast and get pregnant even faster. So often the mother and daughter both are pregnant at the same time. Its like a 14 years old girls gets married, at 16 she gives birth, at 32 she gets her 1st born daughter married and at 33, both mother and 17 years old daughter are pregnant…from their respective husbands of course.
Why Bengal suffers from the Bancharam syndrome?
Well, after the film is over and they were showing the titles etc. they quickly gave away the story as to why and what Bancharam has on his mind and why is he so reluctant to give away his land. Bancharam can be taken an allegory of our ancestors…of our past. He wanted to make good use of his land – like building a school and provide free education and mid-time meal to financially poor children of the nation. They are the future after all – they need to be happy and satisfied if we want our future to be good, positive & progressive.
But it does not happen that way. So this film is a satire showing what exactly are people busy with!
Brother of Bancharam (BOB) – Drunkard, wasteful. Wants to sell off the land and live happily ever after – drinking and making merry. It does not matter to him as to who takes over the land – as long as he has the money to buy his drink.
Wife of BOB – Only sane person who loves her family irrespective of their idiotic nature. She even loves and cares for the aged Bancharam.
Son of BOB – A good-for-nothing fellow who is also unemployed. Couple of other young men are also shown in the film who are playing cards and making dirty comments about women and sex. Not their fault after all. Jobless youths will obviously take to idiotic ways to spend time. They are probably hired by the local or state politician to capture booths or propagate political messages to the mass…other than this they just sit and enjoy I guess.
Daughter of BOB– Constantly on her cell phone talking to her lover who she has befriended on the internet through a social network. Although she has never met him but she loves him blindly – exchanging smooches over the phone. Does not help her mother in any house work….but goes to attend tuitions etc. showing that she was educated…yet in love with a total fraud!
Her Boyfriend – A liar – who lies through his teeth! He tells his virtual girl friend (daughter of BOB) that he has a car and is often flying to different states etc. But actually he is a petty executive ..probably with some engineering diploma in a Land Promoter’s office. He is also shown as a debauch womaniser – who ogles at well endowed females (sexy secretary of the Promoter) and does not think twice before following a stranger female while he had gone visiting the village and was, in fact, staying in the house of his girl friend! The stranger female who peeped through his window was a ghost!!
The Promoter – A wasteful womaniser who hires an advt. Agency to promote his business. He obviously selects a horny game model who would agree to sleep with him. The advt. Agency fellow had no say about anything…creativity is not required – he just had to provide the debauch with a model to sleep with so that he gets the job!
So this was more or less the story and message of Bancharam Elo Phire