Although cinematic, in real life, there was a daughter of an assassinated father who completes her law studies, fights for the murder case as a lawyer in courts, and finally brings justice for her father.
We came to know this story in the case of Professor Abu Taher of Rajshahi University. His daughter Shagufta was not very keen to study law initially, but it was her father who apparently compelled her to go ahead before he eventually was gruesomely killed. Finally, his daughter fought all the legal battles for 16 long years to get justice from the highest court. This is an extraordinary real-life story.
SPOILERS AHEAD
But, in the movie's reality, the daughter of an assassinated father has no scope or option to fight all the legal battles, so she takes revenge herself by killing the murderer of her father.
The story of Hawa, the first film Mejbaur Rahman Sumon has directed, is as simple as that. But, the surrealistic journey the audience, along with the director and his artistes, goes through in the deep-sea by an engine boat to reach the climax is not that simple.
Before you reach the dramatic end, some can say the exposition of the movie appears to be fast-forwarded, where the journey of the boat “Nayantara,” piloted by Chaan Manjhi (Chanchal Chowdhury) and accompanied by his fellow fishermen, begins in a twinkle of an eye without giving the audience any chance to take a breath.
In fact, it’s the director who wants you not to keep onshore once you are there; rather to start the mystic travel as soon as possible, keeping you in point-blank movie magic -- as in the case of the bird that is in the cage being carried by the manjhi.
Soon you are in the deep-sea, the life of a daria or water-world begins; for the next two hours, you are in another world, the world is neither unknown nor known to us. The boat floats on the sea and you are sunk into the life of a bunch of ordinary and extraordinary people as well as good and bad souls. This is the type of life -- be it in this part of the world or in the land of “the old man and the sea.”
You are in the known world until Gulti (Nazifa Tushi) appears like a mermaid through a fishing net and the ultimate kissa (story) begins.
A girl coming from nowhere onboard a fishing boat in the deep-sea along with eight males is indeed magical realism, but you can imagine and relate to Yasmin of Dinajpur who was raped and killed by several policemen, or Purnima of Sirajganj who was gang-raped after BNP-Jamaat came to power in 2001, or Ferdousy Priyobhashinee who was captured and tortured by the Pakistanis during the 1971 Liberation War.
Or, one can simply understand the reality of a single girl in this male-dominated world.
At one stage comes the signature song “Shada Shada Kala Kala,” (the success of the communication strategists of the movie to engulf people in the cinema much before its release must be commended) after which Gulti emerges with her real power.
The cinematography is excellent and so is the screenplay. The camerawork is praiseworthy, as is the background music, and nothing to mention about the songs.
The dialogue, however, is average; though one can expect some dialogues that s/he can remember days after watching the movie, especially from Gulti who comes from a place we don’t know, a mystical character, nothing like us.
This personal view does not at all downplay the movie that was the product of tireless work and perhaps the best performances from Chanchal Chowdhury (though he does a great job in every other character), Nazifa Tushi, Shariful Raj, and all the others.
Still, it’s the cinema of director and storywriter Mejbaur Rahman Sumon who we understand worked so much with that level of creativity to bring the movie on screen from his brain. As Hawa is his first cinema, many had apprehension that he might give us yet another telefilm or TV drama like some of his compatriots.
But, thankfully, we got a cinema to watch on the big screen. Sumon did so well that one can see he will go far.
Zahid Newaz Khan is Chief News Editor of Channel i and Editor of Channel i Online.
