A version of this review previously appeared on Geek of All Trades.
हज़ार चौरासी की माँ
Hazaar chaurasi kii maa ("Mother of 1084") tells the story of Sujata Chatterji (Jaya Bhaduri), as she struggles to understand the violent death of her cherished son Brati (Joy Sengupta). Much of the story takes place in the early 70s and is told in flashback, as Sujata wracks her own memories and meets with others who help her reconstruct the events leading up to Brati’s murder. Sujata discovers that Brati’s Marxist ideology led him to join a violent, splinter revolutionary group known as the Naxalbari (after the location of a 1969 Bengali peasant uprising). One night, the eve of Brati’s 21st birthday, his Naxalbari cell was tracked down and brutally beaten by a gang of political rivals, with the help of the local police.
Sujata, a bourgeoise bank worker, is at first mystified by what she discovers about her son’s impassioned politics. But as she speaks with the people who knew him in that life, she becomes increasingly sympathetic and her connection to her dead son grows ever more intense. Sujata pieces together her son’s story through conversations with two other women whose lives are altered by the events surrounding Brati’s death. The grieving mother (art-house veteran Seema Biswas) of Brati’s closest friend and co-revolutionary helplessly witnessed the beatings outside the window of her shantytown hovel. And Brati’s girlfriend Nandini (Nandita Das) was with the revolutionaries when they were betrayed by one of their own; she escaped Brati’s fate, but was tortured and probably raped in prison and the physical and emotional scars never quite fade. Through talking with these women, Sujata begins to appreciate why her son was drawn to devote his life to class struggle. As time passes, her family urges her to let go of the past, but Sujata’s wounds are slow to heal. Only years later, after she has retired from her position at the bank and devoted herself to the service of human rights, is she able to find peace and redemption.
Hazaar chaurasi kii maa weaves its tale of political violence – largely a male purview – from a singularly feminine perspective, weaving Sujata’s, Nandini’s, and the grieving mother’s memories to provide the complete picture of Brati’s ideological life and his brutal, undignified death. In that sense, the film presents a classic division between the sexes – the men carry on in violent struggle, and the women are left to clean up the blood, heal themselves, and try to effect real change through quieter, more peaceful means.
Hazaar chaurasi kii maa was based upon the Bengali novel of the same name by Mahasweta Devi.