Dharasnan review: When an exploited woman turns into an exploiter

Haranath Chakraborty’s Dharasnan deals with the issue of power in relation to sexual and financial exploitation in society. In the film, the roles of the oppressor and the oppressed are reversed every now and then, leading the victims to inflict a similar ordeal on innocent lives.

The film also shows how women lack agency in both their personal and professional lives and are always prone to ill-treatment. The protagonist turns into the epitome of all the crises Chakraborty wishes to present through the film.

The film delivers the message quite clearly but turns too dark and problematic at times. Though complexities are at the heart of the subject, the plot and the context seem a little out-of-date. There are also ample technical faults and certain sequences in the beginning are not well woven.

In fact, the beginning of the film is a bit misleading. It shows a woman, amidst torrential rain, successfully fending off a passer-by who wants to take advantage of her. It shifts to a regular morning, featuring the same woman, Tamasha Barui (Rituparna Sengupta), the protagonist.

Initially, one gets the impression that Tamasha has established herself well as a businesswoman with her own calibre and does not need a man in her life. When a random thug taunts her son about the identity of his father, Tamasha’s angry retort makes one think that perhaps an independent woman like her is always seen through the eyes of controversy.

It is only gradually revealed that Tamasha is married and yet she does not mind getting physically involved with her business partner Hara Babu (Biswajit Chakraborty), though it is true that she is not as keen as the latter. When Hara Babu expresses his wish to get married to Tamasha, her frail and sick husband Shanta Sil Barui (Kanchan Mallick) comes into the picture.

In a flashback, Tamasha’s horrific past that led her to get married to a perpetually ill and incapable man is shown. As Tamasha thinks she might as well have to spend her life nursing her husband after marriage, a doctor approaches her with a shrewd proposal to help her build her own business.

Tamasha makes her choice to sacrifice her self-respect and accepts her fate to get treated like a commodity to secure her future, while her husband keeps watching her as a passive figure. As this goes on, Tamasha’s hunger for power and money grows and eventually there remains no difference between her and those who look at her as a bundle of flesh.

Tamasha’s attempt at finding the meaning of life in power and money, after losing at her true love and a normal conjugal life, seems quite justified. That her acute bitterness eventually turns her into an evil person makes sense, too. Her subdued inner turmoil stands well against the character of Bhumika (Disha Ganguly), an idealistic young woman for whom money and affluence have no meaning.

Bhumika is inspired by her freedom-fighter grandfather and follows similar ideals in her life. She not only scolds Tamasha for hoisting the national flag upside down, but also falls in love with Prashanta, believing him to be exercising the same passion for bringing justice and equality in society.

Tamasha is so immersed in her philosophies that she fails to see the reality. When her unemployed father decides to sell their house, the holy abode of her inspiration, for money to none other than Tamasha, Bhumika takes a stand that eventually changes the course of the plot. Meanwhile, Tamasha, in her delusion for prosperity, slowly plunges into an abyss of immorality.

The intensity and the drama in weaving the twists, though not entirely original, keep the audience engaged. One cannot help but eagerly wait to see the progression of the characters, whether they sink or rise above themselves.

Kanchan Mallick delivers the finest performance of the cast and it is a relief for his fans as he has not really been seen in this kind of avatar before. His honest act saves the film from culminating in an over-the-top climax.

Rituparna Sengupta is more or less consistent in playing a complex character. If only she could have put in more effort in bringing out the vulnerabilities of Tamasha.

Biswajit Chakraborty is well suited as Hara Babu and Saheb Chatterjee, too, does justice to his character of an opportunist. The late Disha Ganguly is dramatic in her performance and brings out the obsessions of her character well.

Debajyoti Mishra’s background score is sometimes overpowering and interferes with the flow of the film instead of enhancing the drama in it. Monotosh Chakraborty’s flawed camerawork stops the film from attaining excellence.

The audience will leave the theatre carrying a lot of angst and bitterness from the film. Perhaps that is how the director intended to project reality. It offers a catharsis but makes the audience aware of the inhuman side of the modern socio-economic structure and its consequences, with the sad position of women in it at the centre.