Maati review: Paoli Dam carries Partition tale on her able shoulders

Directors Saibal Banerjee and Leena Gangopadhyay's Maati is a story of a woman’s journey across the border to her roots. The powerful performances by Paoli Dam and Adil Hussain in the film mostly overshadow the loose points in the script and the direction, making the inherent emotions appear to be real.

The film also attempts to offer a wholesome experience of a prosperous past in Bangladesh. The director duo’s thoughts into the detailing depicted through Sirsha Ray's poetic camerawork, coupled with Debajyoti Mishra’s music, definitely bring the ambience alive. However, in that process the plot loses its intensity. At times the unfolding of the events is so abrupt that the audience need to remind themselves that the film is set during the Partition.

The film begins as Jinia (Monami Ghosh), a Bangladeshi girl, currently a student of Biswabharati, manages to locate Meghla’s (Paoli Dam) home in Kolkata after a lot of hassle. She asks for Satyabrata Choudhuri (Chandan Sen), who eventually recognises Jinia to be the daughter of his childhood friend in his ancestral place Kutub Dia, Bangladesh.

Jinia has come to hand over a diary written by Kumudini Devi (Aparajita Auddy), Satyabrata’s wife. As soon as Satyabrata’s granddaughter Meghla gets hold of the diary, her heart races through countless emotions. A research scholar on Partition, Meghla is passionate about the rich history of her ancestors in Bangladesh and she has devoted herself entirely to understand it.

It is gradually revealed that during Partition, when Satyabrata was forced to leave his ancestral place, Kumudini Devi could not leave her home, land and her country to which she was attached with her heart and soul. According to hearsay, she was apparently killed in the bloody riots of that time.

Next Meghla is shown to be making her journey to Kutub Dia to attend the wedding ceremony of Jinia. However, the occasion is only an excuse for her to visit the place of which she dreams day and night. As she comes out of the airport, Jamil Bhai (Adil Hussain) comes to receive her. While he introduces her to the several historical places and landmarks around, Meghla gives him the impression that she is much aware of them all through the accounts of Kumudini Devi.

She attends the wedding, but her heart and mind remain elsewhere, wandering in the Choudhuri mansion. As she goes on exploring, she gradually comes across the reality of the history that she has fantasized and nurtured for so long. Does she go through a very smooth journey ahead? Does her search for her roots rob her all of her emotions or enrich her instead?

The emotional turbulence of Meghla, her mixed feelings, reality checks against illusions remain at the crux of the story. As she imbibes more about her past through the present encounters than the accounts of written history, her journey becomes more convincing. Instead of loving the land through her grandmother’s or an historian's eyes, she learns to explore it with her own.

These nuances are definitely the strong points of the film. On the other hand, the detailed flashbacks with the intention to evoke the past, leaving a few significant events, seem mostly repetitive as they are already once recounted by the characters. The story largely remains constricted to Kutub Dia. Instead of providing a context of the political happenings of that time, the plot suddenly comes up with communal conflicts. The incidents suddenly emerge out of a completely harmonious scenario.

In these sequences, it seems that while investing a lot in creating a visual treat, the directors lost out on retaining the coherence and relevance of the narrations from Kumudini Devi’s diary. Also, the cinematic composition of the episode of the runaway couple in the second half appears to be dragging.

Paoli Dam delivers a commanding performance as a strong-headed inquisitive woman who is almost obsessed with her past. As she fails to hate despite much bitterness in heart, she brings out the true emotions of her character who still suffers for the consequences of the Partition.

Adil Hussain’s character doesn’t have many shades, but he creates an impact with his natural portrayal of a benevolent soul, who is also passionate about his country and is entirely devoted to keeping the memory of his ancestors’ struggle alive.

Monami Ghosh is also extremely natural in her brief yet poignant appearance. She brings out the pain of being misunderstood by a friend whom she loves. It is no surprise that Sabitri Chatterjee puts up a heart-wrenching act as a helpless yet strong mother full of affection and admiration for her son Jamil Bhai and Meghla.

Chandan Sen into the skin of both the young and elderly versions of Satyabrata, and Aparajita Auddy manages to deliver a decent performance as well.

However, the dubbing of some of the artistes, including Anusuya Majumdar and Aparajita Auddy seems a little out of sync in quite a few sequences.

There are a quite a few full length songs in the film. The traditional folk songs during Jinia’s wedding add to the flavour of the scene, while later on they seem to be repetitive. Also, they hamper the pace of the film in the second part.

The film undoubtedly reflects a lot of attachment of the storyteller when it comes to recreating the past but it exhausts in dramatizing the course of the plot. Hence, the film doesn’t really leave the audience shaken to the core, while it attempts to sketch the crumbling aftermath of a notorious historical event with all its rich elements. It is only Paoli Dam’s act that they carry in their hearts after the film ends.