Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti

Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti
File:Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti .jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Aritra Mukherjee
Produced by	Nandita Roy Shiboprosad Mukherjee
Written by	Zinia Sen (Story) Samragnee Bandyopadhyay (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Zinia Sen
Starring	Ritabhari Chakraborty Soham Majumdar
Music by	Original songs: Anindya Chattopadhyay Sound Design and Mix Amit Kumar Dutta Background Score Rudraneel Chowdhury
Cinematography	Aalok Maiti
Edited by	Moloy Laha
Production company	Windows Production
Release date	6 March 2020 (2020-03-06)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	India
Language	Bengali

Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti is a 2020 Indian Bengali drama film, which is the directorial debut of Aritra Mukherjee and produced by Windows Production. It stars Ritabhari Chakraborty, Soham Majumdar, Soma Chakraborty, Ambarish Bhattacharya, Manasi Sinha, and Subhasish Mukherjee. The film revolves around Shabari (played by Ritabhari Chakraborty), a priest’s daughter, who grew up to be a Sanskrit lecturer and a part-time priest. We see her breaking patriarchal ideologies by fighting for her right to performing priesthood, dealing with menstrual taboos and standing up against the concept of Kanyadaan.

Synopsis

Shabari (Ritabhari Chakraborty) is a lecturer, performing artiste and priest. She picked up the art of priesthood from her father. When a chance encounter with Vikramaditya (Soham Majumdar) at a college function leads to a marriage proposal, she tells the would-be groom that she does puja among other things. Her words are misinterpreted for the usual puja that women perform at home. After her marriage, Shabari is forced to keep her identity under wraps due to the stark differences between her worlds, pre and post marriage. Will she be able to continue being a priest against all odds or will she be forced to give up faced with opposition by a patriarchal society? All the more when women in their menstrual age are not allowed to perform pujas! Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti makes one ponder over the outdated rites and rituals and questions the gender imbalance in society. It promises to make you laugh and cry, while asking to ring in a positive change.

Cast

• Ritabhari Chakraborty as Shabari
• Soham Majumdar as Bikramaditya
• Manasi Sinha as Gurudasi
• Subhasish Mukherjee as Purohit Moshai
• Soma Chakraborty as Amrabati
• Ambarish Bhattacharya as Pratapaditya
• Tanika Basu
• Abhiroop
• Iman Chakraborty as Uma in a Special Appearance

Release

It was theatrically released on 6 March 2020. It had a short theatrical run till the 25th of March, 2020, due to the country-wide lockdown for COVID-19. However, it ran to packed houses across Bengal in that short period of time. The film enjoyed 50+ houseful shows back to back on the first Sunday of its release, even some theatres had back to back packed shows. Later it had its world television premiere on the 14th of February, 2021 and is also available on OTT platforms. It was screened at 51st International Film Festival of India in January 2021 in Indian Panorama section.

Inspiration behind the Film

'Shubhamastu', a Kolkata-based collective led by Dr Nandini Bhowmik, Ruma Roy, Semanti Banerjee, and Paulomi Chakraborty, has been presiding over Hindu ceremonies of weddings, memorial services, housewarming rituals, among others, for over a decade now. The group was founded in 2009 by the 59-year-old Bhowmik, an Indologist and visiting faculty at Jadavpur University, along with her batchmate from college Ruma Roy, a professor of Sanskrit at a Calcutta University-affiliated college.

File:Ritabhari Chakraborty & Soham Majumdar .jpg

We see her breaking patriarchal ideologies by fighting for her right to performing priesthood

The film team was inspired to tell the story of Bhowmik, which they did with her blessing. The lead character, Shabari, much like Bhowmik, is a lecturer and a priest. The film is a fictionalized tale based on the narrative shared by Bhowmik.

Reception

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Lead cast of Bengali film ‘Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti’ Ritabhari Chakraborty and Soham Majumdar addressing a Press Conference, during the 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2021), in Panaji, Goa on January 18, 2021.

The Calcutta high court  in a recent order has held that “Hinduism is a way of life and is wide enough even to accommodate atheists, agnostics as well as all shades of religious and spiritual beliefs”. The court also said, "In the event, the Hindu religion was so fragile and wounded so easily, it would not have survived over the ages through various onslaughts, as borne out by history." Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya’s six-page order on March 6 nullified a plea against the film for "hurting Hindu religious sentiments" by linking Brahma with 'gopon kommoti', which means 'the secret act'. Petitioner Subhadep Adhikari also argued that the filmmakers should be prosecuted under penal sections which deal with hurting religious sentiment with a malicious intent.

Bengali writer Debarati Mukhopadhyay claimed that the plot of the movie was copied from her book Diotima without giving any attributions. Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy informed that Debarati's claim is baseless and Windows Production filed a suit of 10 crores against Debarati Mukhopadhyay. Smt. Mukhopadhyay also stated that she has filed a counter suit against the production house for plagiarism, copyright violation worth 50 Crores. She also filed a defamation suit against the script writer of the film for humiliating her.

Soundtrack

Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti
Soundtrack album by Anindya Chatterjee
Released	6 March 2020
Recorded	2019
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	11:24
Language	Bengali
Label	INRECO

The soundtrack is composed by Anindya Chatterjee on his own lyrics.

Track list

No.	Title	Singer	Length
1.	"Yadidang Whridayang"	Ujjaini Mukherjee	3:51
2.	"Kon Gopone"	Surangana Bandyopadhay	3:23
3.	"Tui Chol"	Somlata Acharyya Choudhury	3:29
4.	"Biya Legeche" (Chorus: Mouli Bhattacharya)	Singer: Lagnajita Chakraborty	3:32
Total length:			14:25

External links

• Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti on IMDb