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Minstrels’ song
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Eleven Miles offers an interesting insight into the life of the Bauls
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Photo: K. Pichumani
Enigmatic retelling Ruchir Joshi’s style of film making is neither linear nor logical
Who are Baul singers? They are the wandering minstrels of Bengal holding mystical faiths. Ruchir Joshi’s documentary in various parts gives us a comprehensive and life-like view of Bauls.But, like Bauls themselves, this film is disjointed, disp
arate and wandering. Ruchir’s style of film making is neither linear nor logical. Even as the Bauls themselves are hesitant to reveal the truths about themselves and their traditions to uninitiated novices whom they do not trust at first meeting, Ruchir’s film also tests our willingness to be inducted, nay swamped, by the mystique of Bauls before it unfolds itself.
The style of the film suits the subject, as the Bauls, at best are enigmatic and cannot be captured or imprisoned by narratives filled with words or images that support the continuity of the narrative.
So much for the meandering, musical, disjointed flow of the film. But, it does in its own way touch on the essence of Bauls and their life and songs.
There are many interesting facts about Bauls, glimpses of which we get through this film. There are Hindu and Muslim (fakir) Bauls; they are renouncers as well as householders; there are women as well as men Bauls; there are those who have become Bauls through sadhana or initiation of esoteric practices and there are those who reach the same position by following a guru. There are many disputes and dissensions among the Bauls themselves as to who a true Baul is.
Rabindranath Tagore was a great votary of the Bauls. Jeanne Openshaw, who has written a book on Bauls says, “Baul performers echo the Tagorean ideal in their emphasis on lifestyle (wanderer), attitude (having no plans or discrimination) and above all emotion (bhab).” The close relationship which Bauls have with human beings, animals and spaces of all types (houses, lonely roads, rivers, public performance spaces, hotel rooms) is also effectively captured in this film.
Ranjan Palit, one of the most versatile and respected cameramen of India and Mahadev Shi, a competent editor has helped Ruchir to assemble this film. There are many images which are recurring and resonant of not only the wandering nature of Bauls, but the aura of Calcutta and Bengal itself. The river (with its flowing water) and the road with its endlessness are constantly imaged. The metaphor of journey is imprinted in the viewers’ mind effortlessly. Talking of images, there are some which are really memorable. The one where the woman feeds cats, talks to them in their own mewling language, the one where Karthik, a Baul talks about his foreign trip with the casualness only possible for a Baul, another of a Baul talking to a photograph of Rabindranath Tagore (whom he calls dadu meaning grandfather) telling him how everything else about Bauls is respected and celebrated except the Baul himself. The interjecting observations of Deepak Majumdar, seated in a gently rocking boat, in a flowing river are also remarkable and so truly “Bengali”.
In the final analysis, this film is not about Bauls or Baul singing only, it is about a particular space, time eternal and flowing, and life which is mundane as well as mystical and a view of life which is unusual and thought provoking. The film also hints at some of the folk traditions which with the onset of modernity are at crossroads – the need to move out of their cocoons and yet preserve the true essence of the tradition.
My only critical comment is that it could be edited and reduced to two hours without losing its specificity.
VASANTHI SANKARANARAYANAN
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