If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have read Moner Manush, and if I hadn't read it, I would have never probably had the same urge as I did to watch the movie.
The Book:
The book was written by
Sunil Gangopadhay, who did his own research before writing it.
You get the idea from the book that Lalon's life was an ongoing search for himself, and to make sense of society and culture, traditions and beliefs. His songs were spiritual, and as the book implies, the verses would just come to him in his moments of reflection set to a tune.
The Movie:
The initial lack of interest in the movie was due to the fact that we knew
Prosenjit (An actor from Kolkata) was playing Lalon. He does not fit what we would picture Lalon to appear like, and we were kind of familiar with his acting and he wasn't a favorite. But as was said, the book created an interest of witnessing how it was translated onto the screen. The rest of the cast were okay, except for the woman who played the part of the widow who Lalon and a few of his friends save from burning. Her lack of expression and emotionless delivery of dialogue almost outdid other negatives we picked from the movie.
The movie had nice cinematography and other than the ones spoken of before, the rest of the cast did very well. The villages of Bangladesh were captured at its best. However, it struck us both as odd, that after a book written after research, how the movie could put so much out of turn, and give not a full effort on showing the development of Lalon's philosophies. It may have done so in its own terms, but as an audience with the book fresh in our heads, we thought it lacked something.
We really should have learnt after many experiences that watching a movie after you've read the book really doesn't work! We never learned, and I am afraid, never will!
If you have no idea what this is about, its about Fokir Lalon Shah, a philosopher, and musician.
