The title refers to the Hindustani equivalent of "E-flat". It was part of the triology , Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) , Komal Gandhar and Subarnarekha , all dealing with the aftermath of the partition of India in 1947 and the refugees coping with it, though this was the most optimistic film of his oeuvre. The film explores three themes juxtaposed in the narrative , the dilemma of Anusuya, the lead character, divided leadership of IPTA and the fallout of the partition of India.
Hero of this film, Bhrigu is a leader. And in due course , he is challenged and left alone by other leadership aspirants. He tells Anasuya why he is so rugged, unemotional today. He tells that on the bank of river Padma, from where he tries to see the other side, his home — another country now, where he can never go back as citizen again. Komal Gandhar is layered with cultural references — urban and folk. Heroes take names from Indian mythology —- Bhrigu, Anasuya ; the theatre group wants to find its essence in a performance of Shakuntala; Bhrigu compares Shakuntala’s sorrow in leaving behind her forest with an eviction from someone’s own space in Calcutta. Probably people identify him/herself with this movie to a great extent that it brings back the tune of nostalgia and responsibility.
Padatik is the final film in Mrinal Sen's Calcutta trilogy , Interview and Calcutta '71 being the other two, films which are deeply rooted in the social, cultural and political atmosphere of the city of Calcutta , which the film's beginning describes as "an intimidating and infernal city, unredeemed and probably doomed", during the period .
Sumit (Dhritiman Chatterjee ) , a member of an extremist left-wing party ,escapes from police custody. He gets refuge in the high-rise apartment of Shilpi Mitra (Simi Garewal), a divorcee, who is an executive in an advertising agency . Isolated in his own comfortable refuge, he begins to question the actions of his party and it's consequences and also develops a friendship with Shilpi. Padatik is Sen's cinematic critique of the excesses of the extreme left. It was made in the time when the violent left-wing movement (naxalism) was losing it's steam under the tremendous attack of the Indian state and ideological conflicts among the various sections. The isolation of the extreme left is nicely portrayed in Padatik when a scene consisting of a montage of a political rally is juxtaposed with a scene showing Nikhilda ( Jocchon Dostidar ) , the chief leader of the extremist party ,working alone in an underground press writing solid prose about the demerits of the bourgeois educational system. Even here Nikhilda behaves like a petty
autocrat with the workers of the press , thus betraying his failure to unite with the working class despite his self-proclaimed "identification with the proletariat".
Sen was heavily influenced by Jean-Luc-Godard. The influence of Godard in Padatik extends not only in the overall narrative framework but also in the long use of hand-held camera , on location shooting and freeze frames , all of which prevent the build-up of melodrama and force the audience to get involved not with the characters but with the contention of the film. Most of the characters of the film are deliberately made devoid of any subjectivity , including the protagonist, with all his memories of family and his conflicts with his freedom fighter father , remains a typical example of the Bengali middle class youth . The only exception is Shilpi Mitra. The film exposes her psychological and emotional vulnerabilities that hide beneath her cool appearance. The film generated a lot of flak from both the rightist forces and the Marxist ideologues of all shades after its release. Sen, in a later
interview, would defend himself from the attack of the Marxists by
quoting the Italian Marxist Elio Vittorini who once said, "The problem with orthodox Marxists is that they always feel
they have pocketed the truth; the point is not to pocket the truth, but
to chase it, to run after it." Though this is far from being a milestone but no denying that it's an important film.
