Kolkata (West Bengal): On May 2, 2021, when the final results of Bengal Verdict 2021 will be out, a section of the culture-loving people of West Bengal will be celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. Some might call it just a coincidence. But the political billet and the environs with which the people of the state are going for polls to elect their new government, the memories of a legendary film by their iconic filmmaker are bound to crop up.
The film is legendary Hirak Rajar Deshe, which is the story of the rise and fall of a tyrant ruler, who believed in ruling his men through extreme suppression and overrefinements. Under his rule raising the voice against the ruler was a crime and all efforts of that tyrant king was to silence the opposing voices at any cost.
That is what is happening in the Bengal polls now. The opposition parties in the state often allege that under Mamata Banerjee's regime there is absolutely no scope for opening up and raising voices. For the opposition parties Mamata Banerjee as a thoroughly autocratic ruler who wants to clamp down on the slightest hint of opposition. If the opposition allegations are true, then the people of Bengal can easily witness the shadow of the tyrant in Ray's movie, in the head of the present ruling party of the state.
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Similarly, Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress raises charges against the BJP and their top leaders like Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and the Union home minister Amit Shah of treading the same path of tyranny. Trinamool Congress alleges that under the BJP regime there is no freedom to speak or to smile or to love. Trinamool also alleges that the only aim of the Modi-Shah duo is to handover the assets of the country to few industrialists of their confidence. Now if the allegations of Trinamool Congress are true then also the shadow of the tyrant king in Ray's movie can be witnessed in the Modi and Shah.
Another common allegation against both BJP and Trinamool Congress is that they want to keep the people uninformed and uneducated with the idea that "uninformed" and "uneducated" brains.
But as proclaimed by the witches in the "Song of Witches" in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the tyrant king in Ray's film had to succumb to the pressure of public uprising. Here one can find a similarity in Ray's movie with the "Song of the Witches" in William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
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In Macbeth, the witches sang — "Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble, like the charm of a powerful bubble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble". As if the witches were forewarned Macbeth that he might be the king for that time, but the lion of the kings of Scotland comes from Banquo.
In the movie, a public uprising was instrumented by Gupi Gayen (the singer) and Bagha Bayen (the drummer), both of whom had the power to mesmerize people through their musical power. Another important role in this noble effort was played by Udayan Pandit, a teacher, whose school was closed and burnt down by the army of the tyrant king so that his students do not get the chance to learnt.
Ultimately Udayan Pandit leads the mass comprising of his students, farmers and diamond mine workers to pull down the huge statue of the tyrant king.
Now after the Bengal polls who will ultimately emerge as the Udayan Pandit? Will be it be BJP? Will it be Trinamool Congress again. Or will the Left Front- Congress alliance will remerge like a Phoenix from the ashes. The answer will be only available on May 2, which is coincidentally the 100th birth anniversary of Ray!
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