Dahan (1998) User Reviews

brilliant expose of middle class indian morality!!

[m_madhu · 9/10 · 1 February 2003]

in dahan, crossfire, rituporno ghosh weaves a brilliant movie with a screenplay that is as good as any that ive seen. the movie's premise is evocative - a bunch of ruffians try to molest a newly wed woman, while amny pass by one offer to help, until a brave young teacher infuriated by what she sees, turns on the men and saves the girl. all this happens in the first 20 minutes of the film, the next 2 hours is about how various people react to the incident and the scandal it brings to the family reputation, the newly-wed, her husband, her in-laws, her parents. the brave young teacher, her parent, her grandmopther with whom she shares a special bond, her brother who idolizes her.

this multitude of characters each add depth to the screenplay that is a brilliant insight into indian middle moralities and what is justice, bravery, right and wrong, morals, crime, punishment and so on. while all this might have been too much in the hands of weaker men, the director thanks to the excellent screenplay manages to make sure there is enough on the plate without it brimming over. a deeply moving film, with sparks of bright wit, intelligence and underlayed realism that shines like a beacon.

it is movies like these from india that should be showcased on the global scene. not nonsense like devdas(2002).

A revealing drama of traumatic burns

[arnab_dasswayam · 8/10 · 18 July 2002]

That makes the viewers expect an exciting vision from the work of Rituparno Ghosh might have its first strongest presence in Dahan, which means burn. On a regional cultural level of India the massive blockbuster brings somewhat new approaches to narrative, screenplay, nature of theme, cinematography etc. and achieves a few awards.

The parallel narratives of three separate, apparently happy circles of relationships living in the same Indian megalopolis are brought in a matrix of (non)interaction, in connection of a brutal incidence of molesting a happy housewife Romita. It dramatically exposes the absence of dignity in the love relation of three young female characters, each of whom represents the center of each circle. The characters are made sufficiently distinct, and also the circles. Only the net effect of crude patriarchic tradition is similarly consequent upon the misery and utter loneliness of each young urban lady coming of different social micro-cosms. The early warmth of love is transformed into spreading burns of relations.

From the beginning of the film, the soliloquy of an urban female subject Romita behind the sensitive foreground of some delicate visuals of her daily domestic experience increases the depth of feeling of an introverted and helpless gender position. The viewers are also supposed to identify with the honest, self-seeking subject positions of camera.

Romita, an educated, sensitive housewife undergoing a short happy life of an arranged marriage is disillusioned about it. Jhinuk, a highly courageous teacher experiences a shocking misuse of her prolonged and profound love relation. A family enforces another girl to marry an anonymous and ultimately distasteful man only due to his high social status. All the central female characters come to encounter the subversion of their earlier beliefs, lose hope for the relations and feel to defy any blind submission to 'normal' tradition.

One would sense the operation of one grand humanitarian perspective, which finally succeeds to embrace the parallel narratives. At the end of the film the tragic soliloquy of Romita is relevantly superimposed on the actions of two other ladies. The grand perspective does not, however, reasonably qualify the conditions of other major female characters in the film. One might also question some drab precision in introducing the parental characters, except the grandmother of Jhinuk. Only the enlightenment of Jhinuk's old grandmother, who lives a life of a recluse, fails to give sufficient underpinnings to the process of growing burns--meaning Dahan-- in the personal lives of three young ladies. Moreover, one might seek clarification about why the good males either passively support the wrong system or remain helplessly inactive, while almost all the good female characters actively and passively fight with the system. The skill of the director lies in making such overt populism highly accepted by the spectators, males included.

The simple narration and fast screenplay are provided with certain critical turns, which reliably offer terrible wrench of gradually shocking consequences in all the parallel narratives. In framing the sequences the meticulousness of the director effectively draws the viewers close to nuance of the contexts.

All the actors and actresses have made justice to the characters. Although Indrani Haldar as Jhinuk and Rituparna Sengupta as Romita deserve special mention, the director's success of using a number of casts in the intricate sequences attracts very favorable response of the spectators. Let Rituparno Ghosh be more successful in refining his distinct genius and exceptional sensitiveness in his future directorial career.

A must watch!

[tanmoynath-37204 · 9/10 · 19 May 2019]

A story about social injustice & feudal mentality in so called educated and cultured bengali society. Sexual intercourse without the consent of the partner is no less than a Rape!

A gem of a movie

[mishu_mausam · 10/10 · 7 March 2011]

Dahan is an intense study of the choices we make in trying circumstances. It unfolds a myriad of issues, emotions, perspectives through which different people view and react to a single incident --- a molestation of a woman at the metro station. There are a lot of people directly or indirectly associated with this: the molested woman (Rituparna), her husband, their families; the woman who saves her (Indrani), her boyfriend, her colleagues, her family; the molester, his girlfriend, their families. They all have something to say, and they often come from very different viewpoints. The movie takes us through all these peripheral views, and shows how they all are important, and have something new and often, unexpected to offer.

An exquisitely powerful script and a sensitive narration makes for an impactful watch. Shown primarily through the eyes of two key women: Rituparna and Indrani, the movie touches on an amazing number of themes – the practicality-idealism dichotomy; social pressures and stigma; our ability to accept the worst in others; our ability to accept the circumstances; compromises and its limits; vested interests of the powerful; jealousy; economic disparity in marriage; the gullibility of people; the healing power of time… In spite of offering so much, it does not become a diffused amalgam, rather, brings out a completeness of sorts within a coherent core. I have not come across any other movie that offers this detailed examination of a single chain of events.

A few women steal the show. Indrani, in her role as the fiercely powerful, strong-willed and righteous school teacher, gets us in awe of the character. Equally adept is Rituparna in her portrayal of the confused, agreeable, and stuck-between-two-worlds wife. Mamata in her small role as Rituparna's sister-in-law casts a spell of warmth and affection as a house-wife who has reconciled with pain. But, to me, the stand out character in the movie is that of Indrani's grandmother, Suchitra Mitra. Her strong character is brought out by her tough stances on almost everything. She offers interesting insights throughout the movie, for example, she says 'how can the autowallah who returned my money be celebrated simply because he decided not to do the wrong thing'… Towards the end we also get to see a more human side of her when she talks of her past. The male characters, on the other hand, are all passable. The central character, Abhishek, Rituparna's husband, is average at best.

Rituparno Ghosh's movie making has always connected with me. This is one of his early movies and we can see the genius in the making, but still, the movie and narration is not as refined and polished as some of his later work. The husband's reaction accusing wife of potential adultery, the courtroom scenes are good by commercial standards, but needed more subtlety for this extremely realistic genre. In spite of these, the gripping screenplay gets us hooked and alongside, questions our own moral, social, idealistic and practical takes on the circumstances.

Dahan would stay with me for some time. A must watch for any lover of good cinema.

Male bashing - feminism is easily sold

[mantrani74 · 30 June 2004]

Spoiler No doubt the movie is beautifully scripted and shot. But this is one more feminist movie which is based on male bashing. I understand the crime on women is a serious concern to Indian society. But the theme of this story is not whether rape is good or bad. It shows that a morality of women is being raped unnoticed everyday. Females stands for morality and masculine gender stands for moral rapists. Keep your eyes open in the society. Is it really what is happening ? Are females less morally cripple than their male counterparts ? I don't believe that. The cruel incident where Rituparna is physically assaulted by few hooligans and her husband Abhishek gets injured to save her, leaves a sad trail in their life which is very tough to cop up with for everyone. Rituparna and Abhishek are both physically injured. Abishek becomes unconscious. But god knows how he becomes almost physically fit when Rituparna is bed-ridden.

Initially the family stands behind Rituparna but as the society in the form of relatives, colleagues starts cherishing the story and start intriguing about the incident, the situation changes. Here comes the twist of the story. How the females and the males are reacting are shown in complete different light. The story skips the part where Abhishek goes thru the same agony when his colleagues ask to be detail about the incident similar to the case of Rituparna when the elderly relatives asks the same from her. Instead, the anger of Abhishesk was shown in very negatively as if his male ego is getting hurt. This is utter injustice to reality. Also it put a black shade on the character of Abhishek where he fails to stop the loud speakers when Rituparna challenges him. Though Abhishek tried his best to save her from the hooligans, this shows him as a lesser man who cant take on the society. Why the ladies expect a mumbai-style hero in her life partner ? Why they cant accept that her life partner is also a common people. Its the society who is morally down not the male part of the society. The females are equally part of that society. Starting from Jhinuk's grandmother's character to Jhinuk to Rituparna to the fiancé of the rapist - the movie shows that the ladies have to compromise with all the immoralities of male society.

Reality ???? Hard to believe. Though some female character like Jhinuk's mother showed as similar self concentrated but no male character is morally sound. As if, good people are necessarily female. And males are necessarily the villain in one women's life. Even jhinuk's brother is being caught with porn picture in the cards he play. Jhinuk's boyfriend is being shown as taking this as very obvious. This shows that all the male has lust for female body, may be those males are your beloved brother or husband of an woman. There is not much difference between the rapists, Abhishek or Jhinuk's brother or boyfriends. Is this so ? Hard to believe when we see that Salman Khan and several other male film stars are being shown on the screen with least clothes on their well- endowed body.

Also the compromise shown in the movie is the similar topic of maximum of Rituparno movies. Unishe April is the one. Then Utsav. Female don't get right companion who will match with their high moral frequency , in men. Very sad that this type of movie is projecting completely erroneous picture of the society. None makes movie how men are being tortured by his life partners unnoticed. How a man can become helpless when the wife says to desert his parents if he really loves her. But that's one of the burning issue in our society. Why more and more the elderly people are being deserted to oldage home today. Please have a close look at the society and you will get the answer. It is the highly moral grounded 'putrabadhu's who are making husbands parents redundant in their small tinny nuclear and selfish world. When Dipankar or Tabu's husband flirt with female colleagues when they are away from their wives that is moral bankruptcy but when Tabu or parama makes love to different men in their bed meant for their conjugal lives, is it revolutionary. What a logic. The most modern and feminist mother in law of Paromita in paromitar ekdin gets relieved and happy when her husband dies. Reason ? No frequency match for some unknown reason or may be he didn't accept his wife's lover or he reads pornography ? have you even seen that girl is standing behind her mother in law when she confesses her illicit extra marital affairs which gave birth to the girl's husband ? Far fetched imagination.

Lastly, I want to congratulate Rituparno for making movies which fetched so many best actress awards. Hope to see one best actor award from you too for a good male role in your movie.

Demonstration of unhealthy side of Bengali culture.

[rabiulbasharbabor · 10/10 · 11 December 2023]

Why should we a watch a film? For entertainment purposes or for obtaining something that we are lacking.

In our case both. But 2nd point is most appropriate. This film 'Dahan' is all about the unhealthy side of our culture as well as our society. Here you will come to know about a married lady named 'Romita' who was getting sexually assaulted by some thugs in the middle of the road. A lot of people from different races of the society witnessed it and did Noting as it might involve them with serious proby. Then a brave young girl came to rescue her. After that the story continues just in the usual way it should be. We all know what will happen next. The victim will file a case resulting a judgement in court where the accused will get bail easily. Everything will happen because nobody has the guts to break the unhealthy system of the society where there honour or respect is more important than the justice they deserve.

This film will make us realise that we shouldn't choose what society is forcing us to choose. Rather we should follow our heart to protect our loving one.

"The strongest of his all works"

[smkbsws · 9/10 · 16 September 2020]

The strongest of his all works. He took the concept of two woman struggling against the corrupt and chauvinistic society from Suchitra Bhattachrya's highly praised novel of the same name. She was, if not one of, the biggest feminist author of our time. And the same theme and context is dripping from every scenes of the film itself. Even the treatment of editing was so cool and ahead of its time. This also serves as the first attempt of Ghosh's incredible dubbing which, I think, he was the best in the world.

Warning: trypophobia people should stay away

[meghaharashetti · 6/10 · 16 September 2022]

It's good but doesn't give a clearer picture of superstitious and science. Not very clear about the idea of what is going on. Just one time watchable.

The VFX used for infected person may trigger few people as it is a bit sensitive especially for trypophobia people

Warning: trypophobia people should stay away.

It's good but doesn't give a clearer picture of superstitious and science. Not very clear about the idea of what is going on. Just one time watchable.

The VFX used for infected person may trigger few people as it is a bit sensitive especially for trypophobia people

Warning: trypophobia people should stay away.