Bagh Bahadur

As a filmmaker, I brook aver a theme for years before it takes final shape. An idea comes and stays with me while I work on other projects which may or not may be related to it in some way.  » Bagh Bahadur  » is foreshadowed in  » Phera « ,  » sheet Grishmer Smriti  » and even in a documentary made in 1973 on Khirode Nattya, a drummer who has become legendary in Bengal. At that time, the drummer was 104 years old and deaf but continued to compose new and never rhytmic sequences out of the sheer joy of creation. The players in all the films mentioned come as performers and have clear individual identities. At time, I have been able to merge myself in them. In  » Bagh Bahadur « , the protagonist, Ghurunam is one of those folk performers who till the sixties were the mainstream performers in villages and in suburbs all over India. From the sixties, the concept of performing art, its ethics and values have undergone a thorough change. A confrontation has started taking place between traditional folk art and citified entertainment. The conflict is symbolised by Ghurunam. The traditional village Tiger Dancer is defeated but the drummer remains challengingly defiant. The Tiger Dance is still performed in less accessible parts of India. The setting is authentic and so is the costume, the form of the dance and the accompanying rhythm. The theme reflects a historical process in progresse at the present time. Buddhadeb Dasgupta