Raahgir – The Wayfarers 2019
Some films make you think, and some films make you feel. Raahgir is one of those very few films that makes you see, makes you feel and most importantly make you question.
Now there are many things to talk about in this film. So I will be going through them one by one.
Based on Prafulla Roy's short story, Raahgir shows us the struggle of the poor from the very first shot of the film. The oppression and inhuman ignorance. Goutam Ghose and Jagannath Guha did an exceptional job writing this script.
Nathuni a tribal woman played by Tillotama Shome who is a tribal woman living near the mountains tries hard to meet her needs and to support her paralyzed husband and kids and decides to go to town to earn money as a daily wage worker. As she goes on with her journey she meets a loaner named 'Lakhpati' as sarcastic as it sounds, played by Adil Hussain who's as poor as Nathuni and also an ex-performer. Together they make a special bond throughout the cinema. And later on, they meet the character of Neeraj Kabi 'Chopatlal' who instantly brings a question of morality and ethics to the table.
Now one should not be considering this as another poverty-based film, as this film touches on various aspects of life, such as human empathy, morals values, and ideologies. I think I should not mention how brilliant Adil Hussain and Neeraj Kabi and Tillotama Shome are, I want to highlight how ingeniously crafted the story was. The story is filled with symbolic visualizations and scenarios. In one scene we see a bunch of young men and women partying on the top of the hill, playing songs and drinking alcohol, enjoying life. In that very particular scene, we see Lakhua aka Lakhpati played by Adil Hussain, and Nathuni played by Tillotama Shome coming down from the hills, their feet filled with mud and they stop to wash their feet so that they can go to town for daily wage work. Now this is not just the only one but there are many more in-depth scenarios in this film when Nathuni is unsure of how genuine of a man Lakhua is when they don't know if they should save some lives or go to town for money.
Now some things make this film special, the plot, the subplot, the in-depth hidden meaning, the characterization, the performance, and how Goutam Ghose caught the essence of tribal people's culture and their beliefs beautifully. But what I think makes this film stand superior is its simplicity of it. The story has nothing much of a mind-bending plotline but it rather does a good job of conveying its meaning as simply as possible. And other than that, the addition of Neeraj Kabi's character makes the difference. Other than that, it would have been a good film, not an excellent one. The character of Chopatlal puts the main characters of the film in a dilemma of need and deed. Whether they should do the right thing or go their way for what they need.
And in the end, I'd say that the character arc of Nathuni changed because of the series of events and also because of the connection she made with Lakhua.
I hope that I would get to see more films like these get appreciated, and celebrated.
To me, it's an easy 5/5.
~ Subhodeep Chakraborty
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