Manjha… revenge redefined

Revenge films are all about imparting justice and restoring order. They talk to out basic and primitive instinct of revenge, which we also know by other names like vengeance, retribution or retaliation. No other feeling but revenge is the most powerful feeling which had overpowered our history and our religion.

You are well acquainted with this emotion but you are not well acquainted with right kind of revenge films. Because of typically irritating bollywood revenge films the genre has always been projected as a triumph of the virtue over the vice; good finally winning against bad; hero killing the villain.

But what happens when the line between virtue and vice; good and bad; hero and villain starts getting blurred? When this line gets blurred and a little boy from Mumbai slums stands against the sexual harassment of his mentally retired younger sister, you get to see the most interesting short film I have ever seen, Manjha.

Manjha - a film by Rahi Anil Barve

Deool Aftermath…

Let me tell you what happens to Anna when he leaves the village Mangrool. Anna leaves for Bengaluru to stay with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter (you remember Anna talking to them via video conferencing… right ?)

Anna’s son is a software engineer and he is working with one of the biggest international conglomerates in Bengaluru. He is an IIT pass out and married to a very finely cultured lady. She was a software engineer by profession (not IIT pass out) but decided to be a house-maker so to look after the bringing up of their daughter.

With Anna’s arrival the family is more than happy. Daughter-in-law is the happiest one as she knows that Anna will be sharing the responsibility of looking after her daughter.

Anna after settling down at his son’s home, soon starts rejuvenating his contacts in the city. He starts writing for newspapers. He prefers writing in Marathi and sometimes in English. He starts sending his write ups to newspapers like Sakal in Pune and Maharashtra Times in Mumbai. He starts basically writing on ‘globalization’, ‘commercialization’ and ‘commoditization’. His views are always appreciated by socialites of these cities.

He keeps writing about his village but avoids calling any of the villagers. Citizens from Pune and Mumbai always keep appreciating his articles and thoughts. People also start calling him for delivering lectures on the same subjects. Intermittently he feels that he should call back the villagers but soon he gets used to not calling them.

Meanwhile his son shifts to US for some official work. He asks Anna to come with them to US. His daughter-in-law exhorts. Finally just to fulfill the wish of his granddaughter he visits US and stays with them for a period of time.

He makes few friends in Maharashtra Mandal of New York but he soon finds those people quite shallow and uprooted. He comes back to India. His son had bought a 2 BHK flat in one the residential schemes of DSK builders (just for the sake on investment) in Pune. So he stays over there.

He has always found Pune’s climate and its social milieu very complimentary to his life’s style. So he prefers staying in Pune. Pune also reminds him of his college days when he was a student of Fergusson College. Every morning he prefers having breakfast at hotel Vaishali on Deccan and chatting up with his old friends. (Which also includes few older women).

Overall Anna has come to terms with life now. He has lived his life in rational and ‘scientific’ way. He has always been engaged in making rational choices in his life.

Since he left the village he has always lived with one strong emotion. He never gave recognition and words to that emotion. When he left the emotion was quite strong, but soon that emotion started losing its intensity. Slowly he learnt to forget that emotion and live life by engaging himself in some other meaningful activities.
Today Anna has grown quite old now. His memories are slowly fading away with his growing age… and that emotion… that guilt that ‘he left the village when the village needed him most’ is left with him like an hollow space in one of the deepest corners of his heart.