'nagarik' . jayprakash

ritwik ghataks ‘nagarik’ is the ideal citizen of propaganda posters… almost. his taut strong body, pencil thin moustache and the light in his eyes radiate with hope in a possible glorious future in spite of the despair and the squalor around him in his decrepit house in between the skyscrapers where he lives with his mother, father, sister and younger brother. his sister can’t get married because of her age and her looks, his father is dying slowly and steadily, his mother is cantankerous and nagging; yet his hopes and dreams are undiminished. a calendar on the wall shows him a possible future in a red tiled home in an open field with a tree swaying in the breeze. a place where he will take his love and his family- once he gets a job. this optimism stays undiminished throughout the film, even though there seems to be nothing happening to gives him hope; it stays with him even at the end when while moving to the slum, the only philosophical change is that instead of living on false promises (the calendar image) he chooses the path of struggle and engagement , perhaps political, with the everyday reality of the city.

the interior at the once seedy bar and now hangout institution called 'jp' – short for jayprakash- is a masterpiece. the ac room especially. it is an inside treated like an outside. the interiors of the external walls are facades of low cantonment style buildings and we sit in verandahs and jhoolas in a kind of courtyard with a starry sky above. the windows with chajjas that look ‘in’ to the interiors of the fake bungalows have mirrors in them in which we see the red roofed trusses under which we sit and the low dangling lights that hang above our heads. its all very odd and beautiful- the simulation of the outside in an interior space, done with humor and delight.