Films that make one want to write come far and few between. Rituparno Ghosh’s Dosar (“The Companion”) is the first in a long time. Shot entirely in black & white, it opens with Kaushik Chatterjee (Prasenjit) and his colleague-cum-lover Mita Roy checking out of their weekend retreat in a riverside resort. On their way back to Kolkata they meet with an accident. She dies on the spot while he is critically injured.Cut to a dingy hospital corridor where Kaushik’s wife Kaberi (Konkona Sensharma, brilliant) is trying to find the right expression to mask her anguish and display her indignation over her husband’s infidelity. She even tries (a little comically) hiding behind dark glasses and refuses to sign the hospital form as a mark of protest. Her friends from the theatre troupe where she works, Bobby and Brinda, are by her side and try to persuade her to be reasonable.
Next we see a very poignant slow motion shot of Mita’s body being taken away as her husband and little son look on. Kaberi goes home that night and sits behind the living room sofa crying by herself. Her neighbour drops in to console her, but primarily to find out details of the ‘affair’ and to inform her that the news was all over the television.
We see various people around Kaberi reacting in different ways to the disclosure of the affair and to Kaushik’s medical condition. We also see Kaberi alternating between being rude, unresponsive and grudgingly considerate. She tells her brother-in-law that she wants a divorce. But when she finds out that Kaushik has had an attack of breathlessness, she is besides herself with worry. Her mother tells her she must be patient and work things out. Kaushik’s mother, surprisingly, asks her to take her own decision and pledges her support to Kaberi.
Kaberi informs Kaushik that his lover is dead, quite unexpectedly, when his boss Mr. Sanyal and his wife are visiting at the hospital. Later, she calls up the boss’ wife to apologise. It is quite evident that she doesn’t know how to deal with the situation and relate to a bed-ridden husband whose infidelity she has stumbled upon under such bizarre circumstances. Nor does Kaushik know how to cope with his grief and try to pacify his angry wife at the same time.
Then, one day, Kaberi pays a visit to Mita’s husband. He keeps his eyes fixed on a football match on television, while she conducts an almost one-sided, awkward conversation. Mita’s son is sitting at the dining table in the background, covering his books. Mita’s husband gives Kaberi a book that has been found among Mita’s personal effects. Kaberi tells him her husband doesn’t read that author, but he points to Kaushik’s name written on the book in Mita’s handwriting. Kaberi keeps the small talk going and offers to help Mita’s husband recover her provident fund money. He doesn’t respond to this offer but gets up again and gives her a packet of condoms – his retort to her offer and another unpleasant residue of the ‘affair’.
Kaberi’s friends Bobby and Brinda are themselves in the midst of an extra-marital relationship. Their interaction forms the film’s sub-plot and the ups and downs they go through give us a measure of what may have happened if Mita had lived or what could have been the provocation behind the Mita-Kaushik affair. Brinda talks of a husband who’s uncaring and ocassionaly violent. But more than once, she likens Bobby to him. Bobby doesn’t like this comparison with his rival, but what Brinda’s comments suggest is that her husband was a different man when she decided to marry him and that Bobby may become a different person if she continues her relationship with him. It alludes to the ever-changing, constantly evolving nature of human relationships.
Meanwhile, Kaushik comes home and Kaberi continues with her overtly indifferent behaviour with him, but eventually gives in from time to time. Kaushik knows he must rebuild his bridges with his wife and tries asking her if she wants to know why he had the affair, while’s she’s giving him a sponge bath and opening up his bandages. She says she doesn’t because she isn’t sure if he’s capable of being entirely honest. The scene fades out and the moment is gone.
Mita’s husband gets a prostitute home and there is a violent scene where he tries venting his frustration and helplessness on her. His hand reaches for her throat and she slaps him hard before abusing him and walking off. He spends the rest of the day hovering outside Kaberi’s house and when she finally comes back in the evening, he confesses to her about the incident. He doesn’t know why he had to tell her of all people, but he thinks she would understand.
The film ends on a reconciliation of sorts. We all know that the relationship between Kaberi and Kaushik will never be the same again. But in a film that’s deliberately shot in black & white, the answers lie in the grey areas and Ghosh leaves a lot to our own interpretation. He shoots his characters in tight close-ups, exposing them to our scrutiny, but doesn’t pass any value judgements himself. And that I think is the greatest triumph of this brilliant film – the best I have seen from Ghosh.
Deepa Gumaste
