Ami Aadu

The Hindu-Muslim marriage passes off smoothly. Aadu is accepted warmly by the poor Muslim family. Suleman flies off to Iraq with the help of a village friend (Rudranil Ghosh). He works in a dryfruit shelling factory. On his short visits,he gifts his father with a transistor and his wife with a tape recorder. The tapes build a bridge between them. Once,Suleman records sounds of their love-making to take the tape back with him. When Aadu is angry,he explains that this is his way of feeling close to her in a distant,lonely land.

The narrative returns again and again to a pregnant Aadu writing the unfinished letter. Suleman’s sister takes in stitching orders and works on her sewing machine through the night in the dim light of the lantern. Suleman’s father pawns off the transistor he is so fond of for a paltry sum. But Aadu buys it back and keeps it secure in her suitcase so that he does not sell it again. When the neighbouring wife tells her how helpful the Americans are towards India,she points out,“but they also wage wars.”

Suddenly,Suleman’s letters,calls from the local STD booth and the tapes stop coming. He disappears without a trace. Then,a letter arrives. Aadu compares the handwriting with his earlier letters and discovers that it has been written with his left hand. She makes the connection–– Suleman has lost his right arm in the bombing that brought down the factory where he worked and took the life of one of the three friends. When the friend,who took them to Iraq,comes back he confirms her suspicion. Suleman is never seen again except in flashes of Aadu’s memory,dancing in the rains,calling out to airplanes in flight and raising both arms skywards to express his happiness. Aadu tears off her cut-out of an American soldier and of George Bush,the letter is forgotten. The US-Iraq war is not allowed to occupy centre-stage and is shown only through flashes of violent images on Black-and-White television screens.

Debalina Chatterjee’s Aadu is mind-blowing in its subtlety,slightly undercut by the dubbed voice. Samadarshi gives her wonderful support. Mithun Chakraborty as Aadu’s father peeps into his daughter’s marriage ceremony with a sad face. Bidipta Chakraborty as the neighbouring housewife is very good. Her character is a counterpoint to Aadu’s situation where,she had to leave a battering husband. Biplab Chatterjee expresses more by his timid expression and body language than dialogue. Soumik Haldar’s cinematography,Mayukh-Moinak’s melodious track without lip-sync songs,Koushik-Barik’s production design and Arghya Kamal Mitra’s editing make Ami Aadu an unforgettable film. There is nothing strikingly original about the story. But it is in the telling of it in the language of cinema that makes it outstanding.

Verdict: ****

Four-star rating––direction,acting,cinematography and editing.