A TALE OF A DISGRUNTLED LOVER
Bijoy Ghimire
Divulging on the vulnerability of human emotions, Fishing Surmai, a short film of thirty five minutes, produced, scripted and directed by Deep Choudhury depicts the fact that some instances in life and the emotions attached to those can hardly be erased with the passage of time.
Franchis, the protagonist in the film stays with Archana and her brother Nandu. After the demise of Archana’s father, Franchis was taking care of the family. Though a servant initially, he is now a crucial member of the family.
Over the years, Archana had developed a soft corner for Franchis and had sown the seeds of attachment. They have a tough time because of the precarious nature of their livelihood that is, fishing. A congenial homely atmosphere of Franchis suddenly gets tumultuous when Surmai, Franchis’s neighbor comes back to stay in her father’s place due to an altercation with her alcoholic husband.
A love lost basically due to some societal taboos and a weak financial position, Franchis suddenly becomes hopeful and starts thinking that he could own Surmai this time in the wake of the prevailing circumstances. And in the process he completely forgets that along with his happiness, the happiness of two other individuals is also entirely dependent on him.
The silent tormentation of Archana due to Franchis’s growing fondness for Surmai, has been beautifully captured in the film.
A possessive and obsessed Franchis who had started dreaming Surmai crumbled upon and was brought back to reality when the differences between Surmai and her husband were resolved and when she was taken back by her husband. A disheartened Franchis, realized the necessity to cut all the threads of attachment with Surmai and move ahead with life with the hopes of making things better. Soothing background score by Arun Sharma kept the story rolling by adding some vitality into it.
Set in a Koli fishing community, Coastal Maharashtra, Deep Choudhury beautifully weaves a story where he shows lives with adjustments and compromises and could establish the premise which he had assumed before started this project that ‘someone’s happiness becomes someone’s pain’.
But most importantly the title of the film fits in with the story. Though the protagonist in the movie deals with fishing as his livelihood, but most of the time he tries fishing Surmai. The way fish escapes from the fishing net; Surmai too slips and goes away from the cobweb of Franchis’s thoughts.
