We have seen Konkona Sen sharma’s acting and we have no doubt on her acting skills at all. Hence, when she decided to try her hands at direction, it was natural for us to have huge expectations. Well, as expected, she tried her hands direction with a not so popular topic called Alternate Muscularity with her movie “A Death in the Gunj”. The film won 2018 IIFA Award for Best Debutant Director, 2018 Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography and a few more. The lead actor of the movie Vikrant Massey aka Shutu (the name of the character) was nominated for Best Actor in Critics’ Awards.
But, why such a fuss regarding Konkona’s directorial debut? Amongst many other reasons, a significant one is the paradoxical projection of Shutu. The movie is a coming off age story about a boy Shutu who escapes confronting anyone for his failed college semester using a family trip. He is how a human should be, yet, he is not how a man is – and that is where Konkona has focused on. Imagine a male protagonist sobbing inside closet or being beaten up in Kabaddi which starts off as game but transforms into something profoundly heinous. Shutu is not meant for a wide range of audience to be understood of. He takes us to a journey on the other side of masculinity which doesn’t focus on the ruggedness of men, their rudeness is not celebrated, fear is humane, and emotions are not foreign or feminine exaggeration.
When reminded of his dead father, Shutu doesn’t hesitate to cry in his father’s familiar smell found in his sweater. He shows an altogether different sensitivity by pressing the dragon fly within books or while drawing frogs constantly till the time he reaches perfection. When his elder brother along with friends hatches the mischievous prank of calling the spirits to frighten Shutu, he is left genuinely shaken. Shutu normalizes the concept of manhood, in his unaware innocence he snatches it down from the lofty hill made up of centuries of dogma, societal pressure, and patriarchal dominance and renders it a sensible shape. Men like him are bizarre to the society, so much so that the latter constantly tries to break him down.
Konkona has worked on his role in such a way that he becomes the target character for the audience yet the non-existent one for others around Shutu. When Taani is lost, her mother Bonnie never thinks twice before accusing Shutu of not taking her along. Shutu falls down in a pit too, and no one noticed until dinner that he was missing. Shutu doesn’t exemplify his presence by screaming out loud like Vikram or honking aloud his bike. Shutu is present amidst everyone like a shadow. It is only at the end when he finally snatches the gun, is terrified yet struggles to pull the trigger that everyone is aware of him.
Men like Shutu are needed. Humane, sensible, thoughtful, true to his emotions but men like Shutu are pushed to the edge of life and everyone watched while he ends it. Because, he wasn’t man enough.
Here is the trailer, I am sure you will love it..