Watching this brutally truthful Bengali film of the early 80s, one has to admit the fact that film-making in India in terms of ‘hard hitting, socially enlightening projects’ was indeed at its peak in the evolving decades of 70s and 80s of the last century. Plus when you get to know that CHOKH (meaning The Eyes) is a film made on the subject of Eye Donation or Transplant, interconnected with the cruel exploitation of mill workers by their opportunist employer, then you just feel like saluting the makers in those crucial times, who actually had the guts to make their films on such burning issues of the society becoming the real eye openers for one and all.
In honest words, I really felt amazed thinking about the actual thought-structure of CHOKH’s script talking about Eye Transplantation way back in 1982 and that too revealing the ugly corruption running in almost every sector of society ranging from businessmen, politicians, police officials and even doctors willing to trade both the donated eyes to a single person only ignoring their own professional ethics & moral duties. Set in the era of mid 70s, depicting the exploitive state of Calcutta (Kolkata) mill workers, it’s the story of an honest union leader, who is being hanged for getting wrongly framed in the cold blooded murder of the mill owner’s brother and decides to donate his eyes just before his final day as per the judgment passed.
The film not only reveals the deep rooted caste system present in our society since ages but also discloses the hidden ugly side of the capitalist structure, where the poor is not allowed any kind of freedom even after his final liberation provided by the Death. With an outstanding use of the ‘Eye Donation’ plot, CHOKH showcases an accepted truth that eyes are in fact the mirror of a man’s real inner personality and a revolution can still be seen in the donated eyes of a rebellious leader even when they are later given to an entirely different person as per his last wish.
As a pleasant surprise the film was produced by the Department of Information & Cultural Affairs of West Bengal Government despite having a shockingly negative representation of its various public serving departments and later also won the National Film Awards for Best Feature Film as well as for the Best Direction in 1983.
Now if the above mentioned subject matter interests you and such valuable thought provoking attempts are the ones you are always searching for then do watch CHOKH as your next surprising gem for sure (as I have purposefully not revealed the exact storyline of the film to keep your interest alive and burning). Its one of those well-thought of and so naturally enacted films, which increases the respect we have for our own talented film-makers to many folds and stuns the viewer with a futuristic kind of subject conceived in the early 80s.
Story, Music & Directed By Utpalendu Chakrabarty
Starring : Om Puri, Madhabi Mukherjee, Anil Chatterjee, Shyamanad Jalan, Sreela Majumdar and more.
(Update: The film can now be seen on Amazon Prime with English Subtitles.)
Tags :
Chokh (1982/Bengali), Movies To See Before You Die Drama, Must Watch Regional gems of India, Worth Watching Film List by Bobby Sing, Not to Be Missed Movies List by Bobby Sing, National Award Winning Art Movies, Om Puri in Chokh (1983)
