Bodies Gone….Whisper

Film Review: “Bhooter Bhabishyat” and the Dynamics of Kinship in a Globalizing World
Being much more than a whimsical comedy about ghosts “Bhooter Bhabishyat” directed by Ayan Dutta is a poignant reflection on the changing landscape of Kolkata, the nature of kinship and urbanisation, offering a rich tapestry of cultural and social commentary. Sweeping Anandalok Purashkar and other 5 awards, the Bengali film captures the essence of how these transformations threaten the very fabric of communal living. Humans locate themselves in the social world through categorisation and conceptualisation. When a social relationship is created, constituted and maintained by a process of interaction (doing), we call it a kinship relation. Through different forms of kinship, consanguine (of common blood), affinal (by law) or fictative, we derive a sense of shared ontological origin between individual entities through perceived/lived experiences. My article reflects ‘sociétés à maison’ that denotes kinship relations ordered by organised dwellings around membership rather than descent/lineage. Bhooter Bhobishyat is a reflection of Hindu upper caste director Ayan Dutta of the kinship pattern and evolving urban cityscape of Kolkata. As the old decrepit houses get replaced With new multiplexes, the very existence of the ghost community’s dwelling is threatened. This story revolves around Chowdhury Mansion where after a selection of the most suitable, 10 ghosts belonging from Kolkata’s changing spatio-temporal periods share a co-residence forming a fictative kinship. These spirits, who met untimely ends, face a struggle for survival in the city, especially as real estate developers aim to convert the large, old house they call ‘home’ into a deluxe shopping mall.
Chaudhuri Mansion serves as a versatile space, embodying diverse homogenous temporalities and social boundaries represented by individual actors in the movie. Centering Calcutta, we find pre-colonial ghost, Khaja Khan (princely chef) to colonial ghosts from Darpa Narayan Chowdhury, the aristrocrat of Chowdhuri Bari, Lord Ramsay (State recommended for residence) to post-colonial Kadalibala Dasi (1940s bioscope actress),Bhootnath Bhaduri (refugee from East Pakistan) to neo-liberal ghosts Biplab Dasgupta (Naxalite leader), Brigadier Sarkar (1999 Kargil martyr), Pablo Patronobis, Koyel and Atmaram Pasowan. In this intergenerational space, the fictative take ponders over cultural heterogeneity. This gets mirrored when everyone celebrates “Bhoot Chaturdashi’’ in a secular manner, rising over social differences of caste, religion, gender and class in addition to synchronised takes from modern Halloween costume show to bygone Qawwali enjoying an equitable united standpoint. This powerfully emphasises a profound truth: festivals and rituals are not merely cultural events but the very essence of our societal fabric, weaving generations with a sense of community in a tapestry of shared experiences and traditions.
This societal tapestry complements the transforming affinal kinship aspirations among women from Domesticity as the ideal type of freedom, putting centrality on ghosts, Kadalibala and Koyel. Marriage is a Cultural normative emphasising social/ritual recognition to a union within a legal contract. Kadalibala and Koyel embodies contrasting paradigms of femininity and agency. In 1940s Calcutta, marriage held ultimate significance within a patriarchal framework, shaping the role of a ‘bhadramahila’ to adhere to the prevalent patrilineal, patrilocal family structure of caste Hindu Bengal. For Kadalibala (representing 1940s womenfolk), marriage symbolised ownership, caregiving, domesticity and motherhood. Despite her success as a bioscope actress, Kadalibala searched for dignity and sought validation in the patriarchal setup sanctioned by the State, through marriage to her love interest, aristocrat Keshab Narayan Chowdhury. However, Keshab chooses over an endogamous marriage with the aristocratic, upper caste daughter of Mullick Bari, betraying Kadalibala that leads to her tragic demise by suicide. Conversely, for Koyel (representing 2000s womenfolk), marriage symbolises free choice, individualism where self-representations of secularism and independence from family In choosing a spouse and conducting conjugal relations show a constant negotiation between traditional institutional pressure from parents and desires of educated middle class modern youth. This tension is starkly illustrated when Koyel commits suicide due to unvalidated choices or when her love interest, Sam Goldanza accepts overweening 50 lakhs from Koyel’s father to abandon her.

Amplifying Laxmi, Ganesh Bhootoria’s affinal wife in binary to her ghost, Shiuli, we find a clear interplay of gender’s positionality in entrenched kinship stereotypes. As Bhootaria’s wife, Laxmi is dictated by societal norms of her conduct and role as ‘a high society wife’. Conversely, when murdered by her husband, she retitles herself as Shiuli reflecting her freedom from societal constraints. This juxtaposition reveals the moral economy of the urban’s perception of kinship stereotypes and their impact on individuals autonomy and agency. Kinship intersects with caste/class in such a way that it increases restraint over the upper and liberation for the lower to help brahminical capital. Laxmi’s experience underscores commodification of women’s bodies within patriarchal capitalist societies, where women are often valued primarily for their roles within the family and their ability to uphold the normative. Kinship relations develop from institutionalisation and sanctioning from conspicuous bodies of cultural norms, beliefs and myths established by the State, a socially embedded institution. Pablo and Koyel plan to visit the office of Magic Property, the real estate developer company trying to capture Chowdhury mansion, to know more about Ganesh Bhutoria, the promoter. In claiming to purchase a flat , they were pushed to assume the role of a married couple for a housing role to assert their claim before law. Cohabitation outside of marriage in India is stigmatised as a cultural taboo highlighting moral assertions in our society. Despite attempts to distance themselves from the intervention of the State, the ghosts were compelled to adopt conventional kinship terms When assuming human roles.
To underline digressions in kinship, I focus on Ganesh Bhootoria and Hath-Kata Kartick, the mafia ghost. Ganesh Bhutoria is the privileged promoter whereas Kartik is identified with his lost hand belonging reflecting the marginalised status of certain social groups. The act of murdering gets different for Ganesh and Kartik in Relation to kinship. The fuzzy kinship structure of the underworld normalises Kartik killing people for inter-class rivalry. His illegal ways are not a choice given to the marginalised. Nevertheless, when Ganesh Bhootoria kills his wife for dowry from his next affinal kinship form, it becomes dominantly grieved – the murder was a choice. This reflects how people’s understanding and emotions in moral judgments have developed over time to match the social structures of communities in context to kinship. In conclusion, Bhooter Bhabishyat criticises the commodification of space and parapraxis of kinship, reflecting complexities of familial bonds over time, connecting past, present, and future generations.

Udita Ghatak,
Intern, Asia in Global Affairs

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, in his personal capacity. It does not reflect the policies and perspectives of Asia in Global Affairs.