Director: Nitin Kakkar
Cast: Kumud Mishra, Divya Dutta
In the opening scenes of Ram Singh Charlie, we see a rickshaw puller on his daily school beat, dropping kids off at their homes. These scenes are also accompanied by a voice-over, of a young man speaking about his father’s artistic authority and sacrifice.
Before we begin wondering who the voice-over’s referring to, we see this rickshaw puller transform into someone else, if just for a fleeting moment in front of the kids. He starts pulling cool sleights of hand, and a bunch of other snazzy magic tricks. The kids are delighted, and the parents seem surprised.
We learn this talented rickshaw-puller’s name is Ram Singh (Kumud Mishra), and also that he used to have another name, in another world. He was called Charlie, and his Charlie Chaplin act used to be the star attraction in one of Kolkata’s most happening circuses. But what changed so drastically, that this man went from pulling crowds to pulling rickshaws?
The answer isn’t quite that dramatic. Times have changed, and technology has taken over. The circus wasn’t turning a profit and needed to be shut down. “Our circus format here is now obsolete. Circuses in foreign countries have re-invented themselves, with new-age acts and ideas”, remarks the helpless matriarch of Ram Singh’s circus. And how did she come to realize this…”I watched videos on Youtube”!
The spirit of Ram Singh Charlie is steeped in realism. The writing is intimate and lived in, and there’s a reason. To fully appreciate the conflicts (or lack of, at times) in this film, you would have to step in to Ram Singh’s shoes and view the world from his perspective.
“We don’t just work at the circus, our lives originated there..we were born there”. This is a rhetoric you hear often during the film. This also means a Ram Singh was probably deprived of regular childhood, and formal academic education too. The circus is all he knows. Pitted into the outside world, he feels like fish out of water.
But grind and grit are imbibed qualities in any successful artist. There’s this scene just after the circus’ shutdown announcement, where we see Ram Singh getting on with his daily practice routine as if nothing’s changed. “For artists, practice is like offering prayer or Namaz. Their day is incomplete without it”, we hear.
It is this stubborn spirit that helps Ram Singh battle the odds. He has a family to feed, and a new baby’s arrival is imminent. Getting a new job isn’t easy and all he seems to find are obscure party gigs. He decides finally that he’s walking a tightrope, and pulling a rickshaw to make ends meet isn’t beneath him.
Since this is a feature film, you know this wouldn’t last and the protagonist would start turning his situation around at some point. Different films and filmmakers employ different ‘conflict resolution’ methods to achieve such transformations. Some go overboard intentionally, with larger than life sequences that often culminate in the victory of the human spirit.
In another film, you might have seen the protagonist have an inspired revelation, getting together his old mates and going gung-ho at starting off his own circus..in other words, the film might have been a circus! In Ram Singh Charlie, we see the protagonist harbour similar aspirations, but great pains are taken to ensure the tone and pitch of the screenplay are consistent.
Staying true to the spirit of realism, we see Ram Singh’s character go through gradual ‘phases’. In one of these phases, he starts despising his artistry owing to his circumstances. It’s pretty gloomy to take in, but not unfathomable. The progress to the next phase, of him imagining his own circus, is then very organically written in. Once here, he faces a new set of challenges in the form of an obnoxious ex employer and a shady friend, among others.
Kumud Mishra puts in an effective performance throughout, almost playing two roles in one. I loved the authenticity and demeanour he brought to the Ram Singh character, and also his effortless switchover to playing Charlie when called upon. One sequence, set in his son’s school where Ram Singh is reborn as Charlie is especially brilliant.
When I finished watching this film, I could make out how this may not fully work for everyone. It requires patience and is a classic slow burn. As a rigorous film watcher though, I could appreciate the director’s stylistic intentions, and the end product worked for me personally. This film is an ode to all artists and also subtly, the art of filmmaking itself.
Overall rating: 3/5
