A lot of what has gone into the exceptionally lucid Rima Das’s enormously cogent sequel to Village Rockstars seems casual, at least as far as the visuals are concerned. But look closer. Every frame in Village Rockstars 2 has a careful thought, a ruminative construct behind it. This is the kind of art where we can easily miss the trees for the forest. Eight years have passed since we first met Dhunu in the unforgettable Village Rockstar. Dhunu (Bhanita Das, incredibly immersive) still dreams of playing her rickety guitar with a band on stage, of making a decent income out of her passion for music. Regrettably, that scourge called life has caught up with her. There isn’t much music here, slabs of it, yes. But the joy of playing on stage is rapidly waning.
Innocence is no longer a shield from the whisplashes of daily living. Not when you belong to the poorest-of-the-poor strata in this rarest-of-the-rare cinema. Rima Das, who herself lenses the muddy yet magnificent countryside of Kalardiya in Assam, never “glorifies” Dhunu’s poverty-defined life, her rock-bottom finances, her wobbly family life, including a wayward black-sheep of an elder-brother. Dhunu is too busy living life to posture about it. The only reassuring constant in Dhunu’s life is her 45-going-on-70 mother (Basanti Das, delightfully camera-oblivious), a spunky spirited woman whose never-ending hardships have not hardened her. The mother-daughter camaraderie at the core of this delicate yet strong film is what gives Rima Das’s narration heft and glory.
The mother’s determination till her dying breath to make something out of Dhunu’s life is captured in a string of masterly montages of heart-melting Maa and Daughter bonding. I especially loved that picture-album moment when Dhunu carries her mother on her back, accompanied by a fit of giggly glee. Later, there is a poignant daughter-bathes-ailing-mother montage, almost painting-like in its inspired visual and emotional velocity.
Really, you don’t need monetary wealth to find joy in life. This goes for Dhunu and her creator. The meagre budget in Village Rockstars 2 is never a detriment to a string of life-defining mise en scène. There is sufficient evidence here of cinematic greatness comparable with Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali: the untameable moody countryside, the raging rains, the death of a central character, and most important of all, the birth of something not quite like hope, but not despair either.
What would Village Rockstars and now its worthy sequel be without the cast of completely unselfconscious unknowns? Of course, we “know” Dhunu by now…but does anyone know what destiny has in store for this livewire constantly threatened with peril? Only Part 3 would answer these questions. Better than Part 1 in structure and emotional rigour, resonating in the realm of Ray, Village Rockstars 2 is that rare breed of cinema that kindles hope, and reinforces our belief that the real India resides in rural India. The faded sepia tones of this memorable romp through India’s heartland won’t leave your mindscape in a hurry.
