Kajolrekha

Bankrupted by gambling, Dhwaneshwer receives a lifeline when he is gifted a soothsaying bird. The bird restores Dhwaneshwer’s lost glory, but also instructs him to exile his 13-year-old daughter Kajolrekha. After twelve years of hardship, Kajolrekha reclaims her destiny in this sumptuous musical fairytale.

When a mysterious monk gifts Dhwaneshwer a soothsaying bird, his lost glory is restored, but the price is heavy as in return he must exile his 13-year-old daughter Kajolrekha. Forced to lead a life of anonymity and austerity, Kajolrekha must persevere until the tides turn. 

Adapted from a mediaeval folk ballad from the Mymensingh region of present-day Bangladesh, Giasuddin Selim’s widescreen musical fairytale Kajolrekha is a melodrama through and through. The film employs nearly twenty songs, sung by characters and narrators alike, to advance the plot, deepen emotions, comment on actions and, at points, critically distance the viewer from the story.  

The actors adopt a precisely stylised repertoire of theatrical gestures, postures and tones to express the essence of their roles, be they enslaved people, merchants or aristocrats. This conscious revival of a classical narrative tradition isn’t carried out ironically, but with a modernist sense of the many possibilities of a lost artform. Moving tragically flawed characters across a perfectly orchestrated chessboard of fate and destiny, Kajolrekha reaffirms the inevitability of a just and benevolent world. 

–  Srikanth Srinivasan

Trailer

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