Akorik – The film that revisits Family Structures and its various aspects
— By Dipayan Banerjee
— Reading time – 5 min (Approx)
The world is soon to witness an interesting Bengali Film – Akorik – on the family structures and its pros and cons. Family is one of the three social institutions of Indian Society. It has both structure and function. There are certain necessary functions that keep families healthy. It sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. While most of the Indian society has a patriarchal Family system, from Bengal as one goes eastern, one can notice that the family structure and identity goes matriarchal. An individual’s growing up has tremendous influence of the family structure that he / she grew up in.
With respect to the article published in Journal of Comparative Family Studies in the spring of 2001, by the title – “Beyond Joint and Nuclear – The Indian Family Revisited” – by Premilla D’Cruz and Shalini Bharat.. “Careful perusal of the family literature in India dispels the belief that the Indian family was basically joint, and that following industrialization and urbanization, the nuclear family replaced it. On the contrary, the literature demonstrates that family plurality has been an essential feature of Indian society and that joint, nuclear, single parent, dual earner and adoptive families have always coexisted. The evolution of family research, characterized by distinct phases, each with specific questions, resulted in biases in the research process that hindered the early cognizance of this reality. This paper discusses the multiplicity of family forms simultaneously present in the country.”
Akorik – The Concept:
So, while the world can keep arguing which kind of family structure is good or bad, the thought that it is a crisis that needs attention for the psychological wellbeing of the society, especially children, who would grow up to be the future leaders shaping lives and economies, was understood by veteran film maker Shri Tathagata Bhattacherjee long back around 2010. Together with his team member, friend and associate, veteran script writer shri Salil Sarkar, they shaped the script of what is coming as a complete feature film – AKORIK – A striking tale of a bonding between a 75-year-old man, who grew up in the traditional joint family structure, and a 10-year-old kid who lives with his single mother. The two connect despite coming from different family structures and embark on a brief but significant journey together.
Akorik – The Film:
It took about 10 years to get funded but finally with Iceberg Creations of Shri Ashok Pareek, Akorik is becoming a reality. Veteran actor Victor Banerjee is all set for his comeback to Bengali cinema in this Tathagata Bhattacherjee-directed ‘Akorik’. The film is also Victor’s reunion with Rituparna Sengupta after a long gap. Besides these two seasoned actors, the film also casts Anuradha Roy, Angana Bose, Sudeshna Chakraborty, Supratim Roy, Jayashree Adhikary, Anindo Sarkar, Abhishek Ganguli and child actors Swapnadip Adhikary and Ankan Mallick in key roles.
Supratim Roy has played the role of Victor Banerjee’s son. Incidentally, Victor Banerjee had starred in Tathagata’s debut film ‘Antarghaat’ as well which was released in 2001.
“It’s an effort to talk about the disintegration of Bengali Families down the ages…. the traditional Joint Family Structure broke into Nuclear Families and today it has further reduced to Single Parenting. Has this been a crisis? Are we drifting away from our roots more and more? I have tried to seek answers through this film, and I firmly believe that people all over the world can relate to this film,” shares Tathagata who has been making films since 1994.
The film was soft launched at The Park, Kolkata on 22nd April, 2022 where the entire cast and crew was present along with the production house officials along with the media. Shri Victor Banerjee could not attend but sent his Video Message for all. Rituparna Sengupta said, “when I heard the script, it felt as if I have never touched this aspect of life through my work. That’s what made me say yes to this project”.
Akorik – The Expectation:
So, while Bengali film industry is experiencing a lot of genesis, but this film, as described by all, will make the audience think. As per the words of Sudeshna Chakraborty, actress in the film, “this film will go with the audience back to their homes and make them think for quite some time thereafter”. The film’s music is developed by Shri Debjit Bera, who has done an outstanding job, based on the audio-visual shown by the crew at the event.
We can therefore expect a good, classy film to be released soon that not only is an entertainment but also food for thought, after all that’s what the role of cinema is in the society. Along with the film’s theatrical, satellite and OTT releases it will travel to various film festivals. If everything goes according to plan, ‘Akorik’ will soon hit the big screens.
— By Dipayan Banerjee
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