Nagarkirtan is an Evocative Love Story That's Dark and Imaginative
Kaushik Ganguly has dedicated his 2017 Bengali film 'Nagarkirtan' (which means the religious song of the city), to Rituparno Ghosh, the ultimate queer icon of Bengal and India. And kicks off, then, a vivid, vivacious portrait of love- love, as a form of song. Love, as a form of story. Love, as a form of the telling of the story. But as the dramatics unfold, you realize that this is all about love as a form of love as the characters from a story. Even if you don't, I prefer seeing this film like that, because when you see Radha and Krishna in Parimal and Madhu, you achieve the essence of their kind of love. This is an LGBT love story, or simply the story of an unconventional love. The story of a cross-dressing transgender woman who falls in love with Madhu, a part-time delivery boy of a Chinese restaurant who also works as a flautist of Vaishnava Kirtans. This isn't a tale of one-sided love, because Madhu also loves Pari, or 'Puti'. This is an intensely affecti...