Mythical tale & worlds we inhabit, seas we navigate

Parbina Rashid

“Samandar mein kabhi science kaam nahi karta,” warns a man in the opening scene of Bangladeshi mystery-drama ‘Hawa’. It prepares us for an impending doom. We get there, slowly, as director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon navigates us through the many moods of the sea, all spectacularly captured by cinematographers Kamrul Hasan Khosru and Tanveer Ahmed Shovon.

On a boat with a group of fishermen, bonhomie, tyranny, greed, lust, love and the killer instinct go hand in hand. And then, there is the mythical element that comes in form of a mysterious woman. She literally appears from the deep sea. In the group, we meet Chan Majhi, a character one would love to hate. With tobacco-stained teeth and an offensive body language, he nails his part; of a control freak, a corrupt, lusty group leader. Then, there is Iba, the endearing boat mechanic, who fights for equality. Gulti is the high point in the otherwise monotonous sea life. She is not given many dialogues, but her expressive eyes say it all. In a simple saree, she is a vision to behold. As the tempo picks up, the supporting cast gets enough space to showcase their acting prowess, and none disappoint.

Based on the mythical tale of a snake goddess and her magical powers, the director draws very different worlds into a single frame. A world representing the tyrant ruling class, the opportunist middle class, and the deprived lower class; and then the surrealistic world of a snake woman on the avenging mode. As she goes on a killing spree, it strikes as odd that a woman with supernatural powers should take so long to kill Majhi, her tormentor. But then, logic takes a back seat when dealing with mythology, wrapped in surrealism.

So, full credit to Mejbaur for executing the story of the snake goddess as a beautiful abstract painting that allows us to draw our own inferences.