We can only predict our future if we learn to read our past. Aren’t all prediction models based on this same principle? Therefore, a film can only be ahead of its time if it were to read its past well- that is, a film that not only captures the essence of the society and era it belonged to, but also portrayed the human experience of the past with unflinching honestly. Hirak Rajar Deshe, the 1980 Satyajit Ray directorial, is my favorite such film.
A sequel to the 1969 film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Hirak Rajar Deshe follows our heroes Goopy and Bagha. They are, as earlier, empowered by magical abilities including their transfixing music. They, as earlier, embark on an adventure to a new kingdom. This time though, they help a morally upright school-teacher – Udayan Pandit - fight an unjust megalomaniac ruler – Hirak Raja.
Hirak Rajar Deshe’s biggest achievement is skillfully merging the political commentary with big screen entertainment. Hirak Rajar Deshe maintains the fantastical and musical elements of the first film, but becomes a more impassioned appeal against totalitarianism. The political undertones are biting- questioning everything from the state hoarding riches to the self-aggrandizement of state leaders- but far from being preachy, they are packaged with layers of humor and music. Most of the dialogue is in verse and most of the characters are over-the-top, but a lot of the issues dealt with by the characters are rooted in reality- right from the hunger and poverty of the king’s subjects to his own greed and jealousy. The themes and issues in the film therefore transcend time- because irrespective of the context, hunger and greed will always be primal to man. When portrayed through engaging storytelling, they make the film transcend time.
Apart from its highly engaging satire, the movie is also unafraid to get serious when it needs to. The most serious moments in the film belong to Udayan Pandit - like when Hirak Raja orders to shut down Udayan Pandit’s school and burn his books. There is no explicit joke in this scene. The music is dramatic and the screenplay constantly invokes a rebellious rage that is reflected through Udayan’s emotions. There was no other way this scene could have played; the pain on Udayan’s face when he is asked to repeat state propaganda, or when he cannot teach his students anymore, or the agony his family experiences when his books are burned- the scene is far too powerful to be merely sugarcoated with humor or melody. It shakes the audience by making them feel for the plight of the educated in a totalitarian state. It also implies, with Udayan’s lesson on the Hitopadesha, that the biggest tool that education can gift you with is to question those in power.
But to say the movie only questions or deals with a specific example of totalitarianism would be incorrect. Just as the movie does with its depiction of primal human needs, it also transcends time and space with how it portrays the totalitarian state. You could point to any dictator, any despot from any era, any place around the world- and still find the same tropes. Hirak Raja represents the worst of us, and by doing so, he represents the worst oppressors of the virtuous and the defenseless- in the past, in the present, or in the future.