MOMA(Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art),New York: 12.12.2008: Film: Herbert, Director: Suman Mukhopadhya.An adaptaion from a novel by Nabarun Bhattacharya. This film is layered and as the director himself said, he places the protagonist Herbert Sarkar as a prism reflecting events from 1950-early 1970's, Bengal, India. It is a film that deals with issues of cultural imperialism especially of the Babu's of Bengal and their respective colonization.

The film is in Bangla, with english subtitles. It is a very niched film and requires specific knowledge capital(for instance knowledge of the state of Bengal post independence, the setting in of decadence, the naxalite movements of the 70's etc.)What makes this film unique is that the protagonist does not receive any formal education so to speak. He bunks school to spend time looking at pigeons, people, aeroplanes and Buki, his love interest.Therefore, he is never really instructed in how to figure out this world. Yet through the short span of his life, he is subject to events and happenings that he must deal with. That he is literally thrust into these social events, that he unconsciously becomes a 'comrade', that he unconsciously ends up reading from the little red book, that finally he is accused of being a terrorist reflect the chaotic modern existence of the modern man.

Herbert is a failure, in every aspect, he does not have a profession until much later, even then he is accused of being a fraud, a cheat, he somehow rationalizes the death of his friend, Robi, as his fault, a failed lover, an uncle who is as trivial as Tristram Shandy. He is the local clown, the joker that walks like an Ostritch bearing a black overcoat, a mockery of the colonized mind. Suman's film is a critique of how we as modern human beings seemed to have failed miserably.

The most heart rending is Herbert's inability to deal with accusations of cheating people. He vehemently refuses allegations of having played around with people's emotions. The audience is acutely aware of Herbert's sincerity, because through 145 minutes, the audience has seen Herbert's life, his triumphs but mostly his failures.His inability to forge friendships, his pathetic destiny to run underpaid errands for his cousin Dhanna, to b

Would Herbert have been totally different had he received some sort of formal education, that would teach him how to rationalize? His reactions would have been more sophisticated, somewhere perhaps the society would have feigned respect for yet another madman. Is it inevitable to become part of systems? Or was it merely as Dryden had written:

"There is a pleasure sure in being mad, that none but the madmen know"

The colors used in the film were primarily shades of blue, the twilight etc.

Suman believes that India is more than Bollywood and Indian films lie in its regional voices and stories.