Movie 🎥 Mrigayaa (1976)

𝙈𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙖 (1976)

𝘿𝙞𝙧. 𝙈𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙎𝙚𝙣

★★★★★

Mrigayaa, or "The Royal Hunt," is a 1976 Indian historical drama film directed by Mrinal Sen and based on the Odia short story "Shikaar" by Bhagbati Charan Panigrahi. The film explores the relationship between the British colonial government and native villagers in 1920s India, as well as the exploitation of these villagers by Indian landlords.

As the famous author George Orwell wrote in his classic novel 1984, "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship." This sentiment is echoed in Mrigayaa, as the British administrators exercise their power over the native villagers with little regard for their well-being.

The film follows a British administrator with a passion for hunting, who befriends a native tribal expert archer and gets involved in a deal to bring down a "big game." As the English writer and philosopher John Locke wrote in his Second Treatise on Civil Government, "The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom." However, in Mrigayaa, the law is used as a tool of oppression rather than a means of preserving freedom, as the British administrators exploit the native villagers for their own gain.

The film also follows the story of Sholpu, a young revolutionary who visits his mother in the village and is chased down by a police informer. After a robbery in the village results in the death of a policeman, Sholpu is blamed and the administrator offers a reward for his capture.

As the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in his Social Contract, "The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to contribute personally or through their representatives to its formation." In Mrigayaa, however, the law is used to oppress and punish the native villagers rather than serving as a reflection of their will.

The informer eventually kills Sholpu, leading to tension between the tribals and non-tribals. In the midst of this tension, Dungri, the wife of the tribal archer Ghinua, is abducted by a moneylender. Ghinua kills the moneylender to rescue his wife, but is later hanged by the administrator for committing murder. 

As the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in Crime and Punishment, "A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else." In Mrigayaa, the British administrators uphold their own version of justice while ignoring the injustice faced by the native villagers.

Mrigayaa was notable for being the cinematic debut of both Mithun Chakraborty and Mamata Shankar, and it remains an important work in the oeuvre of director Mrinal Sen. 

The film's themes of exploitation and injustice in colonial India are still relevant today, and it offers a thought-provoking exploration of the dynamic between the colonizers and the colonized. Overall, Mrigayaa is a powerful and poignant film that is well worth a watch for fans of historical dramas or anyone interested in the struggles and triumphs of the Indian independence movement.