In a world that desires everything pretty, life can be harsh for those cursed with beauty.
For one, it ogles at them without any inhibitions; for another, it assumes that things come easy to them easily by virtue of them being so desirable.
Rima Das' Bulbul Can Sing tells the story of Bulbul, a pretty teenage girl, and her friends in a village in Assam. Rima, similar to her earlier 2 films, sets the tale in a land she grew up in - a land whose tales and prejudices she understands. Early in the film, Suman asks Bulbul to tie her hair, as flowing hair is considered a bad omen - an invitation to spirits of young dead women with unfulfilled desires. Bulbul (translated as 'nightingale') and Bonnie, both young, at the age of discovering love and developing bodies, find companions among boys in their school. Suman (translated as 'flower'), a boy yet to understand his own sexual identity, finds it comfortable to hang out with the girls, a fact for which he is regularly bullied in school.
There's a scene in the middle where the gang plays Ludo, a game that relies on equal parts skill and chance, and Bulbul appears to be winning, when Suman insists it is by chance, akin to how she is favoured by their teacher for her looks. Suman, conflicted and repressed by the social norms of the land, would lead to a series of tragic events later. The girls are captured along with their boyfriends by a group of village men, who thrash them, in a tensely framed scene, though the violence is primarily psychological and forebodes further ostracism. Unlike Bulbul, who I believe knows better about the unfair world, Bonnie couldn't face it anymore.
Rima, a one man army, writes, directs, designs, shoots and produces the film. The set of non-professional actors, and Rima fulfilling the various demands of filmmaking, make a film that is raw, giving a sense of urgency - there is a genuine urge to tell this story. Not every shot in there is perfectly focused, and one sees people new to the camera - but everything in there belongs there - real people in their actual environments.
I can only imagine the restraint with which Rima tells the story - Bulbul finds herself accompanying Bonnie's mom after the incident, sitting by the river side, tying the hair. I kept asking why would a film with events of such tragic proportions would want to end in visuals of beauty. Bulbul's father wished she would sing, though she could't sing confidently in an audience. But she can sing, and she now sings when she is alone, with no one to hear it. I can only try to answer it - she, as well as Suman, and Bonnie's mom, are survivors, of one manner or another, a fact they have accepted and assimilated, to survive in this otherwise 'pretty' world.
