Monday, October 30, 2006

On Seeing Shyam Benegal's 'Nishant' (End of Night)

My recollection of seeing this film - in 1979 - of my reaction and the way I discussed the film with people who looked to me for my analysis, was that it was of course very well made; but apart from that it was heady stuff for men, even as it was very disturbing to the sensitivity of people in search of fairness and justice; people who despair at the inequitable equation in human sexuality. There was much more that was analysed, but the factor that made me write this poem was the surreptitious eroticism disguised as hedonism of the film. And, perhaps very subjectively, I wanted to portray woman as stronger and man as a wimp. (I always felt that Satyajit Ray instinctively portrayed women as always stronger than men, and conveyed it in many films, especially Kapurush Mapurush (Bad man Great Man).)

NIGHT
RETURNS
YOU TO ME

AND
LOATHFUL OF MY VENALITY
AND FOUL REEKING BREATH
ATTENDANT UPON MY ALCOHOL-
INDUCED SWAGGER

IN VAINGLORY
OF THE MUTE SURRENDER
OF YOUR BODY
OBFUSCATED BY DARKNESS

THAT I VICIOUSLY ASSAULT
WITH RAGEFUL LUST
SURREPTITIOUSLY ACCUMULATED
OVER THE IDLE
DAYTIME MEANDERING OF MIND

YOU TAKE MY SEED SILENTLY
ANONYMOUSLY
RESIGNED TO YOUR FECUNDITY

WHEN QUICKLY DRAINED I LIE LIMP
CURLED UP LIKE A PETULANT CHILD BY YOUR SIDE
HOLDING YOU WEAKLY
VANQUISHED BY YOUR UNSPOKEN CONTEMPT

FEARFUL OF DAWN
WHEN I LOSE YOU
AS YOU AVENGE YOUR NOCTURNAL RAVISHMENT
BY BEING BLIND TO MY BEING
DURING THE EXCRUCIATINGLY ENDLESS PASSAGE OF DAY

FICKLE AND COWARDLY I WAIT AGAIN
FOR THE DARKNESS
AS PROUD AND INSCRUTABLE
YOU RULE THE DAY