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Charlatan or Clown? Innocent or
Insidious? Terrorist or Trickster? There are indeed many
ways of describing Herbert Sarkar -- a forty year old crank
who thinks that he can talk to the dead. Herbert grew up in
North Kolkata, feeding on the charity of relatives, and
being the butt of local jokes. He declares one day that he
has received a message in a dream that has told him where
his long dead cousin Binus diary is hidden. People are
surprised and amused. But when this prediction proves to be
true, Herbert becomes a local sensation. He sets up a
roaring business called "Dialogues with the Dead"
for three years and for the first time in his life, earns
money and the respect of others. However, his luck runs out
when the International Rationalist Society declares him a
fraud and threatens to turn him over to the law unless he
closes shop. This deeply affects Herbert and he commits
suicide that very night. However, his celebrity power
increases to unprecedented levels the day after his death.
After his body is put inside the electric cremation chamber,
and the switch turned on, the most unbelievable thing
happens. The incident hits the headlines as a posthumous
terroristic act, and a high-level police inquiry is launched
to find the mystery behind it. The film begins at this point
and follows the trajectory of the inquiry, flashbacking into
the hidden corners of Herberts quixotic life into his lonely
growing up years as an alienated orphan, his ill-treatment
at the hands of his cruel cousin Dhanna, his only tragi-comic
love affair, his unwitting involvement with the underground
Maoist Naxalbari movement during the turbulent seventies,
and his business of speaking to the dead in the globalized
marketplace of the early nineties. The film depicts, with a
rare blend of empathy and irony, the efforts of a gifted
mans constant struggle to adapt to his changing surroundings
and his efforts to gain love, friendship, and community.
Based on Nabarun Bhattacharyas novel of
the same name which won the highest literary prize in India
in 1997, Suman Mukhopadhyays debut feature Herbert is a
deeply moving and artistically accomplished motion picture
full of profound laughter, pathos, and humanity.
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