Bob Biswas and the Mythology in Sujoy Ghosh's Films

In Bob Biswas, Sujoy Ghosh brings to life the story of the eponymous assassin from his film Kahaani. Abhishek Bachchan plays Bob, who wakes up from a coma but has forgotten everything. He learns that he has a wife, Mary (Chitrangada Singh), and two kids. His past life starts to come back to him gradually when one of his associates forces him to kill another target on their hit list. The film shows Bob's struggle to accept that he was a killer in his life.

Bob visited a homeopathy pharmacist Kali Da (Paran Bandopadhyay), to get a Nux Vomica (a pistol with a silencer). At one stage, Bob asks Kali Da about his mental dilemma, where he says that he does not know if he should continue to do this work. Kali Da tells him, "Yeh to jibon, Bob Babu. Yeh sab pehle se likha hua hai. Hum sab vahi kaam kar rahe hain jiske liye hume banaya gaya hai." He then narrates to Bob the story of Kaliya Daman. After Krishna defeated Kaliya, he asked the serpent how much poison he had in him as he had killed numerous people. Kaliya replies, "You did not give me anything else." The poison was given to him by God, and that is his job, and he does not know anything better. It is God who only creates and God who only destroys. This is the theme that also runs through the character arcs of Kali Da and Bob. Kali Da is named after Kaliya Nag. He has an endless supply of Nux Vomica, also called poison fruit. Kali Da rationalizes Bob's killing of people by using the same philosophy. Bob kills because someone has to do the job, and he was made to do this one. Towards the end, Bob again points at the picture of Kaliya Mardan before he goes on a killing spree of the suppliers of the blue drug.

There are other references related to religion in the film. Bob's wife is named Mary after Mother Mary. At one stage, Dhonu (Pabitra Rabha), the chowmein selling-henchman, even says to Bob that Mary is like Mother Mary who can solve all his problems. Mary tells Bob that he is like an angel from heaven who came into her life after her first husband's death. When Bob undergoes a crisis of conscience, he even goes to the church, where the priest makes him realize that one has to pay the debt for their sins.

This mythology is not the first time we have seen it in Sujoy Ghosh's films. Mythology has always been a part of almost all his films. In 2019, Ghosh adapted the Spanish film Contratiempo to make Badla. Set in Scotland, Badla told the story of Naina (Taapsee Pannu), an entrepreneur accused of murdering her lover Arjun (Tony Luke). She hires a lawyer Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan), to defend her. Using a series of conversations, Naina and Badal try to understand the details behind the events leading to her eventual arrest. Though Badla is the remake of another film, Ghosh added different elements from the Mahabharata in it.

Early in the film, Badal says that just as Sanjay was the eyes of Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata, Naina will be the eyes through which he will learn about the events of the murder. He keeps quoting other instances from the epic fable that fit their particular situation throughout the film. When Badal discovers Naina's guilt in the crime, he compares Naina to Duryodhana and says, "Tumne toh Duryodhana se bhi gehri chal chali hai." You outdid even Duryodhana in playing a trick. In the end, when the truth is revealed, Badal again brings up the Mahabharata and says that it was the story of the revenge of Draupadi. Badla makes a mother Rani (Amrita Singh) as the driving force of the film, making it a tale of badla similar to the revenge of Draupadi. Rani is likened to Draupadi, who works with her husband to plot revenge for her son's death. The Mahabharata was the story of power where the five Pandavas, even with their smaller army, could defeat the might of the hundred Kauravas with tact and strategy. Likewise, Rani worried about the immense power of Naina, who had the wherewithal to do anything to protect herself. In a meeting, she tells Naina that those who are blinded by power are unable to see their own downfall. Rani had limited ability, yet she was able to defeat Naina. Just as Abhimanyu was trapped in chakravyuh in the Mahabharata, Naina was trapped by Rani in the chakravyuh.

Ghosh's love for the mythological fables was also seen in his two short films. In 2017, Ghosh adapted a short story written by Satyajit Ray to make Anukul. The film is the story of a robot Anukul (Parambatra Chattopadhyay), hired by a Hindi teacher Nikunj Chaturvedi (Saurabh Shukla), as domestic help. Nikunj's brother Ratan (Kharaj Mukherjee) is against the robots as he was replaced by one of them at his job. Anukul has the theme of following one's duty even if it means going against the others, as mentioned in the Gita from the Mahabharata. At one point, Anukul is reading the Gita but cannot understand it. He wonders about the identity of the blue-colored man on the cover. He learns that he is Lord Krishna, a God who cannot die. Anukul then compares himself with Krishna as he cannot die too. Further, he wonders why Krishna asked Arjun to kill his brothers and family. Nikunj educates him that it was Arjun's duty as a warrior. Dharm sab se upar hota hai. Even if it means going against your own. Later, Anukul applies this learning to do something against Ratan to help Nikunj. He follows his duty of being a robot. Anukul is an adaptation of the story of the brothers from the Mahabharata set in a futuristic time. 

In 2015, Ghosh made another short film Ahalya where he provided a modern interpretation of the legend of Ahalya from the Ramayana. According to Hindu scriptures, Ahalya was a beautiful woman seduced by Lord Indra, who had an eye upon her for a long time. Indra had come disguised as her husband Gautam and tricked her. Ahalya sees through the disguise but goes ahead anyway out of sexual curiosity about Indra. Once Gautam came to know of it, he cursed Ahalya for infidelity, following which she was turned into stone. She was eventually liberated from the curse by Lord Rama.

Ghosh's short film Ahalya begins with an inspector Indra Sen (Tota Roy Chowdhury) arriving at the home of an aging artist Goutam Sadhu (Soumitra Chatterjee), to investigate the case of a missing man named Arjun. Indra meets Goutam's beautiful wife, Ahalya (Radhika Apte), instantly feeling infatuated by her. He sees a bunch of realistic-looking dolls on a mantlepiece. One of the dolls looks identical to Arjun. A stone, encased in glass, is also placed there. Goutam tells Indra that the stone in the glass case has magical qualities and that anybody who touches it turns into whosoever he wishes. Balking at the story, Indra tries to test the stone's powers and disguises himself as Goutam. He goes upstairs, but Ahalya is not able to recognize him. Taking advantage of the situation, Indra proceeds to have sex with her. But then, something happens where he turns into one of the dolls. Ahalya is a contemporary take on the story where the man turns into a stone (doll) instead of a woman.

Ghosh's best film Kahaani also has its share of themes from the Mahabharata. The suspense thriller was the story of a pregnant woman, Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan), who comes looking for her missing husband in Kolkata. She meets police inspector Rana (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), who helps her in her mission. Rana's formal name is Satyoki. Vidya tells him that she knows that Satyoki was Arjuna's saarthi (charioteer), another name for Krishna. This small reference takes another meaning in the climax when Vidya's identity is revealed. Rana realizes that, like his name Satyoki, he was also Vidya's charioteer all along. The film's script further explains the significance of the characters' names from the Mahabharata. Vidya is also likened to Durga in the film. Vidya becomes Durga at the end, where she kills the man responsible for her husband's death. Even in the film's poster, she is shown to resemble Durga. In Kahaani 2, too, there was a connection to Durga. Kahaani 2 is about another Vidya (Vidya Balan) and her daughter Minnie (Tunisha Sharma), who live in West Bengal. The story takes a turn when Minnie is kidnapped, and Vidya has an accident. Inderjeet Singh (Arjun Rampal) is the policeman assigned to the case. It is revealed that Vidya's real name is Durga Rani Singh, and she tried to tackle the social evil of child abuse.

Even in one of his earliest films Home Delivery: Aapko... Ghar Tak, Ghosh added something from the Mahabharata. The film was the story of Sunny Chopra (Vivek Oberoi), who is writing a script for filmmaker Karan Johar. He hoards freebies all the time. Once a new delivery guy, Michael Burnett (Boman Irani), is sent to deliver pizza but ends up providing a vital life lesson to Sunny. At one stage in the film, Sunny asks Michael's opinion of a character as he is stuck finishing his script. He describes his hero as someone in a dilemma. His hero has to decide to either go against his family or go against his friends. Michael compares the situation of Sunny's hero to Karan from the Mahabharata, who had supported his friend Duryodhana as he had helped Karana when his family turned against him. When Karan Johar calls Sunny, Micheal answers his phone and explains the same idea. Karan loves the idea and praised Sunny for incorporating the same in his script.

In 2009, Ghosh made Aladin which did not have any Indian mythological element but was inspired by a famous fable from the Arabian Nights. Barring Jhankaar Beats, where Sujoy Ghosh paid tribute to R.D. Burman, all his films have had elements from a mythological tale or a fable. These tales have portrayed different conflicts of life for ages. Filmmakers adapt those stories to bring out new stories. This is how art evolves and brings new facets to age-old tales.

Dialogue of the Day:

"Hamara karz hamari parchhai ki tara hai. Kitna bhi bhaago, lekin apni parchhai se kaise bhaagoge."
—Father, Bob Biswas