A must watch

Kalo Sheikh
The mandatory forest cover for any country according to experts at the Botanical Gardens in Kolkata is 33 per cent of the total land area. India,as of 2005,has only 22.8 per cent of the land area covered by forests and this percentage is dwindling everyday due to indiscriminate tree felling,endangering not only the climatic impact on rainfall and people,but also the livelihoods of 200 million people. Alok Dass Kalo Sheikh is the story of a man who has made it his mission in life to protect the trees in his village. The film is named after this illiterate man who lives in the forests that run through several villages. He does his constant rounds in Kashiara village near Labhppur in West Bengal where he lives. His wife and daughter eke out a bare existence by rearing a few sheep and taking in weaving orders. Kalo never bothers to come home and take care of them.

Kalo Sheikh opens with the chirping of birds in the soundtrack slowly overlapped by the melodious notes of the flute with visuals of seagulls flying across the blue sky cutting to tall grass with the occasional sheep grazing. The camera moves on to farm women working in the fields,peasants returning from the fields to zero in on the tall and dark figure of a muscular man with his back to the camera walking down the narrow paths between farming fields. Ducks swimming in the translucent waters of a pond cuts to the sound and visual of a steamer passing by. One can glimpse a torn kite caught in the branches of a tree. This sets the pace for the setting of the film. The soundtrack carries the theme song in the backdrop,a famous Baul number that goes – aami gacchtola te thaakbo chhede jaabo naa that spells out the ideology and philosophy Kalo Sheikh lives for.

There is sudden cut to the Botanical Gardens,Kolkata,where a botanist explains the merits of our forests to a group of uniformed school girls seated under the famous banyan tree in the Gardens that has 2000 roots and is considered to be a forest family unto itself. The botanist ends his talk on forestry by introducing the character of Kalo Sheikh and the camera moves back to Kashiara village. Kalo wanders around the tree-lined,earthy roads and stops a police officer in mufti when he tries to touch a tree. When Kalo protests loudly,the officer tells him that he is a high-ranking police officer who can place Kalo behind bars. But Kalo is unfazed. We find him taking gentle care of the trees as if they are his own children.

The film closes with two Baul performers entering the frame as Kalo looks on from a distance. They sing and dance the same number the film opened with. It is incredible that this film was made on a shoestring budget of Rs 50,000.
RATINGS:
Three stars for the concept,the music and sound design and the cinematography.