The magic of ‘Praay Kafka’
One of the best short-films I’ve ever seen…
‘Praay Kafka’ ( Bengali, English Translation: “Almost Kafka”) is a genius modern-day rendition of Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” by Chandril Bhattacharya — who directed, conceptualized, and wrote the screenplay. A hilarious and yet a very refreshing take on Kafka’s finest work, this is intelligent short-form storytelling at its best.
I’m writing this after 8 months of ‘Praay Kafka’s’ premiere on Hoichoi — a Netflix-like OTT web platform for Bengalis with a powerful potpourri of pure and entertaining Bengali content. ‘Praay Kafka’ featured as one of the episodes of a 5-part series called ‘Paanch Phoron’ — which in Bengali means Five Spices, a mixture of 5 distinct spices which adds relishing flavors to Bengali/Odiya dishes in India. Released during Valentine’s Day 2020, the 5-part Series showcases 5 distinct love stories in each episode and Praay Kafka happens to be its crowning glory.
The key story-line parallels Kafka’s protagonist Gregor Samsa’s, but with a twist. Just like Gregor Samsa in “The Metamorphosis”, Arindam, our protagonist, wakes up to find himself inexplicably transformed to an unrecognizable but a better looking human being with astoundingly hilarious ramifications — his parents refuse to acknowledge him and almost file an FIR with the Police in hopes of getting their son back and fear that the now-transformed Arindam has kidnapped their son for ransom; his girlfriend feels and senses that it’s indeed him, but has lingering doubts thus refusing to get intimate with him; his classmates, friends, and professors mock him; his neighbors ridicule his former persona much to his dismay and a tasteless film-maker takes advantage of Arindam’s fine looks by casting him in his upcoming B-grade venture.
His environment effectively treats him like the Kafkaesque vermin, signifying that even though his exterior form has grown finer there is still transformation needed from the Society to change its perspective. The one person who believes him and sets the tone for his intrepid actions is his friend, who prompts him to tackle this unique challenge head-on.
What sets this story apart is its clever narration, its vicious repartee, its intelligent actors, and the funny exchanges between its myriad characters. For instance, there is this amusing scene where Arindam, the protagonist, tries to convince his parents in front of the cross-questioning Police that he is indeed their son, and in the process regurgitates all the private affairs of his parents much to the couple’s chagrin. His parents even go so far as to hire a Spiritual practitioner to retrieve the spirit of their son.
There is a subsequent scene where after consulting his friend, he tries to persuade his girlfriend who in turn, vehemently discards all the reasoning that he puts forth with sound counter-arguments. To any swift amorous advances he makes, she discourages him saying, “Slow down! Slow down!” as if she’s still recovering from the shock of this sudden transformation.
Weaving comical tidbits in every scene, this rendition leaves you guffawing as the protagonist faces a literal existential crisis and tries to cope with this unique situation. This 28-minute visual retelling of the grim story-line, that is “The Metamorphosis”, gives a fitting ode to Kafka and promises to engage and entertain you at every turn. With an IMDB rating of 8.1 with n=8, I’m still surprised to not find many reviews of this brilliant piece of work. I enjoyed this, I hope you do too. Also, this is in Bengali and I don’t know if Hoichoi has an in-built interpreter like Netflix (Feature request, much ? ) Update: They do have an interpreter!!
