The literal translation of Shunyota is emptiness, a feeling of a hollow vacuum inside one that defies description or analysis. This Bengali film is the first to take on demonetisation as the central plot point. Directed by Suvendu Ghosh, it portrays three good short stories that explore the consequences of demonetisation on three different families placed in three areas of life and geography.

In response to what drove him to make a feature film on such a bold and controversial subject, the director said, “I have directed five feature films till now. Of these, my fourth film Chetana, that tackled the value system, released in August last year, won the best director and best story award at the Dubai International Film Festival. In November, the Prime Minister announced the historic demonetisation decision with a deadline of only a few hours. This practically pushed me as a filmmaker, with a social conscience, to make a feature film on its impact.”

Ghosh picked three short stories, independent of each other but bonded with the single subject — demonetisation — that had an instantaneous shock effect among cross sections of people in West Bengal. These stories have been authored by Anirban Roychowdhury after demonetisation was announced by the Government of India on 8 November last year when the whole country experienced a fiscal tsunami.

The first story deals with a widow who works in a coal field in Ranigunge. She fixes her daughter Basi’s marriage by selling her small piece of land for the dowry though Basi does not want to get married as that will rid them of the only piece of land they own. Lakshmi hands over the money to the father of the would-be groom to buy a pump. That very night, demonetisation turns the money handed over in devalued notes into mere wads of paper. The groom’s father hands back the money and breaks off the alliance saying that the girl is unlucky. By the time Lakshmi goes to the local bank and gets her notes changed for legal tender, it is too late.

On the other hand, a young Bengali couple from Sikkim arrive in Kolkata for the surgery of their two-and-a-half-year old son who is suffering from a rare heart disease in the second story. Television channels are agog with the news of demonetisation and the hospital refuses to accept the massive sum for the surgery in plastic money. The husband rushes off to get emergency funds through the good offices of a family friend and asks his wife to wait till he arranges the cash. But he finds himself trapped for no fault on his part while the little boy is taken to the operation room for the surgery.

The third story is about a middle-aged man who runs a business of repairing fishing trawlers in his small village. He lives with his wife and marriageable daughter but is almost pathologically miserly and keeps his wife and daughter in constant penury. He is obsessed with the touch, smell and feeling of all the currency notes he has gathered in a huge trunk he hides under his bed and always keeps his room locked. What happens to this man and his huge bank of currency notes when demonetisation strikes makes this the most powerful celluloid statement among all the three.

Why then, did the Central Board of Film Certification clamp down on the film’s release at the last minute and instruct the director to make cuts? In a letter to Ghosh on 31 March, the Kolkata regional office of the CBFC asked him to communicate within 15 days his “acceptance or otherwise” of he recommended cuts. The missive said that the cuts were decided as per the directives of the CBFC chairperson and recommendations of the examination committee.

The recommended cuts included deletion of two sequences and muting of four sentences/parts of sentences/words with beeps. One of the recommended deletions was a ten-second sequence that talks of “a large number of unacceptable death processions in the country revolving around demonetisation”. Ghosh was also asked to mute a part of a sentence with a beep that says “the government has committed the wrong, and while the big fish will survive, the small fish will be trapped”. Earlier, the Kolkata regional office of the CBFC had referred the film to the board’s chairman Pahlaj Nihalni for a decision on certification citing “differences of opinion among members of the (examining) committee”. Ghosh says, “It (the film) has no political colour but had they (CBFC) suggested that I consider making cuts. I think the subject of the film was the reason why they could not take a decision… They probably did not view short films as a threat. But a feature film with a commercial release is a different scenario.” Finally, Ghosh agreed to the six cuts but “the delay in the release of the film by around one month has been extremely painful for me as a director,” he adds. “I can only thank the media, which rose to the occasion and helped me by headlining the news across media outlets, spoke to me directly and allowed us to make our statement that ushered in the release finally.

“The producer Uday Singh, who is into real estate and agreed to produce my film because he believed in it and also because we are old friends, would have suffered financially had we taken our case to court. It would have been a big risk for me as director and for Singh as producer even though the film has been made on a shoestring budget of Rs 35 lakhs, incredible in these days where even an average film has a budget of Rs one crore.”

Ghosh cast a very good blend of veteran actors and new faces for the film. He says, “I consider this an out-of-the-box film, so big stars would have detracted from my subject, which is hot and sensitive at the same time.” And his cast has done him proud. Shunyota may not win an Oscar but it is a neat film with good performances by veteran actors and reasonable performances from the debutantes. There are twists and turns but very little melodrama and is stripped of cheap and soppy sentimentalism. The background score by Pinaki Bose has resurrected folk musical instruments of Bengal and this works beautifully in the film. Samar Haldar’s art direction is touched with the honesty of authenticity reflecting three different spaces the three stories cover.

Happy at last that Shunyota has finally found an audience, Ghosh says, “I think honesty always pays back.”