‘‘Khasi Katha – A Goat Saga’ to be Shah’s debut Bengali film.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: Naseeruddin Shah, the iconic actor of the Hindi film industry, is going to set foot in unchartered territories. He is to release his first Bengali film this summer, Judhajit Sarkar’s ‘Khasi Katha – A Goat Saga’.
As uncanny as the title sounds, the premise will astound the audiences even further: Naseeruddin Shah shares screen space and stars opposite a talking goat.
‘Khasi Katha’ translates to ‘The tale of a goat’. Khasi means a special breed of goat which is up for slaughter in a butcher house. The goat in this story is not much different. He is a prisoner waiting for the butcher’s blade to strike him down. Who’s the butcher? Shah, of course.
However, this goat, unlike other goats, can talk, and thus, can plead the butcher to not kill him. The butcher being a butcher is not really willing to listen. But then the talking goat makes a deal with his master: he will tell the butcher a story and in return his life would be spared. Surprisingly, the butcher agrees.
From here starts the second phase of the film: the story within a story. This story is about Salma, a female boxer who hails from a lower middle class Muslim family in Kolkata. She aspires to become a boxer while facing the many challenges that life throws at her. The role of Salma is being played by Anindita Bose who had gained prominence through the Rituparno Ghosh guided TV series ‘Gaaner Oparey’ and the Anik Dutta directed film Bhooter Bhabishyat, which was later remade into Hindi.
The film’s story has similar plot points to that of Arabian Nights. On this, Shah has commented, “Yes, the film has a similar premise. The goat’s life is hanging in the balance. In Arabian Nights, the storyteller (Scheherazde) keeps churning out tales to save herself from being executed by her husband (Shahryar). Though Khashi Katha might lend a similar feeling, it is a standalone story, which doesn’t resemble any film, any book…”
Shah agreed to do this role immediately after reading the script. He had earlier worked with Judhajit in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film ‘Sazaaye Maut’.
Judhajit had earlier made a documentary film on women boxers in Kolkata. He had said that boxing is a game where the players accept physical punishment voluntarily and it becomes more thrilling when a woman does it.