Even after more than a century of history, cinema is still growing and finding innovative ways to amuse the audience. Even now there are areas, people and languages that are uninitiated with this spectacular art form. With the estimated number of languages that are above 1600, among which at least 60 that are widely used in the country, India itself can offer a wide array of unexplored languages and cultures to the world cinema. “Death Certificate” is one such entry as the first ever film in Kurmali language.

The film starts with Sabitri being convinced by her friend to watch a folk production of the mythical tale of Satyavan-Savitri. Even though she is reluctant to go because her husband Ramlokhon, who should have reached home by that time, has not arrived, she succumbs to her friend’s wish. While she is watching the performance completely immersed in it and being emotional, she gets the news that her husband has actually gone missing. Sabitri, along with Ramlokhon’s surrogate father and a young friend, sets upon a journey to find him and along the way faces different challenges brought upon by various facets of people, system and nature.

The beginning of the film clearly brings the attention of viewers to make a parallel with the tale of Satyavan-Savitri. The myth is about Savitri, the wife of Satyavan who follow the God of Death Yama when he takes the soul of her dead husband. When Yama tries to convince her to go back she wouldn’t simply do that and showcases her wisdom and her devotion to her husband. Through some complicated steps of proving herself and her wisdom to be even greater than of the God, she finally convinces him to give her husband another chance in life.

The initial scenes of the film with the beginning of her journey do feel reminiscent of that story but it soon changes its course. The main character here, Sabitri is not an educated or wise person and neither are her companions. They face one obstacle after another in their journey showcasing the corruption and lack of efficiency of the system along with the lack of humanity that is generally plaguing our world. Being a poor, lower caste woman who is not very attractive or intelligent, makes Sabitri the most ill-fated person possible when her husband goes missing and possibly dead.

Rajaditya Banerjee wrote, directed and acted as Ramlokhon based on the story of the same name by his father Debasis Bandopadhyay. While the story is a powerful one, the direction lacks the prowess that is required and it is especially highlighted here due to the importance of this film on various levels.

For years the parallel film movement of India has been accused of making many of the upcoming filmmakers into pseudo art directors by making every single shot in their film prolonged even when it is not at all necessary. While a lot of films accused as such aren’t entirely worthy of such condescension, it seems to fit here, especially considering that this is a directorial debut. Even at 75 minutes, the film feels too stretched out. This is also more noticeable because of the terrible performances from most of the cast which seems to be an extension of the incompetent direction.

Arun Sarkar’s cinematography is among the best things about the film. By only using natural light, he created a beautiful world that feels very much close to real life which effectively portrayed how nature is affecting these people onscreen without giving it too much importance or depending on the actors. The songs didn’t really fit in the film with the overall tone they were going for, nevertheless, they were lovely.

Talking about issues of corruption, inefficient system, exploitation and hardships of lower caste and uneducated people, especially women furthermore touching upon environmental issues, the first film in Kurmali language, “Death Certificate” is an absolutely important film even though it can’t be called a very well crafted one.