REVIEW: “INTERVIEW (1971)”

Meta cinema as a genre is highly underexplored as it does not comprise a lot of

mainstream elements, but holds a large vessel of uncharted creativity, as the plot points
and the characters can amalgamate seamlessly, and easily blurs the thin line between
fact and fiction.
As the film progresses with the protagonist and it’s one day journey of achieving an
ambitious feat, he suddenly breaks the fourth wall, introducing himself and the concept
of meta indirectly to the audience. However, the treatment does not remain consistent
throughout, as the story rather plunges into the pool of socio-political issues that
remains as relevant as it like was in yesterday – unemployment, capitalism, colonialism,
economic disparity, everything laden with the touch of crude political commentary
which remained to be the triumphant signature of Mrinal Sen, the political auteur from
Bengal.
“Interview”, as the name suggests is the depiction of a middle-class servant of a society
still seething in colonial hangover, as he embarks on finding the perfect suit for a job
aspired of, and setting his mental benchmarks higher as it promises giving him a better
future. But in the greater picture it is the hopeful baton of fire that promises to go on a
trail of passing it on to the youth for the greater good. The protagonist, Ranjit Mallick
(played effortlessly by the actor himself), as he dreams of the optimistic transition from
a shabby press office to an alluring high-rise corporate sales job, struggles with a lot of
daily troubles, which can be considered as mere plot twists and turns, as the truth slowly
but steadily gets revealed, like a glass onion peeling off and getting shattered by the
end.
From facing simultaneous revolts in different industries to getting involved in regular
incidents of misery in public places, what we thought this film is about whether Ranjit
gets his dream job or not. That’s where the notch gets a higher edge with the montage
of Ranjit speaking relentlessly and people starving, dying in poverty in one hand while
the newly survived upper strata embracing the Western culture in the other hand. The
subtle art of juxtaposing these strikingly different footages and unifying them with a
motive is where this film stands out as more than just a metaphor as the epilogue goes
on with the audience becoming the director and questions Ranjit as the fallen hero of
the story.
While the death of optimism in Ranjit’s life happened because of losing a suit he
borrowed from his friend – something that could have given him the job opportunity,
but did not ultimately, the commentary on economy goes beautifully like a boomerang.
The salary he was dreaming for, came at a cost so high could not even afford it.
It’s always the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. Hence, the robbery of a
billion aspiring dreams by society as the peers are getting interviewed for survival of
the fittest is what Interview stands out for.