‘A Holy Conspiracy’ Movie Review: Making a Case for Evolution

Inspired by the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trials, a holy conspiracy There is an engrossing courtroom battle between science and religion. When science is represented by Naseeruddin Shah and religion is represented by Soumitra Chatterjee, expect it to be an exciting watch. Writer-director Saibal Mitra has placed the case well, but the execution demanded a little more polish, a little more craft.

Set in present-day India when religious polarization is a reality, the film engages in a timely and meaningful debate between bigotry and protectionism, between modern education and pseudo-science, and exposes how politicians serve the common man for their vested interests. use of faith.

Coming at a time when Santhals are making news, the film is about a tribal science teacher Kunal Joseph Baske (Shraman Chattopadhyay), whose father converted to Christianity.

Somewhere on the border of Bengal and Jharkhand, hell breaks out in the fictional city of Hillolpur, when Kunal refuses to teach a biblical chapter on Genesis and a book on Vedic science in ancient India before Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. He feels the Bible is being taught at home and in the church, and finds himself unfit to teach Vedic science. However, the Christian school rejects him for profaning the faith and labels him a Maoist; He was later arrested for inciting people and assaulting the principal.

As an avid journalist Harnath Singha (Kaushik Sen) breaks the news, the matter assumes national importance. While the pastor hires the Reverend Basant Kumar Chatterjee (Soumitra Chattopadhyay), an authority on both the law and the Bible, to defend the school, Kunal is represented by Anton D’Souza (Naseeruddin Shah), a human rights lawyer who Has been in hibernation for some. Time.

The argument begins with how teaching Darwin’s law of evolution is an insult to faith, but as the matter settles, we learn that Kunal is a pawn for a politician who is looking for homecoming of the tribals.

Ironically, the so-called custodians of the faith who enabled Kunal to access modern education and inspired him to think, have now almost deserted him. The teaching that made them understand that the Aborigines had their own religion and script – and gave them the courage to introspect when the clergy refused to pray for an innocent child because he had not been baptized before death – is now under a cloud. . His ability to reason is being questioned, and this is why de Souza, making a case for evolution, rumbles that the right to think is on trial.

Giants are like a river in spate. As D’Souza, Shah is suitably troubled by the circumstances, but confident of his skills and attitude. Perhaps Chattopadhyay is almost as comfortable in his final performance as he has always been. He has a more complex character to portray, as here is a man who has chosen religion over science, but discovers during the course of the case that he is being used to advance an agenda of hatred. Kaushik as the cynical writer provides good support, and so does Jagannath Guha as the judge whose integrity is tested.

The writing tends to be dramatic and the dialogues (with English subtitles) in Bangla and English often become outrageous. Perhaps a play would have been a better medium to tell this difficult story. The support cast needed polishing, and blending inspiration from historical testing and current circumstances in America is not smooth. The background music is even more shocking. At times it even seems that the majoritarian angle, which is the crux of the story, has been dispensed with to save some of the delicate emotions from spilling over.

But despite being raw on the edges, a holy conspiracy An honest inquiry into a disturbing truth and an eye on the direction we are heading as a nation is needed.

A Holy Conspiracy is currently playing in theaters