The internet has become a brilliant medium to portray things as they are, without the fear of imminent censorship. While some left liberals are exploiting the medium for their own interests, people with no hidden propaganda are also employing this medium for their own as well as the audience’s advantage, who want newer and better content.
In this scenario, a Bengali miniseries, titled ‘Amaar Bhoy Lagey’, literally meaning ‘I am afraid’, is going viral in West Bengal. Comprising shots of five to seven minutes each, the 8 episode miniseries has claimed widespread acclaim in the state, for it has taken the unconventional path by revealing the bitter truth about the terror in Bengal. It is no secret as to who creates such mayhem in the state, and ‘Amaar Bhoy Lagey’ has pointed the fingers straight at the TMC goons, who under the patronage of current CM Mamata Banerjee, are hell bent on making Bengal a field of terror.
In the first episode, Manisha Pailan, an acid attack victim, narrates her ordeal of how Salim Haldar, a TMC member, made her life a living hell after she refused his overtures. She was first abducted and forcefully married to him. When she broke the marriage, he continued to stalk and blackmail her. Failing to persuade her, Salim threw acid on her, following which her face was left badly scarred and she was left with just one eye functional. Despite her continuous efforts, the culprit continues to roam free and has more immunity than the victim herself.
Likewise, the other episodes talk about people who had tried to raise protest against the hooliganism of the TMC workers, and have sadly paid a heavy price for the same. Be it someone like Tapas Mandal, who is now homeless for having supported BJP, or Amit Hassan, an ABVP worker who was assaulted for having opposed the hooliganism of TMC and forced to drink a poisonous liquid, the list of brutalities meted out by TMC goons is endless. To make matters even worse, the current CM of Bengal has no qualms in openly backing such hooligans, and is ready to suppress any kind of dissent, even if it means throwing the ethics and morals to the winds.
However, this comes as no surprise, since Bengal under Mamata Banerjee is probably the last place in India where you’d expect sanity and free will. Women are raped, films opposing the approach of the ruling party are censored, and sometimes even banned; illegal immigrants are given a free passage and the list goes on and on. If that wasn’t enough to boil the citizen’s blood, people entrusted with the duty of maintaining law and order are not only mocked, but even harassed and arrested, such as the CBI officers who had come to interrogate the tainted IG Rajiv Kumar for his role in the Saradha chit fund scam.
As such, the audience is appreciative of the people who took great pains and risks behind making this hard hitting web miniseries. Not only did they do so at a great personal risk, but also are doing a noble deed for the people, specifically for those living in West Bengal. ‘Amaar Bhoy Lagey’ is making the oblivious people aware of the atrocities under the Mamata Banerjee government. The makers are setting out to be good role models for fearless people who are required to fight the hooliganism perpetrated by the TMC goons and remove the tyranny sooner rather than later.