SUNDOR CHAAN

Julia is a prostitute in the red light district of Daulatdia. She is an independent woman, and puts thought into, and takes responsibility for whatever she does. A travelling showman comes to town, and brings his monkey to show tricks that he has taught, and Julia, along with all the people from the neighborhoods, land up watching the so-called game. Yet, the monkey in question is sick, and unable to even get up, forget putting on a show. This embarrasses and angers the showman/owner, who proceeds to beat the ailing monkey senseless. Julia feels her heart going out to the monkey, and goes to the local alcohol stand in search of the owner after the show, and buys the monkey Sundor Chan from him for fifteen thousand takas.

This odd exchange, and Julia’s ownership of the monkey becomes the center of everyone’s attention in the red light area. From a certain incident one night, we (the audience) come to realize that Sundor Chan and Julia are reflections of each other.

Rumour is abounding all over the neighborhoods and the brothels that the monkey tells Julia its stories, and Julia understands them. Everyone begins to believe the story, that in the past, Sundor Chan had had a love affair with a tigress from the Sunderbans. This rumour takes stronger base in reality when Julia announces she is going to take Sundor Chan back to the Sunderbans to reunite him with his lover, the tigress.

The day comes when Julia and 4/5 other girls from the brothel hire a reserve trawler to go to the Sunderbans by river. In the Sunderbans, the trawler party goes this way and that, and finally find a place for Julia to land. Leaving everyone else in the boat, Julia takes Sundor Chan into the forest with a heavy heart, to set him free. Sundor refuses to go anywhere, and Julia is confused about what to do. The tide has come in by then, and as the Sunderbans are a mangrove forest, soon it will be awash with water and impossible to navigate out of. The party starts calling for Julia, and still confused, she decides to pick up Sundor and take him back to the boat.

When the girls see Julia bring back the monkey, their belief that there was actually a love story between the monkey and a tigress is broken, and they laugh and begin to mock Julia. Yet, when Julia roars at them as if she was a tigress themselves, they quiet down and begin to wonder silently if she was the one Sundor had love for in truth. In that silence, then, a miracle happens in the forest, which brings all of the absurdity or its base in reality into doubt.