Moner Manush (Bengali: মনের মানুষ, lit. 'Ideal Person') is a 2010 India-Bangladesh joint venture Bengali-languagebiographicalmusical drama film based on the life and philosophy of Lalon, a noted spiritual leader, poet and folk singer of Bengal in the 19th century. Directed by Goutam Ghose, who also wrote the screenplay, the film has Prosenjit as the lead actor portraying the character of Lalan Fakir. Paoli Dam plays the character of Komli, the key female disciple of Lalan. Moner Manush has been critically and commercially successful.
Plot
Rabindranath Tagore's elder brother Jyotirindranath Tagore, a Western educated bright young man from the 19th century Bengal met the octogenarian Lalan Fakir and drew a portrait of the poet saint in the former houseboat afloat on the Padma river. Jyotirindranath, an urban intellectual, exchanges views with the man of native wisdom. Their exchange of ideas forms the cinematic narrative of this film. The narrative is a saga of the life and time of Lalan Fakir and his liberal sect who lived a life of high order in an otherwise superstitious 19th century Indian society. Lalan inherited the best of the liberal and enlightened tradition of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam to develop a philosophy of life which is extremely secular and tolerant. Thus became an easy prey for the fundamentalists from the Hindu and the Muslim institutions. They were the parallel stream flowing freely in the heart of rural Bengal when men like Tagore were germinating ideas of the Bengal Renaissance. The love and compassion of Lalan is relevant more than ever in today's world of intolerance and hate.
