Trikaal (Hindi, 1985)

Trikaal, directed by Shyam Benegal, tells the story of a wealthy family in Goa, which unlike the rest of India, was under Portuguese rule.

Picture: Goa (not from the movie)

The bulk of the film unfolds as a flashback narrated by Ruiz Pereira, portrayed by Naseeruddin Shah in the present and Nikhil Bhagat in the flashback. The story centers on a wealthy Goan Christian family named Souza Soares. The narrator, Ruiz Pereira, the nephew of the family's doctor, is an outsider to the family. The flashback is neatly framed between the film's beginning and end, making the narrative easier to follow than if it had oscillated between past and present.

Instead of explicitly stating the time spans for the present and flashback segments, the film allows us to infer them through references to contemporary news events. In the present-day scenes, characters mention that Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher recently visited Goa for a CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) summit, which led to the sprucing up of the roads. This suggests that the narrator is recalling events sometime after November 1983. The flashback occurs around the time the Indian Army was about to annex Goa. The Portuguese surrendered to the Indian Army on December 19, 1961, indicating that the events in the flashback take place in the run up to that date.

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Plot

The film has 3 major intersecting plot points garnished with numerous sub-plots.

The first plot point revolves around the death of the philandering patriarch, Ernesto Souza Soares whose funeral is the backdrop to the flashback. The matriarch, Dona Maria Souza Soares (played by Leela Naidu), initially refuses to accept his death, delaying the funeral. She eventually comes to terms with it, though she repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempts planchette sessions to communicate with her deceased husband.

The second plot element involves the impending engagement of Dona Maria's granddaughter, Anna (played by Sushma Prakash), to Erasmo (played by Indian singer Lucky Ali). Erasmo and his parents, who currently reside in Portugal, have traveled to Goa to finalize the engagement. While Erasmo is genuinely infatuated with Anna, his parents are also motivated by financial gain, given Anna's family wealth. Erasmo's mother is annoyed when the engagement ceremony is canceled due to the unexpected death, but there is another source of her frustration: the Indian army has launched a blockade of Goa and is on the verge of invading (or liberating, depending on one’s perspective) the state. As naturalized Portuguese citizens, Erasmo's family is eager to leave before the situation escalates.

The third plot point focuses on the impact of the impending Indian annexation on the characters. As though the drama surrounding the funeral and Anna's engagement were not enough, Dona Maria’s nephew, Leon (played by Dalip Tahil), who is fighting for Goan independence, has escaped from a Portuguese prison and is hiding in the family mansion's cellar. It is revealed that Anna's disinterest in Erasmo stems from her love for Leon.

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Observations

Reactions to the annexation

The film depicts three categories of reactions to the impending Indian annexation. The welcoming response is represented by the family doctor and the freedom fighter Leon. On the other hand, Erasmo's parents are antagonistic because as naturalized Portuguese citizens, they are concerned about the potential upheaval. In contrast, the servants and Dona Maria are neutral, showing little reaction to the political changes.

The film also suggests some level of support from the Goan church for the Portuguese, although this is not clearly articulated. While it might seem logical that Goan Christians would prefer to stay under Portuguese control rather than join a predominantly Hindu India, some Christian characters in the film support independence. This highlights the complexity of identity of which religion is only one attribute.

The film notes that the Souza Soares family’s ancestors supported the Portuguese and were rewarded for their loyalty. This reflection raises a personal question: If I were an English-speaking elite of that era, would I have supported British rule? But India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, an elite figure himself, devoted his life to the struggle for independence.

Planchette

The planchette sessions in which Dona Maria receive guidance from her dead husband via the medium of his illegitimate daughter, Milagrenia (played by Neena Gupta), are superbly executed. Technically, these sessions should be called seances, as a planchette specifically refers to a wooden board with a pencil used to write messages from the spirit. Although the film does feature a physical object that Dona Maria and Milagrenia hold, it is not clearly visible. Moreover, the spirit in the movie manifests as an apparition rather than dictating messages through the object.

The seance leads to the unintended summoning of the wrong spirit. Instead of her husband Ernesto, the spirit of Vijay Singh Rane (played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a man wrongfully betrayed to the Portuguese by Dona Maria's grandfather, repeatedly appears. Vijay Singh Rane is understandably disgruntled, as he was beheaded due to mistaken identity.

This mix-up in the seance is akin to receiving a wrong number, a concept familiar to those who grew up in 1980s India. It’s like eagerly answering the phone, expecting to hear from a school sweetheart, only to find a stranger asking for someone unknown. You'd grit your teeth and say "wrong number" before hanging up.

Crime and punishment

Though the narrator, Ruiz Pereira is tangential to the plot, his concluding observations on guilt leave a mark. He exploits the patriarch's illegitimate daughter, Milagrenia, treating her as a sex object and impregnating her while simultaneously pursuing Anna, whom he places on a pedestal. When he learns of Milagrenia's pregnancy, his immediate reaction is that he cannot possibly marry a servant. Years later, upon returning to Dona Maria's mansion, he inquires about Milagrenia and her son. He discovers that Milagrenia has married an older man and moved abroad, and their son has also left Goa. The film ends with Ruiz Pereira assuaging his conscience on the theory that a wrongdoer should not be burdened by guilt beyond a statute of limitations.

As we become older and are exposed to progressive ideas, we look back on our past deeds, words and thoughts with shame. The way I reconcile with this is to resolve to do better once one knows better.

Memory

The central conceit of flashback movies is the notion that memory is linear. In reality, however, the past is always a blur. List five places you visited on vacation as a child and then arrange them in chronological order. It is challenging. Memory is idiosyncratic—there are moments we recall with surprising clarity, even though they might lack significant meaning. Conversely, we might remember trivial details (such as the song playing during a date) while forgetting more important ones (like the face of our date). It’s a sobering realization that the flotsam and jetsam of concerns that seem salient to us today will eventually fade into a blur.

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Trikaal is a delightful movie and if you grew up in 1980s India, you would love the nostalgia associated with watching actors from Doordarshan shows.