It’s now very much well known that the recently released Hindi cinema Piku directed by Shoojit Sircar has touched every soul. I am also one of those touched souls. Though it’s the entire movie which did touch my soul, I firstly got hooked by its trailer. It instantly connected me with the movie and I felt somewhat nostalgic about the golden years spent with my ever loving father.

I literally craved to watch the movie and constantly nagged my hubby to book the tickets. Just a thought of going to the theatre was in itself an enthralling experience and finally when I finished watching it then I was speechless because of my heart’s boundless happiness. I had read rave reviews and even my loved ones conveyed me their appreciation for Piku after they watched it but my excitement of going to watch this movie was beyond my understanding. I was unable to assemble all the appropriate words to express my excitement. Maybe it was because I felt connected with the trailer of the movie so much that I was expecting my reel experience to mesmerise me by bringing back all the fond memories of my father.

I must say it did not disappoint me rather it would be perfect to say that I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the film although my father was not very similar to Bhaskor Banerjee, the reel father, played by the stalwart Amitabh Bachchan. Interestingly, my father was very different from Piku’s father in many ways but there is one great similarity that’s regarding their bowel movement though my father had his very unique approach towards it. Sometimes his approach to the bowel difficulties made for a great hilarious time for the whole family. At times he was shouted at by my mother, siblings, other family members and obviously I am included too.

My father was an extraordinarily good human being, he performed his role as the chief of a joint family with ease and to had him as father was the most amazing experience in the lives of my sibling’s and mine. He was not a spoil sport and never ever demeaned any of his children neither in front of the family members nor before the outsiders. So, I can vouch that every child would love to have a father of his kind and would feel proud to address that person as ‘baba’ with respect. Oh! I forgot to mention about the relatives, neighbours, acquaintances, domestic help and even the cook who had admired his personality and paid respect at every point of time wholeheartedly.

Actually every child loves to grab an opportunity to express his/her gratitude for the parents and in doing so one forgets to talk about their not so gracious things. As of now I am doing the same thing by highlighting my father’s great qualities and not coming up with the unique stories behind his bowel movement. 

Hereby, I reveal that I still very clearly remember that my baba, as I addressed my father, used to visit toilet at least three to four times a day. The number of times had never decreased rather it increased when he went out for a few hours. In the meantime, I must say that I am sharing the story of those days of my father’s life when he was retired and I a grown up daughter. One particular attitude of his was that at 10:30 in the night he used to go to toilet. Sitting idle for some time was preferable than completing his mission toilet earlier than 10:30 PM and then catch a good night sleep. We poked him to go to toilet early and he used to see the watch and decide in favour (occasionally) or against our wish. In fact, we always laughed at him and commented sarcastically that what bowel pressure and 10:30 at night have in common. He never got angry but hardly listened to our persistent request. I must say he was adamant in this regard and never tried to understand why we pestered. He used to take his own sweet time so for the other members it was very difficult to remain awake until he came out of the toilet. Imagine if any untoward incident had taken place at any of the dark nights while the rest of the family slept unaware. The whole family felt very worried because he was on pacemaker.

As we all know that sometimes during a year the mosquitoes have a great feast on human blood. Our home was also not spared by the mosquitoes but my father never felt bogged down by it too. He had his own indigenous method to defend himself and enjoy his mission toilet. My father always lighted a mosquito coil and took it with him to the toilet. Now, I wonder that what would have happened if during those days the coil makers had come up with low smoke coil or no smoke one! Even he had a special chair for his toilet just like the reel father had and in the movie it was described as ‘singhashan’ that means royal chair. Indeed, we treated it to be a royal too. What a coincidence!

I always felt that my father was literally fascinated by worrying about bowel movement and loved his trips to toilet. He was an extraordinarily co-operative person but his mission toilet was an example of his adamant nature though without going into any argument with anyone in the family. After watching Piku I constantly thought that suppose my father had been like the reel father Bhaskor Banerjee then what would have happened to the lives of my siblings and mine.  

It is always a pleasure to have one’s father around, no matter what and in my case my father had only one weakness but even for that he never put anyone in trouble. While he was on bed we scolded him a lot when he used to ask for bed pan for quite a number of times each and every day because of his bowel mania but he never rebuked back. I still remember that one morning we found his bed completely soiled and had even pulled the rubber cloth and the bed sheet from under his waist and threw them on the floor. We all thought it was done out of rage maybe because we failed to respond his call during the night. I went a step further, stopped talking to him and for the whole day I did not visit his room. Next day he confided his point of view to me and made me cry. He told me that his act was not out of anger upon anyone rather it seemed he underwent some hallucination. He saw a water body around him and so he threw away his soiled sheets into it. Till date I feel ashamed whenever I recall that moment. 

The movie Piku dramatically connected me with it though my experience with my father was diametrically opposite to Piku's. For me the Bong connection was an added pleasure because of my Bengali lineage. The most affectionate portion of the movie was that having so much of difference in opinion the love between a father and a daughter never ceased to exist, daughter’s concern for her father, father’s dependence upon the daughter, even annoyance for each other and irritation at one another’s attitude simply grabbed all my attention. Though the movie ended at a stipulated time but made me not only recall every detail of my life with my adorable father rather I am still enjoying the spirit of it. I even visualized myself as Piku, the protagonist played by Deepika Padukone, and all thanks to Shoojit Sircar for directing such an emotional movie which is lead by motion as the caption of the movie says, motion se hi emotion, which in some or the other way made my dead father alive for me.