Inspired by the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, A Holy Conspiracy is an engrossing court room battle between science and religion. When science is represented by Naseeruddin Shah and religion by Soumitra Chatterjee, it is expected to be a riveting watch. Writer-director Saibal Mitra has mounted the case well, but the execution demanded a little more polish, a little more craft.
Set in present-day India when religious polarisation is a reality, the film indulges in a timely and meaningful debate between fanaticism and protectionism, between modern education and pseudo science, and goes on to expose how politicians use the common man’s faith for their vested interests.
Coming at a time when Santhals are making news, the film is about a tribal Science teacher Kunal Joseph Baske (Sraman Chattopadhyay) whose father converted to Christianity.
Hell breaks loose in the fictitious Hillolpur town, somewhere on the border of Bengal and Jharkhand, when Kunal refuses to teach the Bible’s Chapter of Genesis and a book on Vedic science in Ancient India before Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. He feels that the Bible is being taught at home and in Church, and finds himself ill-equipped to teach the Vedic Science. However, the Christian school dismisses him for desecrating faith and brands him a Maoist; he is subsequently arrested for inciting people and attacking the principal.
As a zealous journalist Haranath Singha (Kaushik Sen) breaks the news, the case assumes national importance. While the Pastor hires Reverend Basant Kumar Chatterjee (Soumitra Chattopadhyay), an authority on both law and the Bible to defend the school, Kunal is represented by Anton De Souza (Naseeruddin Shah), a human rights lawyer, who has been in hibernation for some time.
The argument starts with how teaching Darwin’s Law of Evolution amounts to desecration of faith, but as the case unravels, we realise Kunal is a pawn for a politician who is seeking ghar wapsi of the tribals.
Ironically, the so-called custodians of faith that enabled Kunal to have access to modern education and propelled him to think have almost deserted him now. The education that made him understand that tribals have their own religion and script — and gave him the guts to introspect when the Pastor refuses to pray for an innocent child because he was not baptised before death — is under cloud now. His faculty to reason is being questioned, and that is why De Souza, making a case for evolution, thunders that the right to think is on trial.
The stalwarts are like a river in spate. As De Souza, Shah is suitably rattled by the circumstances, but confident about his skill and point of view. Perhaps in his last performance, Chattopadhyay is almost as effortless as he has always been. His is a more complex character to portray, for here is a man who chose religion over science, but during the course of the case discovers that he is being used to pursue an agenda of hate. Kaushik as the cynical scribe provides good support, and so does Jagannath Guha as the judge whose integrity is tested.
The writing tends to get theatrical and the dialogues in Bangla and English (with English subtitles) often become declamatory. Perhaps a play would have been a better medium to tell this hard hitting story. The support cast required polishing, and the blending of the inspiration from the landmark trial in the US and the present-day circumstances is not seamless. The background music is even more jarring. At times, it aalso seems the majoritarian angle, that forms the crux of the narrative, has been dispersed to save some fragile sentiments from getting shattered.
But despite being raw at the edges, A Holy Conspiracy needs to be watched for its honest investigation of a disturbing truth and questioning where as a nation we are headed.
A Holy Conspiracy is currently running in theatres
