Korpur (camphor), a film released on Friday starring two prominent Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates—minister Bratya Basu and the party’s state general secretary Kunal Ghosh—has become a talking point in poll-bound West Bengal as it focuses on alleged corruption in the higher education system during the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] regime.
Korpur, based on Dipanwita Roy’s novel Antardhaner Nepothye, focuses on the unsolved police investigation into the 1997 disappearance of Manisha Mukhopadhyay, then the assistant controller of examinations at Calcutta University. She was reportedly last seen riding in a taxi in south Kolkata.
Mamata Banerjee, who was in the Congress during the incident, formed the TMC in 1998. Opposition parties alleged that Mukhopadhyay might have been kidnapped or murdered because she came to know of large-scale corruption in the higher education department. None of the allegations could be established.
Rabin Deb, a member of the CPI(M)’s central control commission—which probes allegations against party leaders—told HT that the movie’s content is baseless.
“Steeped in corruption and having lost the confidence of people, TMC is resorting to all sorts of tactics to divert public attention from reality. Korpur is an effort to mislead the masses. Two candidates have acted in the movie and their posters appeared when the elections were announced. This goes against the principles of the Constitution,” Deb said.
Kunal Ghosh, who is contesting from Kolkata’s Beliaghata, has played a political character loosely based on the then CPI(M) state secretary Anil Biswas, while Bratya Basu, the candidate from North 24 Parganas district’s Dum Dum, has portrayed a police officer who investigated the case.
Unlike Basu, a veteran in Bengali theatre, Ghosh had to go through a learning curve to face the camera. “People have a right to know how a senior official vanished without a trace. The movie focuses on that mystery,” said Ghosh.
Director Arindam Sil told HT that he had done extensive research before taking up the project.
“I did not make the movie to show any party in a bad light. We need to remind ourselves that we cannot have corruption in the education system. Just because the case remains unsolved does not mean people cannot talk about it,” he said, adding, “whoever was responsible has to own up.”
After the Calcutta High Court ordered federal agencies in 2022 to probe allegations that people appointed as government school teachers and non-teaching staff paid bribes ranging from ₹5 to 15 lakh after failing selection tests, the CPI(M) carried out an extensive campaign against the TMC.
The Left has questioned the filmmaker’s intention and the timing of the release.
The TMC is contesting 291 of Bengal’s 294 seats, while the Left Front, led by the CPI(M), has announced 224 candidates so far. The Bharatiya Janata Party has named 225 nominees and is working on its third list.
