Rituparno Ghosh has made some remarkable movies on the frailties, nuances and undercurrents of human relations, be it Utsab, Dahan or Shubho Mahurat. But his take on male-female equation in his latest outing, Shob Choritro Kalponik, might just have been the most difficult to execute. The movie is about Radhika, a working professional, and the complex relationship she shares with her poet-husband Indranil, more so given that she is involved in an extra-marital affair with Shekhar, who happens to hero-worship Indranil. Radhika isn’t happy in her marriage, but when Indranil suddenly drops dead, she ends up, in a way, being enslaved by his brooding and seemingly inescapable presence. Bipasha Basu and Jishu Sengupta, as Radhika and Shekhar, have delivered surprisingly layered and effective performances, while Prosenjit, as Indranil, has given a wonderfully matured and restrained portrayal in what was easily an author-backed role. And add to that a leisurely narrative that jumps back and forth in time, and the magnetic poetry by Joy Goswami, one of the finest Indian poets alive, and what you have is a movie that could one day be regarded as one of the most important in the Bengali auteur’s oeuvre.
Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Romance
Language: Bengali
Country: India
9 comments:
nah ...nope ... not good enough ... 4stars.. i mean come on subho! this is my favourite bangla contemporary film..hands down! and i'm sure in the years to come ... only ritu da will be able to emulate something of this stature.
mere mortal like me self can't even begin to comment on the brilliance of this film ...
Ritu Da, you're my idol!
I understand your concern. The fact is that there's a history behind my giving the movie a 4-star instead of a 4.5-star rating. The theatre where we saw the movie was unexpectedly bad, and tried all its best to prevent us from liking the movie. Despite that I was able to appreciate the depth and beauty of the movie. However, to fully appreciate every single nuance in the script, I need a second viewing at some other place. So, depending on if and when I watch it again, the rating might very well change for the better.
Came by your blog through your comments at 1minutefilmreview. Hoping to use your blog to find interesting contemporary Bengali movies that I have been missing out on.
I have only seen Raincoat by Rituparno Ghosh and loved it. Hoping to find more of his films on Netflix.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. It'll be a pleasure if I can introduce a few good movies to you. I admire Ghosh's movies. Look out for his Utsab, Dahan & Shubho Mahurat - these 3 happen to be my favourites from his oeuvre.
Thanks for the recommendations. Sigh! None of those films are available on Netflix. I will have to hunt around for them on my next trip to India.
BTW, I think you should explore the Malayalam "art" film industry. Look out for films from Adoor, Aravindan, ,Shyamprasad... but then again their films are hard to find with subtitles even in India.
I think Utsab (The Festival) is available in Netflix. Yeah you're right, subtitled regional movies aren't easily available in India. I've heard a lot about Adoor Gopalakrishnan, given that he is a renowned filmmaker, but haven't managed to get hold of his movies yet.
Strangely I found a sub-titled version of Elippathayam at YouTube. Enjoy but please be aware that when I was growing up, the urban myth was that this movie was supposed to cause death by boredom :-)
Well, I never really believed in urban myths anyway:)
Anyway, thanks for the link. However streaming videos take an enormous time to load in my net, so I don't know if I'll be able to go ahead with it. But thanks nonetheless.
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