Saturday 5 June 2010

Mahanagar@Kolkata (Metropolis@Calcutta) [2010]


Suman Mukhopadhyay, whose brilliant debut feature Herbert was based on Nabarun Bhattacharya’s novella of the same, chose to adapt three short stories of the author this time – Ek Tukro Nylon-er Dori; Amar Kono Bhoy Nei To? and Angshik Chandragrahan (loosely translated as, A Piece of Nylon Cord; I Have Nothing to Fear, Right? and Partial Lunar Eclipse, respectively). The interweaving stories present three random vignettes of the teeming metropolis in this dark and experimental work. The first segment, about the unlikely acquaintance between an upper middle class man (Anjan Dutt) and a lower middle class person (Biplab Chatterjee) one bloody night outside a hospital, borders on psychological terror; the second segment, which follows an unemployed elderly person (Arun Mukhopadhyay) who gets gripped with fear and paranoia thanks to the escalating violence around him, is darkly funny and ironic; and the third segment, which is about the destructive ménage à trois between a high-flying, suicidal professional (Chandan Roy Sanyal), his beautiful wife (Rituparna Sengupta) and his voluptuous, Marx-quoting mistress (Sreelekha Mitra), is psychedelic and surreal. The grim ode to the seedy underbelly of Kolkata (Calcutta) has as its themes urban paranoia, insecurities and existential detachment, and they have been amply bolstered by Fossils frontman Rupam Islam’s splendid, edgy rock ballads. The film is very well enacted by its ensemble cast, with the standout performance coming from Arun Mukhopadhyay, the director’s father.








Director: Suman Mukhopadhyay
Genre: Drama/
Black Comedy/Psychological Drama/Existential Drama/Experimental
Language: Bengali
Country: India

3 comments:

Omar said...

Wow, this looks like a remarkable film. Has this been released theatrically? Herbert appears equally fascinating. Suman Mukhopadhyay also sounds very radical and art house inclined?

Shubhajit said...

The movie has released theatrically in Kolkata, but I'm not so sure for placed outside Kolkata. And yes, Herbert, the book by Nabarun Bhattacharya, was a brilliant work, and so was the movie adaptation - would strongly recommend it to you. It is available at seventymm.com.And Suman Mukhopadhyay has quickly become a director whose movies I eagerly wait for as he's challenged the conventions of filmmaking.

You may visit the director's website at:
http://www.sumanmukhopadhyay.com/

Buy Cialis said...

I haven't watched this film yet, but I'm sure it'll fill my expectation, specially cuz Suman Mukhopadhyay is a great director and I'm convinced of his talent to direct.