Movie Review: Takhon Teish (Bengali, 2011)

Director: Atanu Ghosh
Cast: Paoli Dam, Jissu Sengupta, Rajatava Dutta, Indrani Halder

“My grandpa said that I would either be a singer or would run away from home”, commented the protagonist Tamodeep (played by Jissu Sengupta) several times during the movie. But proving his grandpa wrong Tamodeep, a consistent topper, ended up being a medical doctor. It turns out that his grandpa died when Tamodeep was an infant. Grandpa’s poor eyesight could barely see Tamodeep’s face while predicting his fate. I would say this is the theme of the movie – wrong perception that people have about others because of poor eyesight (observation).

The director Atanu Ghosh cleverly tricks the audience to deal with their own wrong perceptions about human character, even before the word go. From the title “Takhon Teish” (at twenty three) one can easily think of another saucy story of a young man’s fantasy. Wrong perception! The movie is a brilliant portrayal of three women and a man’s relationship at different levels. Here we see a platonic love between Meghna (Indrani Halder) a 28 year old teacher and her 17 year old student Tamodeep. The relationship has a strong foundation of Meghna’s responsibility towards Tamodeep and his caring about her. Tamodeep’s mother, with her own wrong perception, failed to notice it and hence asked Meghna to cut off the relationship.

Tamodeep is a shy, intelligent, passionate and dedicated person. After school, he studies medicine and becomes a doctor. During his college days Tamodeep gets attracted towards a south Indian pornster, Mohini (Paoli Dam). He never misses any of her movies. But interestingly he tries to look passed her flesh into her mind. He listens to her dialogs intently in order to understand her, even though he doesn’t understand a south Indian language.

Then there was a chance encounter between Tamodeep and Mohini, when injured and unconscious from a road accident Mohini was brought to a hospital where Tamodeep was working. He readily recognizes her, but during police investigation it was revealed that she was actually a Bengali, not a south Indian as Tamodeep assumed. Gradually he opens his heart before her which she initially perceives as his lust.

Camera then pans on Sriparna (Aparajita Ghosh Das), a net-savvy young girl who is addicted to social networking and has been exploring relationships through that channel. It takes her only a few days of interaction over internet before dating a total stranger. One day she dates introvert well mannered Tamodeep and another day she goes out with a sexual predator lurking behind the disguise of a corporate lawyer and philanthropist (played by Rajatava Dutta).

Then there was Mohini, a passionate girl who loved poetry, singing and acting. Mohini was an orphan, got shelter at an orphanage run by Rajatava (apologies, I forgot the name of the character played by Rajatava Dutta), became victim of his lust and psychological game, and ended up being a pornster in south Indian adult movie industry, after running away from the orphanage.

The director has established the characters with such an amazing completeness that you’ll rarely find such instance in Bengali movies of recent years. The screen play, written by the director himself, has also been very well balanced. It tells the story in a smart and crisp way where you don’t have any room for confusion in understanding each character. It’s very well paced and has a feel of a thriller, though I would rather categorize it as a romantic drama.

Atanu has also been very smart in injecting some present day issues in the movie. For example, with the help of a two-minute scene, he highlighted the issue of female patients getting abused in hospitals.

In the end, all the characters become crystal clear and so does the mutual feelings between Mohini and Tamodeep. The last scene was almost divine with yellow flowers sprinkled over a red car, and Mohini in a pristine white dress. The mood is further elevated with the rain drops falling on the grass and soothing sound of rain in the background. This is the best ever ending of a Bengali movie that I’ve seen in a long time.

To summarize it, the strength of the movie has been a deep analysis of human characters and relationship. All the actors did justice to their roles. Jissu has been good, Rajatava has been brilliant and Paoli has been outstanding in their respective roles. Paoli played her character effortlessly with great confidence and made it very convincing.

In my opinion, this is the most complete Bengali movie that has been released from Kolkata in the last six months. This is definitely the silver lining for Bengali movie arena. Kudos to Atanu and Paoli. We can have a hope on them in the coming days.