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.

Movie Review: Moner Manush (Bengali, 2010)

“Maner Manush” is a biopic about Lalan Fakir, a noted spiritual leader and folk singer cum song-write of Bengal of nineteenth century. He and his disciples had built up a habitat in a forest which belonged to the Thakurs’, the famous landlord of Bengal (the family which produced the great legend, Asia’s first Noble laurite philosopher/writer Rabindranath Thakur). Directed by Gautam Ghosh, this Bengali movie has been targeted towards multiplex-going urban audiences. Mr Ghosh should get applause for choosing the subject as it showcases a historic personality of rural to the present-day audience.

Prosenjit has acted brilliantly in this movie, playing the lead, Lalan Fakir. Before I proceed any further, I must state that I didn’t do any research on Lalan Fakir and will discuss the character in the light of my understanding of the way it has been portrayed by Ghosh in the movie. The movie shows early days of Lalan as a young hindu living in a village with his loving wife and widowed mother. Lalan had a bent towards spirituality and approached Shiraz Fakir, a spiritual leader and singer, wanting to be his disciple. However the fate joined them together after a while when Lalan went down with chicken pox, lost his consciousness and his memory, were floated on the river by his village people assuming he was dead, and eventually had been rescued and given shelter by a Muslim lady.

Lalan received training on spirituality from Shiraz and started wandering across the places. Once he went back to his village and to his wife. But his mother didn’t let him in to the home as he had been staying with a Muslim family. This shows the sharp division between the Hindus and Muslims in the society at that time. Lalan was particularly against this division between people in the society. He preached oneness of all people across religions. In his words, there are only two kinds of human being, male and female; and all other divisions have been created out of ill thoughts of humankind.

Lalan eventually formed a group with the people who were fence-sitters in the rural society sharply divided based on religion (Hinduism, Islam). He promoted a concept of spirituality in the light of a male-female relationship and vice versa. His explanation of complex spiritual ideas using simple analogies taken from human body (and it’s function) and common people’s life, won him accolades from the educated and aristocrat people of the society. However his outlook towards sexuality and his support for open relationship evoked animosity of rural power centers (both Hindu and Muslims).

But like a smart politician Lalan preached his ideologies and protected his clan by winning support from aristocrats (the Thakurs and other landlords) and educated mass; and by building military power to thwart village hardliners.

Prosenjit has been brilliant. Paoli Dam has been good too, in the role of the key female disciple of Lalan. However the actor who played the role of young Lalan was carrying too much urban accent for his rural character. Some other rural characters also couldn’t get rid off their urban accents. I don’t know why it is so difficult to find actors who can portray rural characters with proper accent. Jyotirindranath was OK. The male playback singer lending voice to Lalan was good, but I can’t say the same for the female playback singer lending voice to Paoli (the voice was not suitable for the age of Paoli’s character and singing style was also stiff).

The cinematography is fantastic. Gautam Ghosh has done justice to his name in this department. It has nicely enhanced the overall beauty of the movie as the most of the castes were wearing white or light colored clothes. The greenery of the forests and villages have been captured brilliantly. However, the scene where Lalan and Jyotirindranath were walking through a mastered field, was too close to a scene from Hindi movie Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Application of nature and water has been excellent.

In summary, this movie is about a philosopher cum smart political leader who was excellent at leading his tribe, spreading his message to his targeted mass, forming alliance with bigger powers, building up their own military power and most importantly keep his key members motivated through various ways. It has been praiseworthy effort from Gautam Ghosh.