“My house is my temple and my children are my gods”. This is
one statement, truly underlining in nature that keeps repeating throughout the
delicately balanced Anjan Dutta semi-memoir. The movie, set in the seventies in
North Calcutta, walks through every aspect of life and romance. Bitterness,
adultery, insensitivity, wrath, hollowness and unacceptability are shown as
pure human emotions, and enough care is taken to ensure that the audience feels
the same way and even, goes on to sympathize them, even as hatred builds up
nests slowly but surely.
The movie starts with a voiceover that captures the
audiences’ mind as early as it starts. A young St. Pauls’ school (Darjeeling)
student, Rono (Ronodeep Bose) has his name struck off the rolls as his family
fails to cover his fees for two and a half years. He belongs to an aristocratic
Bengali family in North Calcutta and he gets to experience for the first time
the troubles of growing up when he comes back to his home. He wakes up the
following day hearing the vociferous din of a household quarrel between his
father, Biren Dutta, a lawyer (Anjan Dutta), who picks up sections from the
Indian Penal Code at every chance as he tries to belittle his elder brother,
Rono’s uncle (Biswajit Chakrabarty).
Rono’s father decides that he be admitted to La Martinere
School, Calcutta, to which Rono is quick to retort that his father need not
worry about his education if he cannot pay for it. Rono is very displeased
about his life and he finds a friend in Doi who introduces him to Tony
Mukherjee (Srijit Mukherjee), who later has a huge influence in Anjan Dutta’s
actual life. Rono’s mother played by Rita Koiral is a displeasured lady who has
romantic rendezvous with Gheti Kaku (Shankar Chakrabarty), Rono’s father’s
friend and a regular at his gambling table. Gheti Kaku also happens to be
romantically involved with Rono’s elder sister Cheena (Arpita Chatterjee). As
the movie seeps into depths, Cheena confesses her love for Gheti Kaku and they
elope. Biren decides to end Gheti’s life and he fits a Naxal leader, Khokada
(Koushik Sen) to see to it. Khokada manages to get into Cheena’s heart and they
get married, much against Cheena’s father’s wishes. They settle down abroad and
walks towards the path of a happy ending.
Biren on the other hand has a lot of vices. He is in a
sexual relationship outside his marriage with a distant relative, Roopa mashi
(Roopa Ganguly). Times change but Biren doesn’t. He once gets called “pathetic”
by his own son in a fit of rage where he is also shown his real position in the
household.
Biren is a man who refuses to believe that his life is
falling apart. Sources of income are getting clogged steadily every day and it
is becoming increasingly difficult to run the family. Rita, Rono’s mother keeps
herself soaked on alcohol as does her better half. They refuse to believe that
anything is going out of their way. Life passes by and one fine day Biren gets
arrested because of his more than life ego. He comes back home a changed man.
Rono gets noticed by Mrinal Sen (who is not shown in the movie) from his
theatre and gets a chance to act in a movie. It all heads towards a better
ending.
Parno Mitra plays a small role as Rono’s love interest which
gets lost over time and circumstances. Dipankar De as Rono’s grandfather also
plays a small yet meaningful role.
Dutta Vs Dutta leaves the audience without an ending. As
Anjan Dutta lives on, so does his biography.
This is a feel good film which takes in the audience’s
attention and if he is patient enough to sit through the entire movie, he will
definitely feel good about it. What is difficult from the audience’s
perspective is to endure the first half which seems to be inconclusive and over
long at times. The second half definitely is much well scripted. But how can
one make the script of one’s own life. Anjan Dutta makes an attempt and still
manages to do a satisfactory, if not brilliant, job of it.
I would recommend this movie a watch. Not if you want to be
thrilled or anything, but if you choose to feel good about a man and his life.
Acting: 3/5
Script: 2.7/5
Direction: 3.2/5
Overall: 3/5
Verdict: A feel good watch.
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