Dutta Vs. Dutta: A semi-memoir

“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.

Khaad: The Abyss

Film maker Kaushik Ganguly delivers yet another beautifully crafted twisted tale in Khaad. This is not one of those stories that dwell in the known avenues of story-telling. It is art. It is craft! And everything is fair in love, war and well, craft. And our director has a reputation in being crafty. Kaushik Ganguly doesn’t need a recheck when it somes to his credibility as a director. His ‘Shabdo’ and ‘Apur Pachali’ have already established his skills and made him left a mark in the Bengali film industry.

Like his earlier movies, Khaad also has a set of characters that mark the stereo-types in the society. His characters are people who wouldn’t be very hard to find in our city or the society as a whole.

There is this newly married modern couple, Jeet (Saheb Bhattacharya) and Poonam (Mimi Chakravarti), always fighting with each other but too much in love. There is this family comprising the father, mother a young son and an older daughter who has already started walking on her way to ruin her life. There is this mother and son (played brilliantly by the director himself), the mother too old to carry on with the dreadful journey and a very warm heart and her son too clingy to the only woman in his life. Then there is this doctor and his sister (so called, no spoilers), quite a normal couple of siblings to look at, but with a very twisted background. Next comes the popular actress Aparna (Gargee Roychowdhuri) who is travelling with her differently abled but very much loved brother Abhik (Rajdeep Ghosh). There is this single retired Hindi school teacher with strictness in his stride and benevolence in his soul. There is also a church father (Ardhendu Bannerjee), whose purpose in the movie is not very clear. 

Rudranil as a bus conductor also lives worth his role.

Next is one of the main characters in the movie, a single man with a hobby of trekking, played by Kamaleshwar Mukherjee who also shows excellent skills in taking initiatives and leadership.

In the earlier scenes of the movie, each of the characters is introduced. Next, they have an accident (they were travelling in a bus together) and fall down from a cliff (to a Khaad). Next is the story of how they come closer as a group in the midst of adversity and help each other pass the hours till the time expected help comes their way.

Then, as night comes along and they are too afraid to sleep, they decide to share their darkest secrets with the entire group. They believe that all their secrets will be buried forever in the cliff (Khaad) and their souls will be free of the burden. As revelation comes from the characters one by one, each of them is freed from the rusty chains of darkness. It goes something like that show on Star Plus, Saach ka Saamna. The characters come along happily and are left in tears by the end of it, with shame and guilt but free of the burdens in their hearts.

At the end, all of them are freed of their secrets and all should have been well. But here is the brilliance of Kaushik Ganguly. He spoils our prediction and saves the movie an ill-fated ending with a brilliant twist in the tale.

The acting is good, locations, well let’s go ahead ignoring that, and script is brilliant. Photography too is worth the script. With a fewer number but striking songs, the musical aspect of the film also looks good. What didn’t work is the impracticality in the story. Why would a group of people who have been harsh to each other all the while sit down to share their secrets? The logic provided by the film is NOT enough for me.

At the end, the movie is nice and should be worth the while to spend a dull, uneventful night watching.   

Acting: 2.5/5

Script: 1.5/5

Direction: 2.5/5

Overall: 2/5

Verdict: An average movie with a different vision, not quite brilliantly executed.

Children of War: The Review

War is sometimes necessary for the safe keeping of peace. And Children of War is the story of just that.

A brilliant portrait of the tremendous evil that war is, this movie by first time director Mrityunjay Devvrat is a masterpiece. It is astonishing to even wonder how a first time director can have an eye for such detail and create such spell bounding cinema.

Children of War is about the war of Bangladeshi Independence in 1971. Scenes have been recreated in this movie like the ones in Schindler’s list and Inglorious Basterds which graphically displays the unbearable torture that some sections of the society are subjected to during a war; that pierces the very skin of the average viewer and infuses his inner self with hatred and dismay. Just quite as much as in the Hitler movies, a concept of a concentration camp is also shown in this movie, the only difference being that this concentration camp had only girls and middle aged women in it who were supposed to serve the purpose of giving birth to “Pakistani” children.

The film begins with documentary clips of Mrs. Indira Gandhi on the subject of India’s strategy for the Bangladesh war. She pleads that the world support the cause and the war be stopped. Amir (Indraneil Sengupta) and Fida (Raima Sen) play a married couple. Amir is a journalist who fights with his pen for independence. After a fine night of love making the villain, Malik (Pavan Malhotra), walks in to disturb the romance. Malik is a policeman in a high rank with immense powers and like almost every other human being in power he sinks to depths so low that an average human mind would feel detested. He rapes Fida in front of Amir and then many more in his organized female concentration camp and then in a later scene when he is about to be killed he says that he was only performing his duties.

The story is also about a brother (played by Riddhi Sen) and a sister (played by Rucha Imandar) who have been lost (and seen way too many deaths for their age). Their struggle for survival and the sibling relationship glimpses at the hardships faced at war. In a certain scene where the brother picks up a gun and shoots one of the Pakistani men who was trying to kill his sister, a dying old man (played by Victor Banerjee) says that day he saw the innocence of a child dying an innocent death.

At heart, this movie is a story of the unification of love, the love of Amir and Fida. It is only a symbol, though, like many others in this movie.  Splendid storytelling and fantabulous acting polish a brilliant script. The 158 minutes of this cinema leaves the audience with a lasting aftertaste and I, for one, would want every viewer to have a taste of it. If you understand the taste of freedom, go and watch this. Children of War will remain with you forever.

Acting: 3.7/5

Script: 3.8/5

Direction: 4/5

Overall: 3.8/5

Verdict: Don’t let go of this one 

Roy: The Review

I am not quite sure if Vikramjit Singh’s Roy is the best way to start this blog but the faster the better. Sure this happening Bollywood movie has a collection of brilliant songs to boast about and a cast to carry the hype along too, but the only persistent and unattended question remains as to where is the story?

Roy talks about two different stories of two different people, who have incidentally pounded upon a single layer of togetherness where their stories superimpose upon each other’s, only to consume 148 minutes of the unsuspecting audience’s time. Poorly scripted, this movie should have been a director’s nightmare but times have changed and anything, seemingly, sells.

A director, Kabir (played by Arjun Rampal) , severely attacked by writer’s block has received amounts for his next movie from his producers. He doesn’t have a script ready and he sits with a type writer one fine night, teamed up with a bottle of whisky and a packet of cigarettes. With a “flawless” script he goes on to Malaysia to shoot his movie, Guns III. His lead actor is Roy (played by Ranbir Kapoor) who is on a mission to steal half a painting which he would later sell to some art collector. Now, the painting (or half of it) is in the possession of Tia (Jacqueline Fernandez), his film’s lead heroine. So Roy goes to Malaysia, gets into Tia’s bed and sods off with the painting.

The romance between Roy and Tia runs on parallel lines with that between Kabir and Ayesha (also played by Jacqueline), who is another film maker based on London, shooting for her movie Malaccan Diaries. Roy and Kabir drift into a journey of self-discovery after they get swayed away from their respective mistresses (or so). After a baffling 148 minutes and a few mindless songs, the men are united once again with their mistresses.

The story is so under materialized and boring that an entire five minute song showing Ranbir on his bike riding on a Malaysian highway remains in the edited version, that too in slow motion. The lyrics of the song (tu hai ke nai..) and the expression on Ranbir Kapoor’s face sums up the review of the movie in totality. Watch that and you won’t need to read this anymore.

Since you are still reading this review, I have my mercy on you and with that thought I would request you to drop the idea of watching Roy. If you still insist, well, best of luck.

Acting: 2.5/5

Script: 2/5

Direction: I pity you

Overall: 2/5

Verdict: Run while you can