While I am still deciding if I want to write the review of
Bahubali, I ended up watching this Bengali movie on Amazon Prime.
Directed by Aparna Sen Goynar baksho includes a stellar star-cast
of Moushami Chatterjee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Srabanti Chatterjee, Saswat
Chatterjee amongst others.
The movie is the story of Somlata (Konkona), her husband’s
aunt Rashmoni (Moushami) and her daughter Chatali (Srabanti).
The story starts pre-independence where at eleven, Rashmoni
is wed to a middle-aged man who soon dies leaving her a widow at age twelve. As
were the customs, she must wear a white sari, cut her hair and eat bland
vegetarian food. Being a child still all Rashmoni has is her jewellery box with
5000 grams of gold. She lives with her brothers and their family who have now
moved to West Bengal from Faridpur, now in Pakistan.
The men in the house are good for nothing with no work. On
top of it the two brothers have an ongoing court case to decide which family
will inherit the house. Debts start mounting given the fact that men have
mistresses and gamble.
Somlata who is a newlywed in the house, accidently discovers
that Rashmoni has died while sleeping. In a hilarious turn of event, she sees
Pishima’s ghost who instructs her to steal the jewellery box and hide it so
that no one can find it. Pishima who is foul mouth, vile and bitchy ghost
scares the simple Somlata to no ends.
Soon the family is on brink of poverty and none of the men
in the house do any work. Heeding her mother-in-law’s advice, Somlata
encourages her husband to start a saree shop. She pawns some jewellery from
Pishima’s box for the business capital. Pishima’s ghost creates havoc for that
and keeps on haunting and scaring Somlata. She only steps down when she realizes
that Somlata has named the store “Rashmoni Saree house” after her. She guides
and advises Somlata on various business affairs to help her run the store. In a
humorous almost lyrical sequence, Somlata’s in-laws are haranguing her to find
out how she got the capital to start her business, when “the ghost” Pishima
whispers their weaknesses in their ears and they back off. I wish Aparna Sen
had continued in the same way for the rest of the movie – it would have been a
master piece. In another sequence, a man besotted by Somlata follows her every
day and Rashmoni eggs her on to take on a lover. Finally, the store does well
and all is settled. We see the jewellery box passed on to Somlata’s daughter
Chaitali (played by the same actor who plays the young Rashmoni). She is in
love with the son of an erstwhile house-help whose grandfather was once in love
with Rashmoni. She ultimately gives off the jewels to the cause of Bangladesh
liberation.
The movie starts off on a humorous light-hearted note. Moushami
Chatterjee as the cursing, foul mouthed tricking ghost of Pishima is par
excellence. Treated unfairly because she was widowed at such a young age, she
spares no one. In her old age, everyone suffers her only because they eye her
jewellery box. Once dead, the ghost realizes that there is no sin or virtue and
come back to help and haunt Somlata. This take on unfairness in the way the
world treats men and women differently is light hearted yet hard hitting.
Unfortunately, after the first half Aparna Sen loses her
way. The story becomes disjointed with too many lose ends. The story of Rafiq,
the man besotted with Somlata is left with no conclusion. The liberation war is
unnecessary backdrop and Chaitali’s role in it is hardly convincing with no
screen time.
Konkona Sen has played Somlata with a lot of restraint and
panache at the same time. Srabanti is much more convincing as young Rashmoni
then as Chaitali. Saswat Chatterjee, the cheating no-good husband of Somlata
fails to leave a mark.
The movie belonged to Moushami Chatterjee as Pishima’s ghost
😊
While a tighter script and crisper editing would have made a
huge difference, still can be worth a
watch.
Can Watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment