Abar Aranye

This movie was shown in UC, Berkeley on 14th February,2004. The movie was part of bengali initiative taken in UC, Berkeley..movie started with a brief introduction from the producer of the movie and ended with a discussion by Prof. Ganguly(?). During the discussion phase it was revealed that the audience and the critic didn't like the movie much. They compared it to original make of "Aranyer Din Ratri" and rated this as an inferior movie.

However, I liked it despite of its weaknesses.

Forest life is very different in India. The middle (and upper) class people go there for a break in their life, try to get away from their regular life. But they don't connect very well to forest. They disturb the balance of forest, the poor people who live in nearby places. this is what displayed very artistically in "Aranyer Din Ratri" by Satyajit Ray.

This movie being the continuation of "Aranyer Din Ratri" didn't say it so mildly. Its loud, its even disturbing to many of us. So we didn't like it much.

At the same time, movie is not so well made..there are many weaknesses..there are many characters, too many compared to "Aranyer Din Ratri". In particular, I didn't like the acting of Sharmila Tagore and Tabu...they should have been replaced by more prominent actresses.

It seemed to me that Ghosh (director) made a protest against "Aranyer Din Ratri". Forest is not a place where people should go to enjoy their past time..you are unfit to go to forest, if you can't connect well.

There are also isolated scenes in the movie what one can't connect very well. This is a common complain I heard from the movie viewers. To me it was deliberate attempt by the director! It was a movie of strong protest!

Few things I didn't like about the movie:

1. Tabu playing so much time with the doll! I know many girls at that age do it, but its so boring!

2. Manager's wife in forest bunglow and their kid..unnecessary characters in the movie...didn't serve any purpose.

3. Memory game looked rather boring this time..could have reduced the time a bit!

and so on....its pointless to write more negatives since I liked the movie overall.

Som.

This movie is doomed to fail from get-go. The characters of "Aranyer Din Ratri" were so complete in that movie, that there was hardly anything to add. With passage of time people changes, but with so many new characters around in this sequel, it was impossible to explore the surviving cast. So from the very beginning, the story does not have any focus. Just a picnic! Surely Mr. Ghosh was aware of the apparent lack of theme and so included whatever he could find such as, 9/11, CIA, KGB, family romance and melodrama, accident, not to mention the many songs. After one hour, it becomes really difficult to watch. There is no story thereafter. Last 30 minutes is director's self-indulgence to make a political statement, which was hanging around - uselessly and without proper fit - almost throughout the movie.

It's not clear why we needed Tabu for the role, though even bigger question is the very existence of the character. Tabu's role got too much time and it is not at all convincing - least of all, her philanthropy. The script itself looks confused and fussy. Too many extra characters. Hari has been reduced to a jerk. Added to that mindless recall of scene, song of the original work. I was hoping to hear whether Kaberi Basu's role is being looked after by her son, who was a child in "Din Ratri".

There is just not enough material to make a full scale movie. The result is a work without any focus.

Goutam Ghosh should try to focus on Bengali literary works for theme and story. That suits him far better. He can movie much better than this one.

There are several drawbacks of the movie. There is only one good point, you will like it when the old "Aranyer Dinratri" is recalled on screen.

Tabu is a horrible bangla speaker. Her dialogue is so heavily accented that keeps you wondering what the hell is she doing here? There are too many songs and most of them are not edited properly.

Cinematography is worse than a regular steady-shot handy cam. There is no solid story frame to build the moments on. Everything is haphazard.

Too many characters in the film, and most of them are so artificial. Before becoming comfortable with the cast on the screen, the director keeps adding new characters and the plot keeps becoming more and more unstable. Seems like the director suggested the crew to just be themselves, but nobody had any idea about what he/she is doing. It is painful to watch. So beware of it.

Lovers of Ray's film should avoid this film if at all possible. It was maybe a good idea to get the surviving cast of DAYS AND NIGHT IN THE FOREST back together again and invent a story for them. But this is very poor: it is full of inconsequential moments, pointless dialogue, seemingly-randomly-chosen songs, awkward melodrama, clumsy political interjections and nonsensical plot-developments. It is rambling, unfocused and overlong and really quite boring. The only good thing is that the film magnifies and amplifies what made Ray so great; his subtlety, deftness and grace are completely lacking here, and so we look back with longing; if only Ray were still making films...

This movie would be bad enough even if Goutam Ghose had spared the viewers his opinions on ultra-leftist rebels and the clash of civilisations. That included, this movie is a disaster.

Tabu's dialogues seem to be wooden and insincere. Shubhendu doesn't have a clue to what he is required to do. In fact, most characters and their contrast to their young selves (probably the whole point of making the sequel) are sketched very shabbily. The travel to North Bengal by road is given too much of screen time.

I watched this movie just after watching Ghose's 'Paar', and the difference was startling.