Abohomaan

Slightly inspired by the story of the relationship between the thespians Binodini Dasi and Girish Chandra Ghosh, from the bengali renaissance era, this film castes people in very much unorthodox roles. We never saw Mamata Shankar so cold or Dipankar Dey so less vocal. I will not mention about the art, camera, music and edit departments in Ghosh's films. They will remain in their prime till his last feature film. And one of my favourite actresses, Ananya Chatterjee just rocked, in both of its meaning.

I hardly write reviews. This one warranted a review. I've been on a kick watching regional movies (since Bollywood movies suck) since the pandemic started. This kept popping up on various lists and I thought I should give it a try. What a mistake.

There is so much wrong with this movie the good reviews don't make sense. The story line is nonexistent, acting is mostly pathetic and the camera work/editing is very very poor.

It took me almost 40 minutes to understand what the story was and then nothing really happened for the remainder of the movie. The random switching between scenes is very choppy and makes no sense. There is art work and this movie is not that. The music and poetry was poorly inserted throughout the movie and there was no real attempt at telling a solid story. In the attempt of trying to come off artistic and deep the story and acting all suffers.

SAVE YOUR TIME. If you're looking for an offbeat movie try Titli instead. Simple yet much better told story.

ABOHOMAN is a movie which could have become another extra-marital tale out of Rituparno's arsenal but instead it leaves you spellbound. Rituparno created magic with an extremely powerful cast and a screenplay that can be well contested with any Hollywood movies of recent times. There has been a rumor that the movie is loosely based on the relationship between the stalwart Satyajit Ray and actress Madhabi Mukherjee but I think he has been able to manage a far more deeper channel of thought than just to please his audience with just a mere affair. We have seen a movie being portrayed inside a movie a lot of times but never have we been not able to understand the difference when one blends into the other. The way the character SHIKHA moulds into BINODINI and comes out of it, is just unimaginable as they possibly share the same pain without being born decades apart. Mamata Shankar playing the role of DIPTI creates an enigma that you cannot solve till the end. Holding the family together single-handedly while not compromising the value of good talent for the sake of family is something that keeps us stupefied and glued to our seats. Dipankar De once again proves to do more than justice to a role and yet again show to the world why ManikDa (Satyajit Ray) preferred him so much in his movies. Jishu Sengupta is perfectly sketched to fit the character of APRATIM which also means Beyond Comparison. A son going an extra step to share his father's personal affairs with the world with a niche that even surprises the father himself. The scene where the keyring drop out of the hand of an ailing Dipankar aka ANIKET and being picked by Jishu aka APRATIM is really beyond comparison. Rituparno has once again made us travel a whole new world of his own thoughts and expressions by just switching rooms. A prolific use of the word SOPHISTICATION added an extra wing to our flight of thoughts which starts taking off as the story evolves and finally flies away with winning accolades. I am none to decide whether a film should be called GOOD or BAD, but the sheer warmth and emotional influence that movie wraps us in is just APRATIM (Beyond Comparison).

On the surface, 'Abohomaan' looked quite promising. I had only seen bits of it and expected something interesting as I liked some of Ghosh's works. So the movie starts off with an ailing director and his family dealing with the situation and their relationships. Then there's a sad actress who is on her way to visit. Soon after this tension builds between the characters...and that's it. The movie does not move beyond this.

Ghosh seems to have been inspired by 'Les Invasions Barbares' but his movie isn't near as effective. His direction and screenplay are below average. The cinematography is poor even though there are many photographic visuals. Only the art direction seems adequate. The editing is terrible. There is plenty of rambling on and the only bits that I enjoyed were the poetic recitations of Tagore. This is perhaps Ghosh's most boring movie.

Dipankar Dey delivers a transcendent performance, stealing the show with his restraint and quietness. He definitely more than manages to rise above the lacklustre writing while the rest of the actors' performances suffer mostly due to poor dialogue delivery. However, Ananya Chatterjee is competent.

'Abohomaan' has been one disappointing movie. It's hard to sit through such films while trying to stay awake.

Saw Abohoman today at Priya.

Rituparno has made a sincere effort from his side in reminiscing his old flavor, but that which dwindled off late with Shob Choritro Kalponik was yet unfound with fallacies abound.

I found the movie barely pleasing but given the spate of sick bangla films made of late including the director's own SCK (supra) I found it better than most.

Direction and screenplay was average, editing bleak, music good at times, cinematographic appeal almost invisible.

Whereas Dipankar Day probably gave the best performance of his lifetime till date, Momota Shankar was patchy, faltering in dialogue delivery many a times (which escaped the editing as well as dubbing sessions) which might have been natural in normal lingo but unpardonable for films. The tired and unfit looking Ria Sen with a pillow tied to her belly had looked better in her MMS. Jishu, Saswati Guhathakurta and Sumanta(?) Mukherjee are wasted too. Dipankar's mother was endearing to watch though. The very brief role of Labony Sarkar(?)gave an excellent and hardly ever seen better b4 portrayal of a challenged adult.

Ananya Chatterjee, who's to be the second main lead here, got her accent all wrong. For an illiterate actress of today to Noti Binodini of a century old era, her fluent English pronunciation are not only unbearable but also a pain to bear for any sensible movie lover. She stood out performance wise when delivering dialogues as modern Shrimati, but failed utterly as Bini (Noti Binodini).

Rituparno should have been more careful with his choice of actor's dialogue delivery theatrics and story build up.

The viewer reaction was unpleasing for this failed venture.

Another barely watchable movie. 3/10 overall. Dipankar and Labony gets 10/10. The movies not that bad, just that it was so made to look and feel bad. A disappointment.