Abohomaan

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.

In literature and films, there is no scarcity of plots on extra-marital affairs. It's used in many films like the way light is used to attract bugs. But there is another way to look at this plot. To discover the reality in it. Rituporno Ghosh brought this plot with an unconventional view to us.

I am not gonna go into details. Like Rituporno's most of the films, it carried me deep into the story. The screenplay had simultaneous scenes from two different timelines and it was so synchronous. The palpability of this whole film left me mesmerized.

It is one of the gems which are made by Rituparno Ghosh. And this is the 3rd time i'm watching the movie. All the actors are brilliant and also a film which is very much relatable by everyone.

Abohoman-- means flowing.... And the story keeps flowing, into the past, takes a peek at the present and goes back into the past again.. It is this fluidity which keeps the spirit of the film alive.. Right from the first scene, the comparison between the bygone days and the present day has been drawn.. Two parallel stories- one about the situation after the demise of world renowned film director Aniket dies and the other while shooting for his film Binodini...

According to tinsel town gossip this story was loosely based on the relationship between Satyajit Ray and Madhabi Mukherjee... But in this narrative Rituporno transcends the story to a greater height, make it more than a tale of scandal.. The dilemma between the characters, the personal journeys, everything has been portrayed with a certain glitz.

The two stories often get intermixed intentionally to obscure the boundaries between the characters of Sikha and Binodini. The acting has been top notch from all the actors,with a special mention to Dipankar Dey and Ananya Chatterjee..

This film is not above flaws,, and draws much from Rituporno's own earlier film The last Lear.. the editing has been lackluster with the dubbing not being proper,,.. But all this minor flaws can be overlooked considering the heart of the film.. Such type of films should be encouraged and it definitely deserved the National award.

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.