Iti Mrinalini: An Unfinished Letter...

She's already established herself as a moviestar. A talented actress she is but also a gifted director. This time she assumes her seat behind the camera and acts for the screen. Yes, I am talking about the one and only Aparna Sen and her Mrinalini.

The story of 'Iti Mrinalini' may appear familiar as it documents the life of a Bengali actress as she looks back at her career and her youth, while contemplating suicide. The film pays tribute to many stars (who have met a tragic end) from Marilyn Monroe to Smita Patil. Sen also pays tribute to the late Satyajit Rai by highlighting his significance in Mrinalini's life.

Familiar as it may be, Sen adds her own unique touch. The narrative structure is intriguing. The cinematography, lighting, art direction and costumes are stunning. There are several songs which are well utilized.

The content is also rich. Aparna Sen and Ranjan Ghosh have done a terrific job in the writing department. The poetry and dialogues are superb. Sen steers clear of using clichés. 'Iti Mrinalini' is a character driven film and thus the center of the film is the title protagonist. Her insecurity, search for love, loneliness, despair and maturity are excellently depicted.

It's great to see Aparna Sen back on screen again. Both she and Konkona Sen Sharma deliver tour du force performances. I was curious about how the duo would pull off playing the same character as they are very different actresses but both have more than succeeded in their convincing depiction (Aparna Sen with her heartbreaking portrayal of the aged Mrinalini and Konkona Sen as the vibrant younger Mrinalini). In addition, both women look incredibly beautiful. The Sens are very well supported by Rajat Kapoor, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Suzanne Bernet and Kaushik Sen.

On a final note, in my opinion, 'Iti Mrinalini' has one of the finest endings I've witnessed in recent films. It's the kind of conclusion that either one would like or hate but revealing anything would be doing injustice.

Yet once again, Aparna Sen's 'Iti 'Mrinalini': An Unfinished Letter...' has created poetry on screen. Though some criticisms - by the famous 'The Hollywood Reporter' and the like - have wrongly assessed the film without even minutely watching it, yet a wrong critique cannot, in any way, mar the film's extensive appeal to the true movie buffs and cineastes. The film has been wrongly called 'melodramatic' and even some self-proclaimed critics have blunderingly named some characters. After all this is not expected in relation to such films as of Sen's.

Now, leaving behind my correctional and cautionary discussion above directed to some self-proclaimed film critics, I shall come down to the real and unbiased critique of the film. After having watched Sen's quite a few films with rapt attention one can easily find a familiar colour and superficial calmness pitted against an inner turmoil in the film. The characters think and move just as we do - naturally. There is even no over-emphasis on unnatural music and unnatural gestures. The backdrop of each character in every emotional condition seems to complement the unknown and known thoughts of the viewer finding himself/herself easily identifiable with the characters at several moments in life. Instances of Pathetic Fallacy abound in the film, though with artistic restraint so that some even go unheeded. The best moment of love in most films taken together is the scene where Chintan Nair (Kaushik Sen) and young Mrinalini Mitra (Konkona Sen Sharma) discuss the aspects of love that frees oneself and is without expectations. The meteoric rise of an actress and her gradual, but desperate, search for satisfying love in the actually lonely and mercenary world of glamour are what the film shows in a glaring light, though various other themes overrun the film's expanse. References to Shakti Chattopadhyay's, Vladimir Mayakovsky's and W.B. Yeats's poems can be found. Passing references to François Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard are also there. Art direction, as in Sen's other films, has been very well carried out. Only one song - sung by the younger Mrinalini at a party - seemed incongruous in the whole movie, coupled with some minor anachronisms.

A letter - a suicide note bearing exculpatory indication on the part of others with whom Mrinalini was, has been and is linked - being written along the entire film gives the older Mrinalni flashbacks by dint of which the whole story gets told and seen. But, ironically the letter remains unfinished and finally discarded by Mrinalini when touched by a ray of hope form Chintan's message. Yet, the first rays of the morning sun has something in it's store. She dies a silent death. And the way the camera moves vertically up keeping the focus on her dead body bears parallels with a scene in 'Inglourious Basterds' where the twin murder takes place inside the room from where a film is projected on screen. To sum up, Sen's movie is a product of curious toil and astute storytelling that is characteristic of all her films. And lastly, one must watch the film observingly before commenting pedantically on it for just the sake of commenting.

This is yet another class act from the directorial notebook of Aparna Sen. The story is not something which is not told before but the presentation mattered a lot for which this movie scores a lot. Kudos to Ms. Sen for bringing out the life which is less ordinary yet wonderful is this motion picture.

The story is a journey and the journey which replicates the life of a superstar of cine world. Mrinalini's life and her meteoric rise to fame and glamour and the men that came in her life. Somewhere down the line it was quite evident that apart from portraying the journey Aparna Sen also wanted to highlight the insecurity of a superstar and her craving for material love which somehow remained unfulfilled. The dialogues were simply unbeatable specially when Koushik says to Konkona "You only think about one kind of love".

The direction and cinematography is excellent and the music by Debojyoti Mishra is very soothing. Acting from different actors were superb but the show stealer for me was Koushik Sen (Chintan Nair). Konkona Sen Sharma (Young Mrinalini) is one of the finest actors of this generation and I found her acting skills were much better than her mother Aparna Sen (Old Mrinalini). Rajat Kapoor (Siddhartha Sarkar) got the most screen presence than any other male actor and his acting prowess shows why he deserved it. Saheb Bhattachrjee (Abhijeet) and Priyanshu Chatterjee (Imtiaz Chowdhury) got limited screen time but their roles were pivotal in order to shape the story, though I feel Saheb cold have done a much better work. Aparna Sen was simply unquestionable but it was Koushik Sen whose subtle performance caught everyone flatfooted. Must mention here that Tritee Basu (Sohini) is one fine contribution to the child artist brigade.

There were very few mistakes and it should not bother the viewers much but the four most notable were:- (i)When Saheb lights his cigarette he used ITC's Aim matchstick which was not available in the Naxalite era, (ii)When old college street was shown a book stall owner was wearing a specs which is of post millennium design, (iii)When Saheb and Konkona were travelling in the tram on the background some hero honda glamour bikes were visible which again were not in Naxalite era (iv)When Konkana was singing in the bar the glass patterns where not available in that era and somewhere also in the retro age some wrought iron furniture were visible.

All in all you need a mature mind to view this movie and to appreciate's its gravity. It is a 7 out of 10 for me.