Chotushkone

Srijit Mukherjee has taken Bengali cinema to new heights with movies like 'Autograph', 'Hemlock Society', 'Baishe Srabon' & 'Jaatishwar'. He surpasses himself with 'Chotushkone'. The plot is complex and gripping with a mind-blowing twist at the end. Aparna Sen, Chiranjit Chakraborty, Gautam Ghosh and Kaushik Ganguly give commendable performances. But among all these veterans it is Parambrata Chattapadhay who steals the show with his phenomenal performance. Cinematography is very good. Two great tracks further enhance the movie- 'Boba Tunnel' is a trademark Anupam Roy song and 'Bawshto ese geche' is melodious sung beautifully by Lagnajita Chakraborty. All in all, an excellent movie. Highly recommended.

It is still the best from Srijit, better than Baishe Sharbon.

Intriguing plot, outstandingly presented through breathtaking storytelling.

Worthy of multiple viewing!!

A married woman's hand writing, apparently, her last letter; an exhausted man returning home after a day's work, rather languidly, only to find his wife hanging from the ceiling of his house with his son looking at the lifeless frame ( all shot in the sepia tone ); two actors of the past era trying to come to terms with their differences and mouthing lines from Tagore's Ghare Baire only to widen the chasm between them all the more; the actors requesting a director to become producer and suggesting their friend as the director; the start of the shooting ( all shot in black and white ) - the film kicks off with moments ( scenes ) like these, which, along the warp and woof of the creative piece by Srijit, are strewn about as are dried-up and shrivelled-up leaves on an avenue to give the way its realism and magic realism. A viewer would find it hard to relate these scenes with the main plot along the progression of the movie till the unknotting.

The film tells, or rather, seems to tell the story of four film- makers who have been assigned the task of directing four short films for a single anthology of a film with the common theme of death. This venture brings together Trina ( Aparna Sen ), Shakyo ( Goutam Ghosh ), Dipta ( Chiranjeet ), Jayabrata ( Parambrata ). They all go out to the Henry's Island to discuss at length about the film where the idiosyncrasies of the characters ( directors themselves ) are brought to the fore. Their past lives catch up with them - their successes, their failures, their deeds, misdeeds, regrets and all that have made them what they are. The pinch of dark humour can be felt at times, in fact, with increasing frequency, near the end of the movie.

The overriding themes of love, betrayal, retribution, regret, repercussion and their interplay with inklings of several other undercurrents of themes of 'smoking and the sensor board', 'smoking and health injury', 'life likened to the game of cards', 'creator and the created', 'life and afterlife', 'reel and real' and so on appear at proper places to hammer sensibility into the minds of the audience and the people of the society thereof.

Use of colour has been a significant contribution to the film. Starting from sepia to black-white to colour with green, red, blue and the former two in between create a strange embroidery of insights relating directly or indirectly to the main plot of the film.

Astute cinematography by Sudeep Chatterjee captures a vengeful Jayabrata inching towards his goal, the reel-life characters unwittingly revealing, with their characteristic behaviour and style, their real-life dilemmas and situations. Anupam's lyrics at just places give rise to the progression towards the dénouement.

An erudite Srijit never misses a chance to allude to Ghare Baire, Mr and Mrs Iyer, Troyee, the Pandora's Box, Shakespeare, King-Queen- Jack-and-Joker, etc. to accentuate the effect at various moments in the film. Every moment, every incident seem to be connected to the main plot. When Shakyo and Dipta sit in a room and discuss about films, they both have the cards King-Queen-Jack without each of them knowing it. This indicates a rift of friendship between them despite their overtly good bonding. It also indicates that the unknown angle ('kone' or the Joker) would appear before them to complete the quadrangle or the fourth cards of the quartet. The Joker or Jayabrata leaves no stone unturned to let not a minute pinch of suspicion lay waste his platter-full plan of liquidating the three directors in a bungalow till the very fag end. The sudden realization of the whole story of four short films being a pretext makes the three captive directors nonchalant as a lull before the storm; and they do realize that a stormy death is what they each deserve for a family was laid waste long back only because of them. The Pandora's Box is opened very slowly and silently along the progression of the film, but Hope reigns at last when Dipta and Trina, together, take responsibility of the mad film producer essayed by Kaushik Ganguly and he does it beyond comparison.

To sum up, it can be said that the director makes the film socially acceptable by meting out justice when Jayabrata receives the shot meant for Trina and his song 'Chiro shokha hey...' stops abruptly. 'An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind' rings in everyone's ears long after the film has ended.

Chotushkone or Quadrangle is a Bengali mystery and thriller movie revolving around the life of four people associated with Bengali cinema. The central characters- Trina, played by Aparna Sen, Dipto, played by Chiranjeet Chakraborty, Shakha, played by Goutam Ghose and Joybroto, played by Parambrata Chatterjee are hired by an apparently mysterious producer to make a film by stitching four different short stories with a common theme- 'death.'

During their discussions about the project and their journey to meet this producer they open to us their emotions, attachments, regrets and secrets of their past. Here it must be said that this movie breathes a fresh air from the ossified Bengali mystery-thriller genre. It has enough elements to be liked by both the present and the past generations.

The story is interesting, actors do a good job (though I didn't understand the concept behind selection of so many other well known actors for bit roles), the music by Anupam Roy led by Bosonto Eshe Geche is good.

However the real star of the movie is director Srijit Mukherji. He does an outstanding job of storytelling previously unseen (by me at least) in Indian cinema. He story unfolded by him is of perfect pace to keep our interest aroused. I do not want to give away any spoilers, so watch the movie instead. Contrary to accusations of gimmicky camera-work in his previous movies he uses it brilliantly here and funnily his characters sometimes speaks of the camera-work they're going to use in their short stories as if the director wants to tell us that he is working on this aspect of film making. His characters accept some shortcomings of the film itself (again watch the film) which equally unique!!

All in all Chotushkone is certainly a must watch for any movie lovers. A tribute the film industry, it shows the growing presence Srijit among the best directors of modern Bengali cinema.

Story - 9/10 Acting - 9.5/10 (Specially Parambrata) Direction - 10/10 (Srijit makes it as one of the best thrillers made in Tollywood industry) BGM - 9/10