In a world of diverse possibilities beyond our knowledge, we tend to stick to only what we see... And especially what others see. Partho Chakraborty's "Samantaral" takes us to a journey of acceptance against the taboos of our beloved society.
Even though the film was being told in a very unclear manner till the climax to sum up everything, it never stopped questioning your morale from the very beginning itself; that is, if you really wanted to ask yourself. The plot, being fairly simple as it is, though had a lot of layers to keep one intrigued throughout. Besides, the ending had one little easter egg from Soumitra Chatterjee regarding his (ex) profession. That particular dialogue saga was strong in itself & one surely needed guts to write so. It didn't only reveal the past of Parambrata Chatterjee's character but also made us realise that being a graduate have absolutely no value in modern era if you lack acceptance and tolerance. However, the same dialogue and the events prior to that also quite meant a rushed ending which could be ignored as well.
Now, most importantly, can you imagine an Indian film without song? Pretty hard, right? This film is no exception except for the fact all the songs by Indradip Dasgupta here were absolutely situational, too melodious & actually helped the 'slowly cooked' storyline moving forward whenever it needed.
Apart from all the technical aspects, music and plot, my most favourite part of the film was its cast selection. Every single actors and actresses were upto the mark & especially Riddhi Sen was quite fascinating to watch. And how the director handled the characters while giving them layers, allowing them to shine individually and most importantly, co-constructing altogether, was simply magnificent.
Overall, if you've not watched this film, I'd really recommend you to watch it. This film will go down as one underrated jewel of Bengali Film's History one day for sure!
