Utsab

Simple plot with complex emotions that was conveyed in a perfect manner by Rituparno Ghosh. Came to watch it after watching Raincoat (which is another masterpiece by Ghosh). Mamata Shankar was a treat to watch in the movie.

The very start of the movie will take you to the nostalgia of Durga Puja. You will start to feel the vibe if you are familiar with village durga puja. Everyone in the family has came to village for the holidays. But their personal problems has accompanied them. The problems deepens when Shishir, one of their cousin has proposed to buy their house. All the family members need to solve some of the problems in a subtle way to reach to conclusion to decide whether they should sell the house or not.

The story revolves around a family get-togather, the family matriarch has called her four adult daughters , and their families to her estate . All of them are inching towards middle-age.

None of the sisters are looking forward to the family reunion as they all are more concerned about their own problems .Furthermore like any large family , every member of the family has his own personal past ,skeletons and demons to confront .The house is teeming with three generations of siblings , and the atmosphere is electric .

the movie does a great job of portraying the human relationships , with each of the characters developed with a lot of care .

A must watch .

I have always enjoyed the films of Rituparno Ghosh--one of the greatest Indian filmmakers. While rewatching "Utsab" recently, I couldn't sit through it without some exasperation creeping in from time to time. The film offers a family drama but lacks the nuances often present in Ghosh's other films. Other than the doomed romance of the star-crossed lovers and "taboo" relationships within the family that create some heart-wrenching moments, the drama mostly devolves into drab sentimentality. The movie has a stellar cast featuring the likes of Madhabi Mukherjee, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Mamata Sankar, Rituparna Sengupta, Pradip Mukherjee and others. With a cast like this, the film looked like a missed opportunity. The writing seemed shoddy, the cinematography unremarkable, and the characters pretty forgettable. The film was carried entirely by a group of actors just doing their jobs.

Durga Puja, the most important festival of Bengali's is the worship of 'Shakti' or the divine power and Maa Shakti's four children, Ganesh, Kartikeya, Laxmi and Saraswati. Its an Utsab, festival season, a time to celebrate when families come together to worship, eat, laugh and enjoy the togetherness.

This also happens in the movie Utsab, a tale beautifully woven by Rituparno Ghosh. A director I have come to admire so much, I want to see all his movies.

The matriarch has four children, the eldest, Asit, trying to solve everyones problem is much like lord Ganesha, The second son, Nishit has work related problems that he wants to keep secret, but his wife knows -how she knows it, even he does not know The eldest daughter ,Parul, is married to a rich family, it was an arranged marriage against her wishes, for, she loved her poor cousin (Shishir - he too is a rich builder now ) her past haunts her, her husband taunts her and she thinks her grown up son, who is kind of repeating the history by being attracted to Asit's beautiful daughter, is unaware of her turbulent past. The youngest daughter, Keya, an artist by heart, loves music, married against the families wishes, to a painter and a passionate politician who unfortunately lost out in the politics game and took to drinking. They have immense love simmering for each other which the viewer sees but somehow they fail to - entangled into the web of petty quarrel, they even talk of separation and perhaps seriously so.

The play of emotions of each of these family members, who become your family members as you sit and watch the movie strike many familiar cords. Suppressed emotions hide in shadows and happy ones play with bursts of light. There is always a talk of rain clouds, it even rains, but one does not see it -just feel its aftereffects.

Amidst all this is celebrated a festival. The festival of togetherness, the festival of family bonding, the festival of lights, festival of joy and festival of victory of good over evil -Durga Pooja and Vijayadashmi. While you sit and watch the movie it unfolds like a family reunion, just like the video Joy, Parul's son shoots.

The movie is in Bengali with English subtitles. Knowledge of elementary Bengali helped, but I wish I could understand the finer nuances of the rich language to completely understand it -specially the beautiful song which Shompa, Asit's daughter sings.

Shot in Bengali with English subtitles, the subtitles are many times hard to read (white on white).

The first act is hard to follow because you flip back and forth between too many characters. With so many characters it is hard to care about them all. I was overwhelmed with characters. I noticed that several audience members walked out at this time. I think it would have helped establish the characters if the video shot during the first act (by one of the characters in the movie) would have been shown in the first act instead of at the end of the story. Then the audience could have come up to speed on who the characters are.

Overall the story and the acting are more on par with an American soap opera.

The film did, however, provide cultural insights: we see servants always working in the background in what appears to be an upper middle class home, the telephone service is not working for the holidays so communication is put on hold, the word "puja" I later learned means worship, "Brother's Day" is held in appreciation of your sibling, you touch another person's feet and then move your hand to your head and downwards like a slinky to bathe in their goodness (good karma), a vermilion powder is used to create the eye for the soul although in the movie a plastic one is applied in the morning by one of the characters, writing 'Durga' 73 times is part of the religious festival featured in the movie.

The music is sparse except at plot points that convey sadness.

There is a sprinkling of, but not enough, humor.

The plot follows the "all's well that ends well" ending so loose ends are very neatly tied up--ahh, how convenient!

I was told that the movie was shot in 15 days, which may explain many things.