Almost 10 years ago Anjan Dutta had made a film
which was completely out of trend that time, a movie with no commercial
element, a Bengali movie with almost 70% dialogues in English, a movie talking
about the global Bengalis. At that time it did not get much success but
definitely it grabbed attention from many. Then in last 10 years lots of things
have changed in Bengali film industry now urban crowd have started taking
interest in good quality Bangla movies and may be because of that Anjan Dutta is back with #TheBongsAgain, a sequel to #TheBongConnection.
#TheBongsAgain is a story of two girls Olypriya (Parno Mittra) and Sarah
(Neha Panda). Both are looking for their roots in a different country,
different culture. Olypriya goes to London from Kolkata, to search her father
who had left her with her mother several years ago. Sarah comes down to Kolkata
from abroad to search her real mother who had left her in an orphanage from
where she was adopted later. During their search they came across with
different aspect of relationships, Oli almost broke up with her long term
boyfriend Anindo (Gaurav Chakraborty) on the other hand Sarah found a close
friend in Jisu (Jisshu Sengupta) who helped her in her search. They also come
across the real world of their respective parents whom they are looking for.
Olipriya experienced the life, her father use to live, a bondage free life for
which he left his family behind. A group of stranger bohemian guys lead by
Jerry (Anjan Dutta) helped her to explore the lifestyle of her father. In
Kolkata Sarah too saw the struggle of poor homeless people, like her mother,
the way they have to survive every day. She experienced all these through the
eyes of Nitai (Shubhra Saurav), a small time fraud who use to cheat foreigners
to earn some money.
The story is promising but sadly the screenplay does not go well. After
a point it looks lost, you won't understand where the story is going to, rather
it looks like a bunch of video songs playing one after another showing the
different lanes of Kolkata and beaches of Kent. There are several relationship
but none of those has been given proper time to flourish as a result no one
will be bothered to know the climax of the relationships.
As a Director Anjan Dutta has tried to make a youthful film but he is
just partially successful. He is good with casting and locations but he failed
to find a proper screenplay to justify his talented cast and crew.
Acting wise both the girls are wonderful. Parno Mittra has played her
part really well. In emotional scenes she is too good. Neha Panda is a young
talented actress who was very much unutilized so far in bit roles but this
movie has given her a full grown platform to showcase her talent and she has
utilised that opportunity quite well. Anjan Dutta is good but looks like he is
repeating himself in a character what we have seen him playing again and again.
Jisshu Sengupta is honest and sincere with his performance but he has hardly
anything to do here. Shubhra Saurav is excellent in a supporting role. Gaurav
Chakraborty has provided good support.
The music has been composed by Neel Dutta and like the other Anjan Dutta
movies music is one of the biggest highlight of the film. The songs are good
and have been used quite well mostly in background. Cinematography by Indranil Mukherjee is extraordinary.
The way the beaches and valleys of Kent have been shot that is a treat to our
eyes.
Overall it is a film which looks good from outside but what is missing,
is an engaging story. You can watch it only for the wonderful performances by
the two leading ladies and for the melodious music by Neel Dutta.
