So far director Arindam Sil has became a big name
among the successful directors with his super hit thrillers but with
"Durga Sohay", Mr.Sil has tried to walk in a different path by
choosing a family drama.
In the beginning of "Durga Sohay" the makers have paid tribute
to Late Ritupano Ghosh and his film "Utsav". But the only
similarity between "Utsav" and "Durga Sohay" is both the
films have Durga Puja in the backdrop, otherwise "Utsav" was more
about the relationship between the family members and in "Durga
Sohay" the main focus is on an outsider girl and her equation with the
family members.
The story starts with Basak family, an aristocrat family from north Kolkata,
who are in jewellery business for many generations. The head of the family is Shomshankar
Basak (Sumanta Mukherjee), a widower man who lives with his two sons (Kaushik
Sen & Indrashish Roy), two daughter-in-laws (Debjani Chatterjee &
Tanushree Chakraborty) and one grandson Bhrigu (Rwitobroto Mukherjee). Every
year, they perform Durga Puja at their home, following their family tradition.
The film begins with Ma Durga's arrival in the Basak house few days
before Mahalaya , at the same time another lady enters the house who has came
from an Ayah Centre to take care of Senior Basak. Co-incidentally her name is
also Durga (Sohini Sarkar). Not everyone is too impressed with her work but the
younger daughter- in-law Manashi (Tanushree) develops special bonding with
Durga, as she reminds her, about her daughter who died at a young age. Apart
from Manashi, Bhrigu too develops a brother sister bond with Durga. But soon
Durga creates such a situation that all the family members want to throw her
out of the house, in such a situation Manashi stands by her, fighting with her
own family members and gives her a second chance. Will Durga be able to keep
Manashi's trust or not that is disclosed in the climax.
The story is very simple and predictable and sometime it can give you a
feel of watching family drama in TV soap. There is a little secret element
about the past of Durga which is disclosed separately in last few minutes but
it would have been better if it would have been told just after the interval.
Apart from this there is a completely separate track of the teenagers, Bhrigu
and his friends to show how the teenagers celebrate Durga Puja which has
nothing to do with the main story. And between all these you will get to see
every ritual of Durga Puja in detail showing every significant rituals, Mahalaya,
Kalabou Snan, Anjali, Dhunuchi Naach, Sindur Khela and Bijaya. Sometimes it
looks like a documentary on Durga Puja, but in spite of this authentic representation
of Durga Puja, there is hardly any chance to get nostalgic watching these
rituals, in this hot summer. Overall the screenplay is too week.
Not only the screenplay even some of the characters are not well
written, like the elder Daughter-in-law and the daughter of the house, they are
too cliché and dramatic, looks like they have came straight out of the daily
soaps. The elder son Dibyendu’s character graph is not convincing enough, he
has a sudden change of heart from a pervert to a loving husband which looks too
hurried. The youngest member Bhrigu has been shown as a college going teenager
but his character is too immature and childish.
But it’s not like that there is nothing good about the movie. The best
part of this film is superb performance by the two leading ladies. Sohini
Sarkar is brilliant as small town girl Durga with a secret in her past. Her
diction, body language is perfect as a poor village girl. Tanushree too shines
as the sensible mature housewife Manashi. She looks very beautiful and acts
really well. Rwitobroto has his moments as Bhrigu, though looks over
enthusiastic sometime but he is impressive. There is Anirban Bhattacharya too
in a special appearance, in his screen time of just around 10 minutes he has
proved his calibre as a brilliant actor.
Among the technical team special mention is deserved for DOP Gairik
Sarkar, he has captured the essence of North Kolkata and Durga Puja very well.
Also the costume and jewelleries of the ladies of Basak family will surely draw
attention of the female audiences.
Bickram Ghosh has performed well with both the songs and background score.
There are two songs in the film and both are well composed, especially the
agamoni song will be with you even after the curtains fall. The background
score too works well with the beat of dhaak, which gives the feel of Durga
puja.
Overall the film has a week script and has an unwanted resemblance with
daily soaps, but still you can watch it for the wonderful performances of the
leading ladies. Also you can go and watch it to get a feel of Durga Puja.
