In last few years the director duo Shiboprasad
Mukherjee and Nandita Roy has became a brand associated with superhit Bengali
films. They know the pulse of audience; they know how to make audience feel
connected with a subject. These back to back hits have given them credibility
and at the same time it keeps increasing expectations with every new release.
Now the question is can "Posto" fit into all those expectations or
not? The answer is it can but partially. Subject wise once again Shiboprasad
and Nandita has chosen one topic with which many people can relate too, but the
way they have handled the subject that is not up to the mark.
The story is about the universal concern of grandparents who doubts
their children are not mature enough to take care of their grandchildren. This
problem has raised more in today's modern society where working parents can't
give proper time to their kids and mostly they have to depend on caretakers or
grandparents. This is a story of one such kid Posto (Arghya Basu Roy), his
parents Arnab (Jisshu Sengupta) and Sushmita (Mimi Chakraborty) are working in
different jobs and they had the kid at very early stage of their life when they
were not settled enough. As a solution they leave the kid with his grandparents
Dinen Lahiri (Soumitra Chatterjee) and Gauri Lahiri (Lily Chakraborty) at
Bolepur. Though both Arnab and Sushmita kept visiting their child at regular
intervals but the kid is more affectionate towards his grandparents. Everything
was going fine in spite of having some minor clash between the two set of
parents about the way of bringing up a kid. But the main problem arises when
Arnab and Sushmita decide to settle in US to do some start-up business and they
decide to take Posto to abroad with them. Dinen Lahiri has doubt on his son
Arnab's abilities to be a responsible father as he is an alcoholic and keeps
changing jobs very frequently. So he denies leaving Posto and when it does not
work, he goes a step further and takes legal action to take Posto's legal
custody. The second half follows the court case where justification are
provided for both side of parents and their parenting style and finally it
leads to a predictable melodramatic climax.
The story is about a sensitive issue with which every working parent and
such grandparents can relate too but there is some weakness in the screenplay.
It never shows both side of parenting in unbiased way rather from the beginning
it seems biased towards the grandparents. It seems the character of Arnab
Lahiri has been shown as an alcoholic just to use it as an excuse to prove him
irresponsible father. In the battle of two different section of parents the
focus has been given only on the grandfather and father, sadly the women
members who are also an important half of parenting has been overlooked, apart
from one scene of Sushmita there is no scope for the two ladies to express
their opinion on this topic other than just following their husbands. The ending
also may not appeal to a section of audience. Moreover the screenplay
play is unnecessarily lengthy there are some scenes like a friendly cricket
match which serves no purpose. Then there is one elaborate sequence between
Arnab and Posto discussing about fireflies which include a song too which helps
in no way other than adding length to its runtime.
As directors the duo has not delivered their best, in past they have
raised the bar too high with their unique style but this time it looks like
they are repeating themselves.
Among the actors Soumitra Chatterjee is in top most form. He has looked
convincing as an old man suffering from his old memories and trying hard to
save his future generation. Jisshu Sengupta is okay but in some points he acts
too dramatic and inconsistent but in most of the time it's not his fault as an
actor rather the character itself is not well written. Mimi Chakraborty has
tried to take a jump from mainstream commercial cinema to content based urban
cinema but she has very little to do here. In fact she has played meatier roles
in her so called remake movies. But in her limited scope she has acted quite
well and she looks completely natural. Lily Chakraborty's character has no
scope at all and it's mostly one dimensional. Paran Bandopadhyay has done a
superb job as Dinen Lahiri's friend and lawyer. He has acted really well in the
second half during the court processing. Unfortunately the same can't be said
for the defence lawyer played by Sohini Sengupta. This mostly dependable
actress has portrayed her character with too much melodrama and over acting
that she can give tough competition to daily soap actresses. The little kid
Arghya Basu Roy has played the character of Posto convincingly, he looks
adorable and acts well.
Music is by Anupam Roy and Anindyo Chatterjee and they have not been
able to recreate the magic of "Prakran", their last collaboration
with Shibu-Nandita. The only song that looks and sounds good is the title
track. Rest of the songs do not impress.
Overall it's an emotional family drama with not so gripping screenplay.
It's not a perfect successor to "Belashshe" and "Prakton".
There is no freshness and it's high time for Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Nandita
Roy to remodel their storytelling.
