Almost seven years ago a new
director came to Bengali movie industry who had a fresh vision to make films
and with refreshing approach of storytelling he easily connected himself with
his target audiences. He was Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and the movie was "Anuranan".
later in last 7 years he made two more movies "Antaheen" and
"Aparajita Tumi". With these three films he has made a
convention about him that he is a filmmaker who can make movies
based on love and longing of urban people and it appeal to a particular section
of audiences, but with his latest venture "Buno Haansh" he has
jumped into a totally new world. The world of lower middle class people of
Kolkata, their need , their poverty, their greed. In this world there is love ,
but love may have to take a backseat for the struggle of survival.
The story is based on the novel written by Samaresh Majumdar with the same
name. Like every other novel adaptation here too the filmmaker has
taken lots of creative liberties and has made some changes to fit it as a
screenplay of a running time of around 140 minutes. The basic story is very
much cliche where a good hearted poor guy Amal (Dev) gets into world of
crime(smuggling here) just to make more money to satisfy the basic needs of him
and the people around him. As he proceeded more in this world he found himself
totally trapped in the dangerous world from where its almost impossible to
return to his normal life.
Although the story has nothing new to offer still it will keep the audiences
interest intact because of the screenplay which has lots of twist and turns and
the interesting characters who are very much realistic. The way the screenplay
has been written that you will feel yourself involved with the journey of Amal.
For example the scene where he is travelling to abroad for the first time you
can feel his nervousness, or the major twist before interval will make you
worried that what will happen to Amal now. The climax is also very much
thrilling but it has an open ending which may or may not appeal to the
audiences.
As a director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury has taken a new challenge to tell a story
which is
totally out of his own comfort zone and he has succeeded in it with
full marks. It is his skills which has made it not just a crime thriller rather
it has a strong element of human emotions like love, passion, greed , betrayal,
fear and survival against all odds. Only his loyal fans can miss
romance a bit. There is a soft romanctic track between Amal and his friend
Sohag but it is just a subplot here. As a director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's
perfection for detailing is visible in almost every frame from choosing
perfect locations to the every detail of his each character like their costumes
, their make up , their body language and dialogues.He has tried to
increase the commercial appeal which is not bad but just like the lead
character of the story Amal, he has also not sold his soul just to make more
money and easy money. For example there was a good enough situation (and not so
good enough item girl Raima Sen) for an item song in a dance bar which could
have increase the movies commercial appeal but the director has restricted this
greed and has given it a real touch by using a late 90's Hindi Item song
that too for few seconds in middle of conversations.
Last year with "Chander Pahar" ,commercial film's superstar
Dev had made his entry to world of parallel cinema or meaningful cinema. It was
a good attempt on his behalf and he had got a mixed response for it. But with
"Buno Haansh" he has come a long way, his acting has matured a lot
here. Still it can be said that he is not the best actor available in Bengali cinema today to portray
this character. But it can
be definitely said that he is the best choice for this
role among the actors who can pull the audiences to the theaters
and bring back producer's money. The subject of the movie has a larger appeal
and provided a commercial star it can earn a good money too. In that point of
view Dev was the only choice for this role. His face has an inherent innocence which
has worked for the character of Amal. Also it is showing that the acting
workshop he has done before the shooting has worked a lot. His body
language, his dialogue delivery has improved a lot. While
watching the film you will never thought he is super star of loud South Indian
remakes rather he is looking every bit of Amal a innocent guy who wants to
cherish his dreams and for that he can choose wrong way too but by heart he has
never changed.
It is true that the main focus is on the character of Amal, but there is a
bunch of supporting characters who are there with Amal in his journey. And the
credit must be given to the casting director for choosing appropriate actors
for the supporting roles.
Tanushree has done some non commercial movies earlier too but
probably it is the movie which has given her the opportunity to
act in a bigger and more meaningful role. Her character Rijula is
very mysterious , sometimes it looks positive on next moment it has some
grey shades. She has played the modern day woman who can proudly confess that
she can go to any extent to make money for a better life. Tanushree has looked
confident in this complex character. She will surely get noticed for her
performance.
On the contrary to the character of Rijula there is the character of Sohag,
played by Shrabanti. Sohag is the friend of Amal who secretly loves him too but do not want to express it as she is struggling to survive from a deadly disease.
She is not demanding about money or a better life rather she only needs the
company of Amal for the rest of her life. In this role Shrabanti has looked
very good. In a non make up look she has looked similar to her character in
"Gaynar Baksho" but the similarity is only in
the appearance, here her acting has improved more. Though
the screen time of her character is less but still she manages to leave an
impact. Her chemistry looked good with Dev, specially in the song "Esechhe
Raat".
Other two ladies who are just awesome are Sohag Sen and Sudipta Chakraborty.Sohan Sen has played the character
of Amal's mother. Her performance is very much realistic and she has underplayed
the character with absolute perfection. She has never made the character as a
cliche mother's character like a nagging mother or a teary eyed mother. Rather
her performance is controlled and restrained. In the climax scene where she is
talking with Amal over phone, her restlessness, her tension can be easily felt in her
voice , in her expressions even without a single drop of tear in her eyes.
On the other hand Sudipta Chakraborty will surely
grab everyone's attention as Manju , sister in law of Amal. She
has once again proved her acting caliber and also proved that how
the filmmakers are yet to utilize her talent giving
roles as per her capacity. She has very few scenes but she has managed to
surprise the viewers with her power-packed performance. She has
looked so real as a housewife of a middle class family.
Gargi Roy Chowdhury is a also impressive as the sex racket owner Adrijaa. Moon
Moon Sen is not convincing enough in the role of the underworld head Madam , but being an
irregular face to recent Bengali films she has brought a freshness to the
character.
Not only the women, the male actors has also provided solid support in the
supporting roles.
Anindya Banerjee is effective as
Robin who brings Amal to the world of crime. Shankar Chakraborty has also done
a different character from his regular image as Badshah Bhai an agent of the
smuggling business. Arindam Shil has his moments as Haque another agent in
smuggling business. Shantilal Mukherjee is superb as a local goon who works for Haque.
Without the brilliance of the technical team perhaps it would not be easy
to adapt the novel
to a movie. The credit should go to the production designer
Kaushik Das and Subrata Barik for choosing such realistic locations and creating
such authentic sets in different geographical locations from Kolkata to
Dhaka to Bangkok to Pune and Mumbai. All these different locations has been
captured superbly by the cinematographer Harendra Singh. He has shoot the
underbelly of Kolkata to the fast moving life of Bangkok with an authentic
feel. It is his camera's magic that the locations has also acted as characters.
The sound design by National award winner Biswadeep Chatterjee is wonderful.
You can feel the different sounds of
different geographical locations. The editing
has been done by the
extremely talented Arghya Kamal Mitra and he has succeeded again to make it sharp.
The only thing which was not required was the over use of the different
footage of Dhaka and Bangkok city to establish the change of location.
Although the Bengali audiences would never mind to see the visuals of
Dhaka as everyone's has some connection to other side of Bengal.Thankfully
he has not used any single montage of Mumbai City as we have seen it too many times
in different movies. The dialogues are also very effective and suits the
different social and geographical position of characters from Bangal to
normal Bengali to Hindi. The same can be said about the make up and costumes department who has designed the realistic look for every character according their social and geographical background.
The another highlight of the movie is the soulful music by Shantanu Moitra. The successful Musical team of director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury Music Composer Shantanu Moitra and Lyricist Chandril & Anindya(From Chandrabindoo) are back once again with some really melodious tracks. This time the team has a new entry in the form of lyricist Srijato who has penned very meaningful lyrics. All the songs are good but the best one is of course "Zindagi Kabhi Bhi Thamti Nahi". This song has been used as a theme song throughout the film and it has summarized the story very well. Apart from that the other songs which have been used very well in the movie are "Hariye Theekana Khonje Ghar", "Eseschhe Raat" and "Bela Boye Jay".
The loyal fans of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury can think it is not his type of
movie which can touch the hearts but it is not true. It is more fast paced
and have some blood gun and violence but the signature style of
the filmmaker is still there. Still the focus is on the characters
and they are from the real world so they will
obviously connect with viewers. The director has not compromised
his creativity for the sake of commercialization. At the same time Dev's
loyal fans will also not be disappointed at all as the story is
gripping and the performance by Dev is also superb. This time he has
rocked even without dancing in foreign locations and delivering punchlines. So
there is something for every cine-goer in this movie, so give it
a chance and you will definitely like it.
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