Review of Bengali Movie "Belasheshe"

"Belasheshe" is a kind movie which will be with you even after coming out of theater. It will force you to ask some questions about your own relationships, it will help you to bind strong your own personal relationship that too very simply without giving any gyaan.

It is  a story of an aged couple Biswanath Majumdar(Soumitra Chattopadhyay) and Aarti Majumdar(Swatilekha Sengupta) who are married for long 49 years managing their

relationship and family quite well. They have three daughters and one son, all of them are married and have bitter sweet marital life. All of a sudden one day Biswanath decides to give divorce to his wife to live an independent life alone. It creates lots of chaos in the whole family , lots of unwanted question arises as every single member of the family wants to know the reason behind this. But Biswanath is not ready to answer any question from his family members. Finally the divorce case goes to court and as per Judge's suggestion they decides to go for an outing at Shantiniketan to spend some quality time with each other , to rediscover their relationship. They took their whole family too along with them. While in Shantiniketan the couple realizes how they have became a habit to each other , that they cant be independent without each other , they have lots queries, anger , unanswered questions against each other, they think they are with each other for so long just taking it as a responsibility but ultimately they discover that this so called responsibility of them is the true love between them.

Just like the director duo's last movies this time also the story is very simply told taking each character from the day to day world around us. It never tries to give high drama or intense dialoguebaaji, still it connects with you with some simple questions about how strong your relationship is with your loved ones. Like when was the last time you had given time for someone closer to you? When was the last time you had hold his/her hand? These are the simple questions which have a major impact. Another good thing is that the story moves in a gentle pace it never looks too hurried to come to a conclusion because breaking or making a relationship takes time its not an instant thing. 
The screenplay has been written with good care, not only the main story of the aged couple but the other four post marital stories of their kids also moves very well parallely. Another good point of the script is it deals with the such a serious subject without giving it a depressed tone, there is enough of crying and emotional moments but at the same time there is good enough dose of funny moments too which will keep you laughing in between.

As director the director duo Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy has handled the subject quite well. First of all they should be given big thumbs up for choosing such an unconventional subject about a 70+ married couple who are trying to rediscover their relationship. Each character and the backdrop of the story is very much convincing and syncs well with the story and it shows the perfection of the director duo.

About the cast members it can be said every actor has been perfectly cast in their corresponding on screen characters. Soumitra Chatterjee is awesome in the lead after a long

time. No matter how old he is , still he is one of the finest actors of Bengali film industry.
Swatilekha Sengupta is another veteran actor who has shined as the leading lady of the film. From the first scene to the last one she is natural as the responsible homemaker. There is no doubt her performance is the finest among the whole cast. 
Among the other members Kharaj Mukherjee is too good as the elder son-in-law of the family. His comic timing is superb. Every time he appears on screen, he brings out laughter on your face. Rituparna Sengupta is also good as the second daughter of the house. Her portrayal of the young independent woman is wonderful.
Shankar Chakraborty, Indrani Gupta, Anindya Chatterjee , Monami Ghosh are good in their supportive roles. Sohini Sengupta is awesome in her one scene appearance. Sohag Sen and Barun Chanda are also good in their cameos.

The technical team has done a good job keeping it simple in sync with the story. The technical team's work is not too loud too seek attention but it goes well with the story. Cinematography by Gopi Bhagat is eye soothing specially the portions shot in the scenic beauty of Shantiniketan. The only department that could have done a little better job is the editing. The first half of the film looks a bit stretched for some long continuous scenes. It could have been shortened a bit in the first half.

The music has been mostly used in background and it works very well with the different  moods of the song situations. The duo of Anupam Roy and Anindya Chatterjee has created nice melodious songs.

Overall it is a simply told story about rediscovering your relationships with someone very close to you. It has been told from heart and so it connects with the heart. Go and watch it with your loved one and surely it will bond your relationship even stronger.