Review of Bengali Film Rajkahini

Even before its release Rajkahini had made quite a buzz to draw everyone’s attention. There were two reasons for that one is the director Srijit Mukherjee who has made it almost a habit to give one hit followed by other that too choosing unusual subjects and the other one was the huge starcast.  So now the question is whether the film has managed to fulfill the sky high expectations and the answer is yes but partially. It has managed to connect with the audiences with its hard hitting subject and bold treatment to that but when the movie ends you will feel something was missing.

The story starts in the period of 1947 when India got freedom but with the curse of partition.  Whole

nation was burning because of communal riots in such a situation there was a brothel somewhere between India and East-Pakistaan border,which comes in the middle of the Radclife line (the line which is the partition line between India and East Pakistan). So the owner of the brothel Begaum Jaan (Rituparna Sengupta) received a notice from both the country’s representatives Mr. Prafulla Sen (Shashwata Chatterjee) and Mr.Illiyas (Kaushik Sen) to vacate the brothel so that the partition line can be established breaking the old house. But Begum Jaan is not ready to leave the brothel and all her inmates are with her in this battle against Government. Hence they decide to fight their own battle for freedom against the Govt. It is actually the battle of women against the world of Men who have always abused them.  It actually celebrates the woman power and their freedom from a male dominated society.

From the very beginning you can sense that it is bold enough to address all the violence especially against women during the communal riots. There are some moments which can bring tears to your

eyes at the same time there are some scenes which can make you uncomfortable too for its bold representation but we salute the director for not compromising with those scenes.  The story begins with India’s freedom and we are introduced with the violence as a consequence of partition. In such a situation there is Begum Jaan who runs a brothel with girls of different age, caste and religion. All these girls have been victim of abuse of male dominated rules in their past but in this brothel they live their life happily freely under the mentorship of Begum Jaan. No one divide them as per their cast or religion here, all have equal rights. Here the story don’t waste much time to introduce each member of the brothel

individually, later in one song sequence we get a brief introduction of the girls. There is Golap (Parno Mitra) who secretly loves a local school teacher whom they address as Master (Abir Chatterjee), there is Jui (Sudipta Chakraborty) who is a mother of a teenager girl , there is a young widow (Priyanka Sarkar) who is deprived of sexual satisfaction as no one choose her because of her extra weight, there are two girls Duli(Sohini Sarkar) and Koli(Sayani Ghosh) who belongs from very lower cast of society who are untouchable , these two girls have a same sex relationship too between them, then there is Rubina (Jaya Ahsaan) who loves the pimp at the brothel Sujan (Rudraneel Ghosh). So it’s a mix of different type of girls but sadly there is no past story neither a longer screen time has been given to any of the girls. Most of the story focuses on Begum Jaan only.

Apart from these brothel there is a separate track of Mr. Sen and Mr. Illiyas too , the two Govt official working together on their duty who had a warm friendship earlier but now there is a border in between their relationship too as they belongs from different religion. The confrontation scenes between them are wonderful. Every time when both try to analyze the situation and their relation with their own point of view which totally opposite from each other.

The climax of the movie tries to draw a parallel line between the battle of Rani Padmini and the battle of Begum Jaan which may not go well with everyone. It could have been ended on a different point.

As a director Srijit Mujherjee is too good. He knows his job very well. There are some faults in research work for 1947 partition but we can overlook those. At least we can give credit to Srijit for choosing an unconventional subject once again and presenting the truth in a bold form without compromising for the sake of censor board.

Among the cast member it is obviously Rituprna Sengupta who is the main highlight of the film. Begum Jaan is one her best characters of her lifetime. She has managed to portray a brave, strict, rough woman with a soft heart, very well. Only the experiment with her voice does not suit well. Her real voice could have been a better choice. None of the rest of the girls has been given ample chance, still Parno mitra impresses as Golaap. Jaya Ahsaan is good and will surely draw attention for her intimate yet emotionally charged scene with Rudraneel. Ridhima impresses in her first scene as a rape victim. Sudipta Chakraborty and Sohini Sarkar have been wasted in a thankless role. They are capable of much more than this. Sayani Ghosh is okay with her local Bengali dialect. The rest of teh girls have actually nothing to do apart from standing in background as mute audience.

Among the male cast both Shaswata Chatterjee and Kaushik Sen are brilliant. Rudraneel Ghosh is

okay. Kanchan Mallick has tried something different from his comic image and succeeds to some extent. Abir Chatterjee has been offered a different role than his image but he looks a misfit in that character. The true show stealer is Jishu Sengupta in his first negative character. Not only his physical transformation but his mannerism, his expression everything is just awesome. He has just three scenes but he will left impression with his cunning smile. He looks dangerous as Kabir. Srijit Mukherjee has presented Jishu in a really new avatar and his experiment has been successful.

The technical team is always is in good form in Srijit Mukherjee’s film. He knows to appoint perfect technicians in his team. Avik Mukhopadhyay’s cinematography is outstanding; every single frame speaks on its own. Make-up, costumes, production design is very authentic to recreate the period. The visual effects could have been better if the budget would not have been so tight.

Music by Indradip Dasgupta has been used very well mostly in background. The “janaGanaMana” song in the climax blends perfectly with the storyline.

Overall it is a well made film which brings the pain of partition, the pain of every single woman in this male dominated society. It will surely connect with the audience. There are some flaws in research work, it has longer runtime, too many characters but all these can be overlooked for the true efforts from a dedicated cast and crew.