Review of Durga Sohay

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.