A sluggish attempt at bold issues Cast: Sanjita, Suvosmita Mukherjee, Sawon Chakroborty, Debashish Chatterjee, Aarshi Roy Rating: 2.5/5 ...
A sluggish attempt at bold issues
Cast:
Sanjita, Suvosmita Mukherjee, Sawon
Chakroborty, Debashish Chatterjee, Aarshi Roy
Rating:
2.5/5
Not too many filmmakers make films around so-called societal taboos, especially those involving a woman’s desires. Sumantra Roy takes a step in that direction with Ghasjomi where he deals with women’s needs to get an outlet and live life on their own terms. However, what starts off as a bold step fizzles out soon enough, with loopholes and questions left unanswered.
Barna
(Suvosmita) is a modern 24-year-old teacher living with her partner Joy (Sawon).
She turns up at the doorstep of Ipshita (Sanjita) a middle-aged housewife for
her social anthropological research on Bengali housewives in Kolkata. Ipshita is
just the opposite of Barna, shy and submissive, having sacrificed her dreams for
marriage. Now all she has is Lacey their dog and hangs around the house till
her husband Susovan (Debashish) returns from work in the evening. Her life revolves
around cooking and taking care of his needs. Not that she is complaining, but
when Barna comes into her life quizzing her about her childhood, past loves and
whether she has ever even experienced an orgasm she realizes that there is a
lot more that life has to offer beyond what she has been living till now.
The
slow and sluggish pace at which the film proceeds and the poor lighting are major
flaws. The poor production values only rub in the lack of finance which may
have plagued the producers.
A
film that solely revolves around conversations between two women could have
gone a long way in its 1-hour 55-minute duration to provide a satisfying treatise
on women and their means to empower themselves. As they say, a lot can happen
over a cup of tea or coffee. Here we wait patiently for something to happen but
Roy misses the opportunity by meandering around the topic on tiptoes without really
establishing anything. When Barna and Ipshita talk about their love lives and
go on to discuss orgasms, all that we get are a few dialogues here and there
which are punctuated by uncomfortable silences. Even the book Barna talks about giving to Ipshita on orgasms is nowhere to be seen, The resolution too leaves a lot
to be desired with the audience left to draw their own conclusions which may or
may not be in line with what director has in mind.
What
perhaps redeems the film is the natural acting of the two heroines. They are sincere and honest in the way they portray their characters.
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