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FILM REVIEW : Shotyi Bole Shotyi Kichhu Nei

Murdering of the classics Cast: Kaushik Ganguly, Kaushik Sen, Parambrata Chatterjee, Phalguni Chatterjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Ananya Chatte...




Murdering of the classics

Cast: Kaushik Ganguly, Kaushik Sen, Parambrata Chatterjee, Phalguni Chatterjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Ananya Chatterjee, Anirban Chakrabarti, Rahul Banerjee, Sauraseni Maitra, Kanchan Mullick, Arjun Chakraborty, Suhotra Mukherjee

Director Srijit Mukherjee is fast becoming the master of adapting classics and presenting them in such a manner that at times one wonders what on earth has gone wrong with this man who gave us such gems like Baishe Srabon and Jatishwar. In fact his last few films were nothing short of being audaciously bad. This time he directs Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1957) which Basu Chatterjee had made into Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986) which are both classics now. He gives credit to the latter in the credit titles but honestly the gripping drama has no grip in his Shotyi Bole Shotyi Kichu Nei. He dilutes the entire film by showing outdoor sceneries and backstories of most of the characters in flashbacks and sets the story in an imaginative form from the mind of the judge. The last scene is mind-boggling when the judge wakes up and pronounces 'not guilty'. 

The film starts with the judge (Kaushik Ganguly) throwing a party at his house, as his final verdict awaits a death sentence for a 19-year-old boy from the slums for murdering his elder brother falls on Monday. When his guests leave, he goes into his study sits back in an armchair, and doses off. It is then seen that most of the characters from the party appear and one (the 12th man) says 'not guilty' as there is a reasonable doubt. From here we are directed into the middle of the road, then to a forest, then a sea beach, then into the seawater where each character comes out with their point of view of whether the boy is guilty or not guilty.

The performances: Parambrata Chatterjee plays a gay character and it is he who takes the cake as the half-brother of Kaushik Ganguly. Ritwick Chakraborty plays a foul-mouthed man who is full of hatred for the minority community.  Anirban Chakrabarti as Mr Agarwal, the gutka-chewing man also impresses. Kaushik Sen as the sophisticated pipe-smoking man does fairly well. Phalguni Chatterjee as the old loner is wonderful and so is Suhotra Mukherjee as the stuttering Physics teacher. The rest of the cast featuring Rahul Banerjee, Arjun Chakraborty, Ananya Chatterjee, Kanchan Mullick, and Sauraseni Maitra are all hampered by weak characterizations. Kaushik Ganguly disappoints big time.

Each of them has their own demons and fighting against them. Srijit harps on riots and communalism, gays, non-Bengalis, loneliness, child abuse, adoptions, and what not. The whole focus on the 19-year-old boy is missing and the core of the plot gets heavily diluted. Srijit also throws in a qawali and a song thus further diluting the story.

A request to Srijit- please don't touch classics and if you do, please be true to them.

 

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