I wouldn't say I went to watch without any expectations, the director's first outing Teenkahon was a commendable debut, the triptych capturing three different moods with a somewhat common soul acting as thread. I liked the way he paid tribute to the maestro Ray in one of the stories. His writing skills also shone in the third part. However, Teenkahon did not indicate much what Bauddhayan had in store for us. "The Violin Player" is a film noir, with the director successfully telling a fascinating story in 72 minutes. The mood is dark, the acting superb and the two main characters seem to be coming straight out of the dark alleys of Bombay, the Maximum City which never sleeps. Having said that, "The Violin Player" has technically two characters, with a short appearance from Nayana Dixit. I don't know if TVP had a separate casting director, though I feel its the director who picked Adil Hussain and Ritwick Chakraborty. Commercially a questionable choice, but Teenkahon somewhat showed the director's eagerness to experiment. Thankfully, it paid off in TVP. Ritwick is pitch perfect as the protagonist, Adil Hussain played the stone-faced filmmaker with much panache. All good movies have certain things in common that make them watchable more than once, one of them being creating magical moments that stay with the viewer after the curtains come down. I recall a scene in the early minutes of this movie, in Goregaon Railway Station, where the two characters have just met and about to strike a conversation, when a train crosses the platform. Adil Hussain's expression as he suddenly paused due to the sound of the train passing by, and Ritwick's numb eagerness towards what he expected to hear (but had to wait) made the scene truly magical to me. There are more such moments in The Violin Player, which ends with an unexpected (Hitchcockian? Hollywoodish?) twist. Bauddhayan Mukherji, you have raised the bar, I will be waiting for your third.
