Ghawre Bairey Aaj

Ghawre Baire Aaj - is the modern and contemporary adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's original "Ghare Baire" helmed by Aparna Sen. It is intended to highlight a clash of ideologies of the liberals who believe in the secular India and the hardline right wing Hindus, a subject of much deliberation these days, and hence quite pertinent. Nikhilesh (Anirban Bhattacharya) is the face of the traditional believer of the original identity of the secular nation, preaching and practicing liberalism whilst dedicating himself to social causes. In contrast, Sandeep Jha (Jishu Sengupta) is the hardliner aspiring to be a Rajya Sabha member ready to pull down all full stops to achieve his goals, ruthless, scheming and agenda driven. Between the two childhood friends who coexist in a repressed and untold friction is Brinda (Tuhina Das), the young wife of the former, who unfortunately turns out to be a chessboard pawn in the game of oneupmanship, being used to establish supremacy without her knowledge. The consequences are diabolical and the fire will consume everyone, seemingly a metaphorical representation of what the director believes will be the outcome of the current chasm. Quite possible!

The trio produce a scintillating performance and Anirban in particular must be complimented for an exceptional rendition of Nikhilesh. It's a well nuanced essay that firmly establishes him in the league of the industry's top tier. The adaptation of the novel however, fails to upraise the battle of ideologies to a flashpoint, avoiding direct confrontation. It is kept at a symbolic and indirect exchange of views and that, in my opinion is an opportunity lost to cascade the message. Brinda's character has been designed as brittle too, who at the first available opportunity jumps into infidelity without any remorse and the director provides a meek justification for her actions. Upon being spurned, she immediately terms her dalliance an infatuation, which seemed like an unlikely end to the strong extramarital relationship and being a transformed protege to Sandeep. The film also shows hardliners more as power hungry conspirators than believers of the right wing ideology, which needn't be the case though - after all hardliners exist because they may believe in their cause too.

The movie started with an excellent setting where a progressive and kind-hearted family adopted an orphan girl and the adopted mother treated her like their own girl. As usual Aparna Sen skillfully directed every scene where love, friendship, politics, ideologies, and conflicts and tensions among these various aspects of life and society climaxed up and down perfectly to offer a heart-touching and satisfying experience. The movie is both entertaining and spiritually satisfying.

What happened to Aparna Sen? My hopes were set high by the choice of the relevant political issues and, of course, the fact that this is an adaptation of the fascinating Tagore novel. Why did you need to ruin the novel by doing this? The film throws away its potentials through undeveloped, unnecessary subplots. And the actress is just not up to the mark. A film on such a burning issue ought to have been much more responsible. Et tu, Aparna!

I did not read the original novel,but suspect it had lots of insight. Allowing that the historic background has been altered for me as an outsider the politics was interesting--modern day problem is containing hate. I was impressed with th three main actors--only conscious of having seen one other Aparna Sen film she dealt with the emotions very well. Also thought the cinematography was subtle and as with the background music helped set mood. Very good.

This is an interpretation of Tagore's story set in the India of 2019 where buoyed by political forces, a large part of the population has experienced a renewed recognition of their religious identity. If you have seen the original Ray classic, this film is bound to get you at least interested. Some of the incidents shown don't come across as strong plot-builders and more as half-hearted attempts to build the central characters. Art direction is wonderful, and is able to transport you into the fabled life of Delhi's intelligentsia. Tuhina's performance never slips, and Anirban is pretty solid. It is the more seasoned Jisshu Sengupta who is unconvincing at times, especially because lots of viewers have Soumitra's performance in the Ray film in mind, and this character is not one-track at all. While your mind does wander to Ray's classic several times during the film, the end does hit you and wraps up the film pretty well. There is inspiration from Painted Veil and the Gauri Lankesh incident (Sen dedicates the film to the social activist). Definitely not Sen's best directorial effort.