shamikp

The title is a curious mishmash of two Bengali masterpieces, alluring enough to draw me to the theatre on the opening weekend overcoming initial misgivings about the film.

The director pays his tribute to the maestros at the very start, and with that important task taken care of, the story begins at a fair trot.

The screenplay and photography are clear winners for 'Shonar Kellay Jokher Dhoni', and more than compensates for the not-so-original plot, which feels borrowed from Dhrubo Banerjee's 'Guptodhon' series. However, it has a couple of surprises that helps to move the story forward and has been executed fairly well.

The cast delivers, especially Koel Mallick, who finally seems to have got a hang of acting. Parambrata Chattopadhyay has shed some of his usual mannerisms for this act, which is a welcome relief. However, the interaction between the key characters- Bimal, Rubi and Kumar - felt contrived and mechanical at times, and should have been more natural. Gaurav Chakrabarty has a pleasing screen presence, but his character no meat. Saheb Chatterjee does justice to his role, but could have handled the end better. Suprabhat Das as the grown-up Mukul could have easily added more flesh to his portrayal of a character that is largely cardboard.

To sum it up, the film manages to hold its ground, generously helped by the beautiful shots of the fort. The writer and the director has made good use of Satyajit Ray's 'Shonar Kella' as a backstory to create a film that will draw audiences to theatres.