dosar released today in calcutta. the film stands out for several reasons. one, its in black and white. director rituporno ghosh (of fame such as Unishe April, Dahan) went to great lengths to procure scarcely available b&w film and then work on post production. apart from some jumps in skin tone and lighting the experiment is largely successful.
as far as the content goes there is much to look forward to. its a story by shirshendu mukhopadhyaya, acting by the brilliant konkana sen (a much more creditable actress than her mother, the legendary aparna sen), the background score, the poetry...
...but (yes there is one) this is just another rituporno film. anybody who hasn't seen his other films will be delighted at his treatment, his sensitivity, his ability to talk about relationships in a manner that marks a genius...yet for bengali viewers who have been seeing his work for sometime now, it is "abaar rituporno" (again rituporno)...
future times might declare dosar as his best or as a landmark film, for it has all the ingredients.
there are two clear winners here. one is of course bengali cinema. the dirty tag of tollywood has plagued it for several years (and the fight is far from ended) but the crowds in the theatre suggest that good bengali cinema has a chance of rescuing itself from the morass it currently it is in.
the other is konkana sen. arguably her best performance to date, she stands at par with any legendary actress in Indian cinema with dosar.
one last comment about the film. this is the first time a bengali commercial film, in recent times, has been this explicit in depicting sexual bonding. clumsily done, but maybe thats intended.
