Many of us, specifically people of Bengal residing out of Bengal , are in a habit of crying out loud most of the time saying "Ei Bangalir dwara ar kissu hobe na [ Nothing good ll happen by these Bongs ]". But then something like this happens and you start wondering - would it be possible by any other person apart from a Bengali !? I have my doubts.
"Labour of love" or "Asha Jawar Majhe" - it is nowhere close to the very idea of film that we usually have in our mind. The 84 min journey is mundane,monotonous,banal in all its senses - but then you ll realize it is just depicting a single day of our very own life which itself is of the same nature.
This film has only two characters and none of them has a single dialogue. Because conversation is not mandatory to capture neither the repetitiveness of our daily chores nor those few special moments [ a window - one can say here ] for which we gather the energy to complete our hackneyed routine.
The level of detail of this film - I could not recall a single colored Bengali film which have the same. When the camera unusually zooms in and lingers over the seemingly insignificant things - the cracked wall, the sunset, the clothesline, the revolving cycle - it surely test viewer's patience but also tells a story - a story where everyone of us is fighting our daily battle to survive ; Sorry , not "to survive" , but "to love". The whole slow-pace was just an intriguingly exquisite build-up for the last 5 poetic min, where we comes to realize that - yes, to cherish just a few moments of love, we are being able to continue our vapid journey; we are ready to be a "Labour of Love".
Aditya Vikram Sengupta - What have you created!!!!
NOTE: Not in a mood to go into the insipid details of direction,camera,cinematography,sound or acting cause if all these have not been perfect, THIS experience wouldn't have been created at the very first place.