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.

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.

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!

To be honest i expected more from this movie especially after watching satijat rays Version. Its difficult to describe it, but his version felt more ,, complete''. This movie was somehow unrealistic, like which upper caste male (brahman in this case)decides to marry a former servant from the dalit caste? apart from that its highely critical that a tribal girl is shown as,,tamed'' and brahmanized and pictured as a good will project of nikhels mother and its morally questionable from nikhils side to marry a Dalit to highlight his liberal worldview. i mean come on. Maybe thats the reason i couldnt connect to the characters at all, the whole movie felt like out of reality and addressed in my eyes a certain ,, intellectual'' group ( which might not be bad, but the movies topic is more than relevant today in indians society, and should be presented to a wider audience)and aparna sen was able to reach a wider publicum with mr&mrs iyer, which also dealed with a similar topic. Another point i want to adress is the flat character development of sandip, he is shown as the bad guy driven only by greed for power and immorality. In rays version he appeared far more nuanced ,this also applies to nikhils character. And lastly the death of the muslim boy, which leads to a change in the thinking of his hindu nationalistic friend and adjoining vigils, feels rushed and out of place. It appears like a cheap solution to finish quickly the movie.Apart from this weaknesses it was a decent movie, addressing an important issue.

Ghawre Baire Aaj is an excellent dramatic creation of Aparna Sen..... it is one of the best scribble of Aparna Sen....each and every character and the persons ( Nikhilesh Chowdhury, Brinda Chowdhury and Sandip Jha and else.. meaningly Anirban Bhattachrya, Tuhina Das and Jisshu U Sengupta and more..) in this movie kept their rummy dispotion evidences. The base of the story fiercely shows the political and intestine familiar story of almost evry relationships and the bondings..After all this movie will give an unprecedented perception to each person.... :)