Titli

With Titli, Rituparno Ghosh proved again his great prowess as a storyteller and as a director. The movie is a little more than one hour and a half long and yet manages to convey a whole life story within this span. The film starts with a wonderful Bengali song called "Megh Peoner" playing over the opening credits. It is a very melodious number superbly sung by Srikanto Acharya and composed by Debajyoti Mishra. What makes Titli impressive at first is its exemplary depiction of everyday life in a middle-class Bengali family. The scenes, the dialogues and the characters look most lifelike and real, at times so much that I felt like watching an ordinary routine day in the lives of real people. While certain audiences do not enjoy movies of this sort, I personally was completely engaged by the film's proceedings and found it very easy to relate to. The scene in the car with the mother and daughter having a chat about Hindi popular cinema while making their way to meet the father of the family in the airport on the first monsoon day was particularly well-made. I felt almost like a part of the film.

Ghosh directs Titli with great mastery. He pays attention to details and captures the essence of a simple family while telling a compelling story. Titli is beautifully shot and is quite poetic and symbolic in execution, which ensures a greatly fascinating watch. The main plot element of the film reminds me of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi. Here Mithun Chakraborty is the big star, and Konkona Sen Sharma his die-hard fan. Here she plays Jaya Bhaduri to his Dharmendra, and similarly, her opinion of him changes after she meets him in person. This is quite an interesting concept. But what marks this film the most is the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship, which is only enhanced by this element when we see that the girl's mother was actually her idol's sweetheart in his young days. The fact that these two roles are played by real-life mother and daughter Aparna Sen and Konkona Sen Sharma contributes a lot to the film's credibility, and well, maybe that's why it looks so convincing. Similarly, the fact that both are terrific actors only helps, because both bring something new to their roles.

Aparna Sen blew me away with her authentic portrayal of Urmila. She brings life to her role by naturally displaying Urmila's graceful nature, her everyday happiness, her care and responsibility as a mother and wife, and ultimately her ability to not let her past take over her present. Konkona Sen Sharma in the title role does exceedingly well as the young and innocent girl who believes she could marry her favourite film star, and later in the film she brilliantly performs her character's disappointment and growing maturity. Mithun Chakraborty is excellent as the film star Rohit Roy. He practically plays himself, but he adds much more to the role, ably showing his general satisfaction from his life and career achievements, but at the same time his regret of missing a chance upon meeting the woman he loved after years. Dipankar Dey provides very good support as Amar. The film's ending is fantastic, aptly concluding the story and bringing the best moment of interaction between the mother and daughter. Titli is one of my favourite Indian films of 2002, I highly recommend you to see it.

Rituporno Ghosh is a one fine storyteller.... his films are different, they are no way run-of- the-mill... 'TITLI' his 2002 flick... is amongst the finest films of this decade. A simple story told in the simplistic way... and that's the reason why 'TITLI' is the never-dying beauty.

A story of a girl in love with a film superstar... her mom, her dad and of course the actor. Titli unfolds beautifully... leaving the viewer glad and stunned by its outstanding writing. To cut a long story shot, Rituporno Ghosh's 'TITLI' is a film that comes in a lifetime.... A MASTERPIECE!

Performances: Mithun Chakraborty plays himself, the superstar, but with another name Rohit Roy. Mithunda's performance is outstanding. What a brilliant performance from this film legend once again. Aparna Sen is fantastic, in each and every frame she is in. Konkona Sen Sharma deserved a national award for her performance as Titli. She emotes each and every expression so naturally, that you forget you're watching the highly-talented actress. She is mind-blowing. Dipankar Dey is superb in a cameo.

on the whole 'TITLI' is cinema at its very best. Two Big Thumbs Up!

Nice flick shot in one of the muse locations of bengali directors, Darjeeling. This has Mithun Chakraborty as an ex-lover of mother and a crush of the daughter in same frame - what else you can be looking for to chew popcorn along with?!

Titli is nothing but a result of Beautiful storytelling by Rituparno Ghosh. The 1st 20 mins of the film was the conversation between a mother and a daughter, then a new character appeared and the chat started again and after some time another character entered and the same continued. Despite having so much talking you'll not bore for one moment. Because it's very interesting.

Loved the the mother - daughter chemistry. Konkona was looking damn cute in this film. You'll see Mithun Chakraborty in one of his most charming form here. From his posters on the wall to his superb entry, he was the superstar of this film. He was actually playing himself. Dipankar De supported very well at the end. The film ended with the beautiful 'Megh Peoner Bager Vitor' and left me with some of the beautiful moments.

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© MandalBros.

Titli - thats what the movie is titled.. its the name of a teenage girl in the film - Aparna Sen's daughter in the movie.. The film beautifully captures the growing up crushes and sensitivity of teenagers.. also the portrayal of mother-daughter relationship and quiet understanding in the end is shown simply and beautifully.. This girl has a crush on a filmstar, Mithun. She and her mom happen to meet him on a trip and Titli is on cloud nine.. only to discover later that Mithun had been her mom's past.. The setting on the film is good too, with rocks and valleys.. gives a fresh breath to the film. I would strongly recommend seeing it..