I recently watched Switzerland, a 2020 Bengali film directed by Sauvik Kundu and starring Abir Chatterjee, Rukmini Maitra, Ambarish Bhattacharya, Arindam Ganguly, and others. It's a light, feel-good film with Abir and Rukmini portraying a young couple raising two school-going daughters. Abir works in sales, while Rukmini is a schoolteacher, hailing from a well-to-do family.
Tensions surface whenever they visit Rukmini's family, as an elderly widowed aunt (played by Alakananda Roy) takes every opportunity to belittle Abir with cutting, snobbish remarks. In a moment of quiet defiance at a family dinner, Abir impulsively declares that he's taking his entire family on a trip to Switzerland - leaving his in-laws and relatives utterly stunned.
The film then follows Abir's often brave and challenging efforts to arrange the funds for this extravagant promise, leading him into a series of adventures and difficult situations. Running just about two hours, Switzerland offers engaging performances from Abir and Rukmini, with a memorable cameo by veteran Arun Mukhopadhyay as their elderly next-door neighbour. At its heart, the film is a warm family drama about the lengths one will go to keep their loved ones happy.
