kushal-2

Oh I am so happy and nostalgic. I found myself whistling inside the cinema hall after decades, at the entry of Deepak Chatterjee! I forgot I turned 50 a few months ago.

This movie could have been a tad shorter, shorn off some excess.. but that said, it is an ode to first Universe of bengali pulp literature, the page turners of my and my elder bro's childhood.....the collective magical times of that generation.

Smartly crafted, intelligently scripted, passionately acted, luridly costumed....it shamelessly shuts up logic and unleashes a tale of such fun and over-the-top ness.. that we are reminded that it takes a genius to play the fool.

There are touches of nonlinear time flows, magic realism, subtle digs and sarcasms...references to cult movies...but these are plastic words and let me stop here.. simply go and dive into it.

The 3 is just for the animal footages, though I could have seen them on any infotainment channel. The brand promos are really painful, the dialogues based on another series' character are in poor taste, the acting mostly bad all across the cast. I must specially mention Anirban Chakraborty... now that I have seen him in several roles, it seems the expressions are always the same. And the person who played Santu. Believe me, I have grown up reading Kakababu stories from the time Anandamela magazine was small in size. The Santu portrayed by him is nowhere close to the image I have and if I go by the popular sentiment from many other reviewers here, I seem to be in sync.

There is hardly any story. And the lyrics.... seriously?

Probably the best Shabor movie, that is saying something, they are all pretty decent. Shaswata is brilliant, all other actors did really well, the script and pacing is tight... can't find much fault with it. Arindam Sil has again nabbed it. Cinematography, music, editing... ticks all the boxes. Whodunit is a difficult genre to master and there is no dearth of good characters and directors in Bengal who are regularly adding to the archives. But the Shabor stories have found their own place of pride... we await them.

I sincerely pray that Shirshendu babu goes on penning more Shabor thrillers and Arindam Sil and the team continues adapting them. These are for keeps.