Samantaral

Not everyone we meet is like you and me. There are people in our society who are different, feel and live differently, their desires and needs are not what you and I can understand easily. Their lives therefore aren't distorted, but exist in parallel or in congruence to ours - accepting it will make their existence a bit easier.

Arko (Riddhi Sen) returns to his material grandfather's home for university studies after 12 long years. Having lost his parents to a accident at a very young age, he is not particularly attached to anyone and finds the home stifling. But here he rediscovers how his uncle Sujon (Parambrata) is held confined to his room on the terrace and isn't allowed to leave home, often labelled as mentally unstable by the rest of the household. Sujon comes across as helpless, troubled, often depressed and detached, yet artistic in his existence. His younger brother Kaushik wants him to be shifted to an asylum and subjects Sujon to physical persecution. Arko takes it upon himself, partnering with his girlfriend Titli (Surangana Banerjee) to alleviate Sujon of his alleged mental illness, consulting a psychiatrist for his treatment, much to the chagrin of some of the family. But it is for Arko to ready himself for dealing with the consequences, and the disturbing findings may change the world around him forever.

Parambrata is outstanding in the sensitive portrayal of Sujon, giving credibility to the character. Riddhi Sen is all talent and remotes the volatile Arko with poise. Soumitra Chatterjee, Kushal Chakraborty, Surangana Banerjee, Tanushree Chakraborty and Aparajita Adhya lend able support. Anindya Pulak Banerjee is typecast. The music by Indraadip Dasgupta is haunting.

The movie is great. I watched the movie without watching the trailer and I really liked the pace and slow unravellling of the plot of the movie.

The change in emotion is shown very subtly in a movie like in a song or just with a music and expression .

I feel the trailer gives away few things so if you have watched the trailer you may not like the movie that much.

When I started watching the movie I was only aware of a person who is staying at house for a period of time and all the questions that came in the protagonist (nephew of the person) was similar to the question coming in viewer mind and it was like each layer is peeled so slowly and swiftly that you just love and live each of the beautiful moments.

PS. I am a non Bengali viewer and have seen that many people like to give high rating because of love for their movies dialect or region and when you watch it you think the movie is overrated but this rating is not because of any bias or pre-notion.

A great movie about a topic that is considered taboo in our society.

Human physiology and human behaviour pettern are just simply handle in a practical way! Good one indeed.

In a world of diverse possibilities beyond our knowledge, we tend to stick to only what we see... And especially what others see. Partho Chakraborty's "Samantaral" takes us to a journey of acceptance against the taboos of our beloved society.

Even though the film was being told in a very unclear manner till the climax to sum up everything, it never stopped questioning your morale from the very beginning itself; that is, if you really wanted to ask yourself. The plot, being fairly simple as it is, though had a lot of layers to keep one intrigued throughout. Besides, the ending had one little easter egg from Soumitra Chatterjee regarding his (ex) profession. That particular dialogue saga was strong in itself & one surely needed guts to write so. It didn't only reveal the past of Parambrata Chatterjee's character but also made us realise that being a graduate have absolutely no value in modern era if you lack acceptance and tolerance. However, the same dialogue and the events prior to that also quite meant a rushed ending which could be ignored as well.

Now, most importantly, can you imagine an Indian film without song? Pretty hard, right? This film is no exception except for the fact all the songs by Indradip Dasgupta here were absolutely situational, too melodious & actually helped the 'slowly cooked' storyline moving forward whenever it needed.

Apart from all the technical aspects, music and plot, my most favourite part of the film was its cast selection. Every single actors and actresses were upto the mark & especially Riddhi Sen was quite fascinating to watch. And how the director handled the characters while giving them layers, allowing them to shine individually and most importantly, co-constructing altogether, was simply magnificent.

Overall, if you've not watched this film, I'd really recommend you to watch it. This film will go down as one underrated jewel of Bengali Film's History one day for sure!