Why should I go buy a ticket to a Bengali film if it cannot even command 15 minutes of attentiveness from its audience?
Well, I don't have any rational answer to that after I laboured through the screening of the film which was being touted as the next-big-budget-crowd-puller from the Tollywood stables and yes, it was none other than the much publicized/marketed (courtesy-t2, The Telegraph) - Challenge.....nibi na sala.
People with even a feeble grasp of Bengali would be hard to convince regarding the "respectability quotient" of a film with such ruffian leanings in its nomenclature itself. Still, I ventured an audience in hope of "some mindless entertainment" if not a "memorable love story" told "differently" as is always promised. Needless to say the company of friends who would give any film a chance in their idle weekends made it sort of inevitable for me. One of them travelling half the city to watch the opening show of "Don Mutthuswami" is a case in point.
A detailed review would be a waste of cyber-space so let me put the slush succinctly, if ever there was such a phrase i.e. Shipping tycoon dad's (Rajatava Dutta) overprotectiveness about pretty daughter(Subhashree) meets fierce, fun-loving, goon-bashing brawn of college boy (Dev) and the "challenge" is born. The inanity of the proceedings is exemplified by the fact that the only dialogue evoking ceetis and taalis in the entire film belonged to the Mithun-starrer "Mohaguru" (explains why the last Bengali film I watched in a theater was "Tiger" by Mithun). The newcomer pair does little except pose prettily or murderously as and when required by the invisible script, if any. The saving grace of the film is some definitive moments when Biswajit Chakrabarty ( hero's father) helps us to some laughs in his encounters with the caricature that Rajatava Dutta has come to make of himself with every passing film.
In short :
People who went to see gravity/logic/physics/biology-defying action sequences came back disappointed.
People who went to see a cute/cuddly/teddy-bearish love-story with fresh faces came back empty handed.
People who went to check the "promised land" of micro-minis, hot-pants and tank-tops (as in the film posters) came back frothing at their mouths - demure salwar-kameezes being the chief culprit of them all. Traitors! Frauds! Thieves!
So, next time any director promises a "different" film make sure you send in your friends ahead of you to get the right review and not the ones doctored by newspapers to give trash any semblance of respectability. After all, hard-earned money is not best-spent in buying boredom of a darkened auditorium, that too empty.
Did I mention that my ticket was paid for by a friend.
Yes, the same one who went for "Don Mutthuswami"'s premiere.
8 comments:
yay you are here!
where were you :(
p.s. neat comeback :) sure will send friends first!
hats off to u for having sat thru the whole movie!!!!
# A.D - :) Yes, I am here. Was literally "disconnected" for the last month.
# Madhurima(di)- Shhhaaarkaastic ??!!??
Hah, gives me more the reason to go watch it.
# a.l - Why ain't I surprised ?
*Sympathies*
There was a time when i was lucky enough to go and watch such movies which were never even telecast on the TV due to fear of attack by aliens...
One of such movies was Kya dil ne kaha. Debut movie of Tusshar-Hyperventilating-Random-Expressions-Kapoor and Esha-Extra-Botox-Only-Speaks-Never-Smiles-Deol.. The rest in my kitty of bad movies are those that people wont even remember leave alone trying to guess.
But then good days returned and hope relived that there was light despite the dark dark world of horrific movies...
:P
So cheer up!
Ashen
Yaeah, have heard and seen the songs in a bengali music channel. The Telegraph review was too much.
But the actions seemed quite fun.
# ashen - i am game for these movies but only if i don't have to pay for them. :P
# v.s - "fun" did you say ??? go watch it in your nearest theater and you will get to know.
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