Charulata (2011)

Based on the Bard's Noshto Nirh, Charulata by Agnidev was a stale attempt to recreate the magic that was woven long back by Satyajit Ray, Soumitro and Sharmila Tagore Madhabi. I know it would be foolishness to compare the Charulata of Ray with the Charulata of Chatterjee, but even if we don't, still this story of the bored housewife of the 21st Century can't do justice to the original story.

Charulata is the story of Chaiti Bose, a sex starved, bored housewife of the modern era, who prefers to blame her husband silently for not giving her enough time (or sex) and so unknowingly goes on to have a physical relationship with her brother-in-law, but does not, for once, bothers to talk to her husband about the same or do something about it other than sulk!

Now, the direction was nothing to write home about, there were lot of mistakes that couldn't have been overlooked. Say for example, when the brother-in-law writes to Charu, who is a net friend of his, writes to her about his visit to Calcutta for a "ceminer" it really surprises us because this brother-in-law is supposedly a professor in a university in US of A! In one of the scenes we see Rituparna crying, but after the very next cut we see there is no sign of tears in her eyes!

As for acting, I think both Rituparna as Charulata and Dibyendu Mukherjee as Sanjay, the brother-in-law, would give a tough competition to Daniel Craig in a who-has-the-perfect-poker-face contest. They don't show even a hint of emotion on their faces from the beginning till the end of the movie. Rituparna cannot cry in a single scene without glycerine! Throughout the movie half she has covered her face by her hair, probably because she too has realized lately how ugly she looked. But I must say that Dolon, Kaushik and Arjun were quite brilliant as Keya, Utpal and Bikramjit respectively. Especially Dolon, when she starts revealing her untold secret and the pain associated with it to Rituparna, her tears would have moved the stoniest hearts.

The dialogues were good, except for Dibyendu's dialogues as Amal, which sounded very cliched and neka neka.

The music, along with the songs, were amazing and suited the mood of the story. Rupankar, with his song Ektu Aral, sounded real fresh and somewhat like Nachiketa. Having seen the Bard's name as a lyricist seemed a nice idea, although not an original one.

Overall, a movie not worth the watch. Rather, I would suggest download the Satyajit Ray flick and enjoy it with a hot cuppa!