Asamapta Bengali Movie
Asamapta, etymologically means unfinished. Commensurate with the name is the thematic of this film. Adopted from a popular Bengali novel "Ascharjo Bhraman" by novelist Shirsendu Mukhopadyay, Avant Garde director Suman Mukhopadyay, known for subversive films like "Herbert",Kangal Malsat, Mahanagar@Kolkata,this time, tried his hands in the intricacies of relationships of few modern days human characters.
The story goes like this: Indrajit (Ritwick Chakraborty) makes a visit to the mountains to rediscover his long lost childhood. He takes shelter in his friend Moloy (Bratya Basu) and his wife Tuki (Swastika Mukherjee)'s house. Quite by accident, he bumps upon his lost love Mitul(Paoli dam),her husband Subrata (Anindya Banerjee) and her sister in law Sanatani (Debutante Poulami Das). And gradually the audience realises that Indra is a coward who escapes from relationships, he has immense commitment phobia and quite cynical by nature! Moloy on the other hand is a drunkard, who suspects his gorgeous wife for having numerous affairs with all kinds of men. Tuki is dissatisfied with her marriage so much so she often has plans of running away.
Yet the couple have a strange interdependency, they are probably fighting hard to discover what exactly went wrong in their marriage which happened out of sheer love once upon a time. Indra who deserted Mitul on the day of their marriage because he developed cold feet falls for her sister-in-law Sanatani and amongst all ruins and despair another love story begins.
But again, something is amiss in the film. The ingredients were of super quality, especially the cinematography by Gopi Bhagat who painted the screen with camera. The serpentine roads, the continuous hide and seek of the sunlight and the mist, the fog clad valleys makes us yearn to visit/revisit these places.
Acting is another stronghold of the film. Bratya Basu effortlessly played Moloy, the erratic Professor, He again proved that given him a chance he can do wonders!!Swastika Mukherjee reached a new league since Anguribala happened to her. Here she is no exception. Moreover, she looked exquisitely beautiful.
Paoli Dam as Mitul is a flop, rather the newcomer Poulomi Das is a revelation. Dibendyu Bhattachrya as Pawan Singh or Chelu and his narration of a dream like character Laila is a metaphor for the eternal yet vacillating quest for love. Nigel Akara with his good looks did justice to his character. Ritwick Chakraborty is wasted in the film, as the problem lies with the depiction of characters, the film must have potentiality but the much needed intensity among the characters, excepting between Moloy-Tuki is severely conspicuous by its absence.
Even with the picturesque hills, silent springs, chirping of cuckoos, could not elevate the film. The film misses profundity and it also lacks the maturity with which this kind of a film dealing with subtle issues like relationships should be dealt with. We expected much more than this from Suman Mukhopadyay!!
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