Rituparno Ghosh has revisited familiar territory - conjugal conflicts. But this time there is a new angle, well not quite new in terms of a device used in other films made by him, that of poetry and rediscovering oneself & one’s love in the light of it.
Bipasha Basu plays Radhika, the protagonist who fails to strike a chord with her poet husband Indranil Mitra, played by Prosenjit Chatterjee, but reflects & reviews their relationship, which was rife discordant notes, post his untimely death.
Jishu Sengupta plays Shekhar, Radhika’s colleague and a friend & admirer of poet Indranil. He also happens to have a soft corner for Radhika, which even briefly materializes as a love interest, muted by Indranil’s sudden death. Indranil lives in his world of imagination & creativity and turns a blind eye, rather crudely & selfishly, to his wife’s fulfillment.
There is a sharp divide, a schism created by the language; Radhika is not the typical Bengali wife and she expresses herself more fluidly in English. Plus she also has the basal concerns that Indranil is oblivious to.
As a film, Sab Charitro Kalponik ( All Characters are Imaginary, aka Afterword ) is rich in poetry. It is rich in visuals too. The visual motifs are, however, all too familiar for the audience who are well-versed with Rituparno’s cinematic idiom.
Joy Goswami’s poetry ( the poet has a cameo too) makes up for many of the gross self-indulgences and the tedium induced by the maker. I am left to wonder if Rituparno Ghosh has nothing new to offer. I hope my apprehensions would be proved false in the near future.
One of the major drawbacks of the film is having the voice of Bipasha Basu dubbed by Sohini Halder. The latter has got the nuances of her diction right, but has been a sad substitute for the unique voice of the actress, who could have been much more effective in totality had the voice job not been done! Even Sohag Sen, who lends support in the role of the loyal domestic help, Nandor Ma, comes up with a blemished diction that mars the realistic dialogues.
At the end, I must commend the presence of Paoli Dam ( as Indranil’s muse, Kajori ), as she manages to make her earthy appeal effective in the brief, surreal, dream sequences. She deserves to be seen more on the big screen.
Credits-
Cinematography: Soumik Halder;
Story: Rituparno Ghosh;
Music: Raja Narayan Deb, Sanjay Das;
Lyrics: Late Laalan Fakir, Late Rabindranath Tagore, Joy Goswami;
Editing: ArghyaKamal Mitra;
Art Direction: Indranil Ghosh;
Production: Big Pictures, Reliance.