Subhrajit Mitra’s contemporary take on Tagore’s tale is struggling to reach its audience. Despite a lot of hype surrounding the Amit-Labonya-Sovanlal love triangle from the Bard’s novel, Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited is showing only at Nandan (6.30pm) and Jaya (12.15pm).

The film starring Rituparna Sengupta, Saheb Chatterjee and Tota Roy Chowdhury has been cold shouldered by the multiplexes and denied a place in the popular Bengali movie chains like Priya-Mitra-Star or Minar-Bijoli-Chhabighar.

“Priya offered us the 11am slot which we declined. Who will go and watch a Bangla film at 11 in the morning?” demands Subhrajit. Arijit Dutta of Priya has a different take on the issue. “The distributors of Mon Amour approached me just two weeks before the release. I had already slotted other films. There’s Singh is Kinng and Jane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. Besides, why didn’t they accept the 11am slot? Even The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ran in the same slot.”

Mon Amour producer Debashish Moitra has his hopes pinned on Nandan, which has promised three shows from next week. “It has been difficult because many thought that Mon Amour was Tagore sexed-up and were scared of a public backlash,” explains Moitra.

But Nandan, where Mon Amour premiered on Thursday, is bothered not by the hint of controversy but by the low footfalls. “We don’t have a problem with the posters (showing Rituparna and Saheb about to kiss). We had around 400 people on Friday, which isn’t great. We will have three shows next week depending on the kind of response. We had just one show this week because we are running Tagore’s Chhuti too, to mark Baishey Shrabon,” says Nilanjan Chatterjee, the CEO of Nandan.