Love can provide peace, support and comfort but can also lead to fear, anxiety and devastation. It could be a source of sustenance or a recipe for disaster. The teaser of the new Hoichoi original series Batashey Gungun, that dropped recently, offers a glimpse of an extraordinary love story that can totally change our perceptions of love.
Starring Suhotra Mukhopadhyay, Srijla Guha and Manali Dey, Batashey Gungun is a triangular love story like no other. The story is about a young woman (Srijla), whose obsessive love for Arindam (Suhotra), threatens to destroy his happily married life. Srijla, who probably plays a college student in love with her teacher, is the one to watch out for in the series. She owns the screen with her passion, obsession and desperation, her every movement, gesture, expression and body language, providing clues to the layers of her complex psyche.
Suhotra's character has also been painted quite interestingly, with the teaser hinting that he may be an unwitting victim of his female student's romantic overtures. His narration, which plays in the background as the teaser begins, blames Srijla's character squarely for his predicament, but fails to account for his own complicity in giving in to her demands. Manali Dey as his devoted wife is perhaps the only spotless character in the series; her simplicity and innocence are in stark contrast to that of Srijla's character.
A story of female desire, Batashey Gungun also appears to explore dark and dangerous aspects of love like manipulation, control and possessiveness. Through its exploration of obsessive love that oversteps all rational and ethical boundaries, it presents unknown and unfathomable aspects of that emotion which we call love as well as the negative impact that illicit love can have on relationships. The story also deals with the emotional vulnerability of all the main characters, their varied responses to their crisis being used as a yardstick to measure their emotional health, and consequently their sensitivity, morality or integrity. Silajit Majumder, Joydeep Mukherjee, Moyna Mukherjee and Durbar Sharma portray other important characters in this dark tale of love, directed by Arijeet Toton Chakrabarty. Batashey Gungun will stream on Hoichoi from June 20.