Chitra, Rimjhim and Chaitali shoot for Utshober Din. Picture by Amit Datta

TV serial director Raja Dasgupta is back behind the camera after a four-year break. With Chitra Sen, Rimjhim Mitra and wife Chaitali (Dasgupta), Raja is shooting Utshober Din, a telefilm on three women for Tara Muzik.

The story revolves around Mrittika (Chaitali), a 50-year-old professor, who leads a lonely life with mother Mrinalini (Chitra) until her Hyderabad-based son Mrinmoy and daughter-in-law Ananya (Rimjhim) decide to pay them a surprise visit. The plan is to celebrate Mrinalini’s 75th birthday together. But Mrinmoy goes off on an office tour and Ananya makes the trip alone. The women get news of a bomb blast in the hotel where Mrinmoy has put up. Shocked and confused, Mrittika and Ananya decide to hide the news from the old and ailing Mrinalini.

“Utshober Din is about the courage of three women during a tremendous personal crisis. It’s about how the two women who were closest to Mrinmoy act normal and decide to deal with the situation. Never do they give up.... My first telefilm Mukhguli was also about a lonely, ailing widow who was forced to stay in an old home by her children,” says Raja, who started his TV career in the Nineties with Kalpurush for Doordarshan.

“I am not fascinated by female-oriented subjects alone. I have made serials for children in the past. I liked the story of Utshober Din as I could connect with the loneliness and uncertainties of the three women. I like to study characters in extreme situations.” Raja’s last work before Utshober Din was Tiktiki, a telefilm with Soumitra Chatterjee and Koushik Sen. “After that I wanted to make a feature film. But since I am yet to get started on it, I decided to do a telefilm,” says Raja.

Utshober Din will be beamed on Tara Muzik on April 13.