AAAAAAA... thud!

Fifteen minutes into the two-hour-forty-five-minute-film you know what Shibaji is all about. That’s how novel the plot of Babu Roy’s debut film is. A toughie with fists of fury decides to shun violence for the sake of love, but is compelled to go on a killing spree after his wife is raped and daughter killed. The end.

At the crux of the cliched cacophony is Shibaji (Prosenjit, of course), who goes around town in dark glasses, black boots and a buckled beige leather jacket beating up baddies like a Shahenshah-turned-Sumo wrestler. Literally! Shibaji’s one blow sends a goon flying, leaves him suspended mid-air while the camera can zoom in, fade out and add some digital effects before the poor thing is allowed to fall to the ground with a fatal thud! Phew.

All is not well in Shibaji’s world. His desperate wife Durga (Swastika) gulps down some poison to reform her Shibaji’s violent ways. Reason enough for Shibaji to give up all things goony and go loony, prancing around trees with his poisoned-turned-passionate patni draped in sexy chiffon and halter neck.

A false murder charge sends Shibaji packing to jail. His wife is raped and killed and daughter choked to death. That’s the cliched cue for Shibaji to embark on mission vendetta. Which also includes kidnapping the little daughter (Tathoi) of conscientious cop Tapas Pal and his snooty wife Satabdi Roy to teach them a lesson. But the kidnapper and the kidnapped end up playing and singing in parks!

There’s also time for an awful item number in the den of vice where a pot-bellied woman in skimpy clothes gyrates to a track which goes, Murga bole garam porechhe, murgi bole dim perey de. Aaaarrrgh? Eggjactly!

Despite a mindless role littered with inane dialogues (“Kolkataye guru mahaguru shobi aami” – aimed at you-know-who), Prosenjit tries his best to be Shibaji. And he does manage to generate some ceetees and taalis. Swastika does justice to her brief role, but one wonders why her voice was dubbed. Ranjit Mullick (as the judge), Tapas Pal and Satabdi are there to add some more tortuous twists to the tale.

Desperate to watch a Prosenjit film? Go watch Ghar Jamai or Takkar instead.