Dear Aniket Chattopadhyay, I’m being brutally honest. I have seen some of your earlier works like Cha-E-Chuti, Bye Bye Bangkok, Mahapurush Kapurush, and found them rather patchy, filled with overacting, cleverly written in parts but simply just not there. But watching Room Number 103 at Nandan this week, I felt rather excited and wanted to write simply because you chose not to be clever at all this time. 

Moving away completely from so-called sex comedy or satire, which I don’t feel is your strength, you tackled certain very simple human dramas which touch without being melodramatic. Trust me, this is your strength and not an easy task in our current phase of “packaging”, “clever repartee”, “melodrama” and “sensation”. That you chose to be simple, risking even being old-fashioned, makes Room Number 103 your best till date for me.

Of course there are holes. Neither you nor I are masters of the craft. My Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona or even Chalo... Let’s Go had cliches. Despite P.B. Chaki’s tedious, overlit compositions and Sujoy Dutta Roy’s loose editing, the last two stories simply lift the entire film to a hugely memorable experience simply because of your script and the performances. 

The first tale, though brilliantly acted by Anjana Basu, falls short of the punch in the second half. Though this is the only story where Chaki is excitingly stark, and the letter exchanges between Anjana and Badshah Moitra is rather deftly written and shot, the ending is somehow pale.  

Your choice of Soumitra Chatterjee to bind the stories as the manager of the strange, almost surreal, hotel wins you more than half the battle. The 80-plus veteran still manages to compensate for the lack of darkness and shadows in the cinematography and gives the required mysterious touch to the film. His rigid refusal to be dramatic only heightens the drama, provokes the unsaid and leaves us to imagine and draw our conclusions on the characters.

Ankita has a certain cold fire, which is so rare. As the suburban Madhobilata, lost in this crazy world of lust and success, she is superb. Anindya Bose also pulls off the inevitably hypocritical singer with much ease. The scene where they plan to elope works for me beautifully because nothing much is said. There is a certain grey melancholy. The third story works wonders because you build it up through brief flashbacks. Kanchana Moitra’s Ria, though a bit overdone at times, manages to hold up strongly. I only wish you would have ended the story with the shooting of the TV serial, where Ankita brilliantly plays out her own life in front of the camera. The rest became sermonising, which this film cannot afford. 

The fourth story is extremely brave. Kaushik Ray, a very dark character so rare in contemporary scenario, was ideal for an actor like Chiranjeet. But that Jisshu Sengupta, an actor half his age, pulls it off with such subtlety and elan only goes to prove that Jisshu has finally arrived. Priyanka is perhaps the most underrated actress of our times. Her playful yet brutally shameless Trina is simply awesome. 

I must say kudos to your music director Mayookh Bhaumik for his minimalistic background. Prabuddha Dasgupta’s guitar makes up for many blemishes and helps the film flow smoothly. An adult Priyanka’s voice becomes that of a child in the climax is extremely interesting. That neither you, Aniket, nor Mayookh is truly interested in a full-length song sequence works. 

The second story, despite having huge potential, does not work purely because you allowed Rajesh Sharma, a super actor otherwise, to ham. Nor does the digital worm on the paintings in the room make much sense. But they do not detract from the tale purely because Ankita’s story takes over. I connect with the pain of this suburban girl who has no other option but to abort her pregnancy.

Finally, your Room Number 103, produced by RP Techvision, proves that touching drama told simply still works. That no amount of production value can compensate for the mystery that Soumitra Chatterjee creates just by his calm presence. That Calcutta still has enough talent to be proud of and simplicity still works.