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Starring: Rituparna Sengupta, Soumitra Chatterjee, Samadarshi, Sandhya Roy, Tulika Basu, Siddhartha Chatterjee, Rajesh Sharma
Directed by: Pinaki Chaudhuri
Arohan builds on an interesting premise backed by powerful performances but falls short because of the weak screenplay.
The plot revolves around a staunch believer in astrology, Suryashekhar (Soumitra), who wishes to spend his last days at Varanasi’s Moksha Bhavan — modwrn legend has it that anyone breathing his last in that house attains salvation. In Varanasi, Suryashekhar’s grandson (Samadarshi) gets involved with a married dehati woman Kasturi (Rituparna). To talk him out of the affair, Suryashekhar’s estranged son (Siddhartha) arrives in Varanasi. In a twist of fate, he suffers a heart attack and dies.
Watch out for Rituparna’s show-stealing performance. Her dehati homemaker is a spunky woman who dares, bares, makes love and mouths expletives with aplomb. Also, Rajesh Sharma as her husband, who even engages in a cheat kiss with his gay partner. Cinematographer Badal Sarcar’s camera captures the beauty of Varanasi with its ghats and evening arati, lanes and bylanes, and sprawling yellow mustard fields.
POST SCRIPT
Cancer, 6 Ballygunge Court and now Arohan — why this preoccupation with old age, loneliness and death?
Because I believe that ultimately we are all proceeding towards death. But not all my films are as morbid as Arohan. Cancer was more about the psychological aspect than the physical. 6 Ballygunge Court was about a practical problem. Forty per cent of families go through loneliness when their children go abroad. The subject of Arohan occurred to me when I came across this article in The Telegraph on a place called Mukti Bhavan in Varanasi where people go to die in order to attain salvation. I was intrigued and I wanted to explore the concept of salvation in Arohan. I am planning to release the film in Mumbai and Delhi with subtitles.
The first half seemed long and even tedious. Couldn’t it have been shortened?
You need a specific amount of time to establish a film. I admit that the first half is long but I took those 45 minutes to establish the story, give the backstory of my characters and I think the audience should have patience. I have repeated a scene and a dialogue in the first half but it was necessary as Suryashekhar is a believer in astrology and I had to question his beliefs through dialogue. The first half also introduces Suryashekhar’s grandson, so all this slows down the pace a little.
But I have made up for it in the second half with the Rituparna-Samadarshi romance, songs and dances.
In the second half there is one song-and-dance too many. Don’t you think it dims the seriousness of the theme?
No, I wanted to strike a balance. The subject of Arohan is death, it’s very morbid and so I wanted to have songs in the second half. The dream song sequence is necessary to show what’s going on in Kasturi’s (Rituparna) mind. I haven’t used songs to romanticise. Music is important for a dark film like Arohan. I didn’t do it in my other films.
The kissing scene between two men is a departure from your kind of cinema...
It’s a half-minute scene. Prior to that scene Kasturi talks a lot about her husband Shyam (Rajesh) being a homosexual. I wanted to have the kissing scene as I wanted to give some proof to the audience and I don’t think the audience will find it difficult to digest. Just before this scene the characters talk a lot about Shyam’s sexual preferences.
We really like Ritu’s performance. What about you?
Yes, I am very happy. She is the right actress for Kasturi. Nobody could have performed better than her, though Ritu wasn’t my first choice. I had auditioned another actress but the moment she came to know that the dialogues would be in Bhojpuri she backed out. Ritu did absolute justice to the character and also spoke the language so well!
But we felt that Samadarshi didn’t look the part...
Why not? I have lived in London and seen NRIs from close quarters. I think the bearded, rugged look suits Samadarshi. His accent seemed all right to me.
