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| Jisshu Sengupta, Subhashree and Anjan Dutt in Shesh Boley Kichhu Nei |
Anjan Dutt is one of those people who is very close to me, dear to me and I always look forward to his work. Anjan almost started his life with my film Grihayuddha (1984). He performed so well in the film. When I was making Charachar, Rajit Kapur did a wonderful job. But when the time for dubbing came, I found that Rajit could not do justice because his Bengali wasn’t going to work. So I had to find a voice which would fit into that character. I tried many actors and suddenly I thought of Anjan. He dubbed for Rajit and he was so good. He just read the character and dubbed for him.
As a human being too Anjan is very good.
For me he is one of the most important modern composers of this decade. His songs touch a chord in my heart.
I have been watching his films, not that I have liked all his work. I have liked a few, like The Bong Connection and Bow Barracks Forever. I went to see Shesh Boley Kichhu Nei. After the screening was over, Anjan insisted that I go to a small party with him and there we discussed a lot of things about his films and about the general state of our industry.
What has been disturbing me for quite sometime now is that I don’t know what is wrong with our filmmakers, wrong with us rather. I think most of us are very frightened, chased by a fear psychosis and we think that we have to compromise while making a film. We have to do this and that just to make our films appealing to the audience. This compromise has gone so deep that it’s very difficult to come out because unless and until we kill the fear our films will not excel.
Anjan has made this film with all honesty and that’s quite evident in his images. I liked the story very much, and everyone has performed very well. But I must specially mention Jisshu Sengupta. I was spellbound watching him portray Andy. Jisshu is very good. His performance really stands out. He is one of the best actors around now. Subhashree is very good too. We misunderstand them because they are used to doing a certain kind of cinema but they can actually perform much better. Anjan is a very good actor and about Soumitrababu (Chatterjee) I can’t say anything. I have no words for Soumitra Chatterjee.
Coming to the technical department, I thought the music (Neel Dutt) is good and so is the cinematography (Supriyo Dutta). But I have a few things to say. I told Anjan that the film could have been edited a bit. The last bit gives me the impression that Anjan almost successfully tried to kill his fear. But the last 10 minutes I felt was unnecessary. A happy ending could have been avoided. In between, it could have been chopped here and there.
While it’s a wonderfully written script by Anjan at some point I felt that he was trying to be very moralistic and hammer the point that we have to do something against drug addiction. It comes across as an anti-drug film, you know. This is something that could have been avoided. That was not necessary. Also I felt Anjan, who comes to Calcutta in search of his son after he receives just one email, should have tried to find out more about his son. In one of the scenes, Subhashree tells him that his son has a girlfriend. Maybe he should have tried to contact her and find out more about his son and dig out the past. Because, you know, the son is very important. He wouldn’t have left Bangkok had he not got that email from his son.
Rest, it’s a well-made film. But as I said earlier make films with honesty. Our career doesn’t begin with the media or end with the media. We should look beyond that.
Anjan has the power. Only he has to play with his ideas more and he needn’t compromise. If Bengali cinema can’t overcome this fear psychosis and doesn’t explore original ideas and stop following trends and copying Tamil, Telugu hits then in no time Bengali cinema would become extinct. I expect Anjan to be far more courageous in his next film. I hope he comes out of cliches like a guitar and Park Street.
