Force doesn’t have any false intellectual pretensions, neither does it try to sway the audience with unnecessary glamour and glitter. Force talks about sacrifices in a simple way. Some characters in this film have made certain sacrifices for others in a very dignified way. Maybe it’s nothing new, nothing unique but the way this has been treated, the film, despite certain major loopholes, appears meaningful and is worth watching

What was silent in the father speaks in the son and often I found in the son the unveiled secret of the father — Friedrich Nietzsche

Watching Raja Chanda’s Force on a Friday evening, I reflected on these lines. At the heart of the film is the beautiful relationship of a father and son. This concept is not unknown to us. We’ve seen films like this. But still this film amuses us again. Many people haven’t watched Force yet, so I won’t reveal the entire plot. There are two things I would love to mention specifically — the film has many subplots, many stories run parallely. The blending of all the plots was done so flawlessly that the film’s pace didn’t drop even for a second. But the showstealers were Prosenjit and little Arya Dasgupta. They portrayed this immaculate father and son bonding effortlessly. I would conclude with congratulating the entire cast and crew. Any performing art is a team effort. So the entire team of Force made it possible. A big thank you to them on behalf of the audience for this genuine effort.

— Riddhi Sen

From dream to dream and rhyme to rhyme, I have ranged in rambling talk with an image of air. Vague memories, nothing but memories.

— WB Yeats

I won’t say the Prosenjit-Arpita-starrer Force, which hit the screens last week, is something great. NO. That would be a lie. If I say that the film has the immense possibility at the box office, then also it would be a lie.

Force appealed to me because of its simplicity. The experienced actors, directors, producers and technicians of the Tollywood film industry have all started admitting that commercial Bengali cinema has to redefine itself. It has to redefine its various artistic possibilities, it has to find various ways to reach out to those who are still not interested in Bengali films. Instead of taking great pride in investing crores of rupees in a film, we have to face the reality in a much more innovative way. I liked Force because of this particular reason. This film doesn’t have any false intellectual pretensions, neither does it try to sway the audience with unnecessary glamour and glitter.

Force is the journey of a father and a special child who suffers (or blessed?) from autism, and at the end of the journey the only thing that remains is memories. It’s not a story of good versus evil, but the film very honestly projects how one can make one’s life a little more meaningful. Prosenjit’s passionate portrayal is truly inspiring. The selection of the other cops is very interesting — Debranjan Nag, Tathagato Mukherjee, Jayjit Banerjee and Jayanta Hore looked so convincing.

It was a correct decision on the behalf of the director to cast Arpita in a very important role. This character needed to look believable instead of glamourous. Arpita did that very honestly. It was a delight to watch the brief appearance of Kharaj Mukherjee. Young actors can always learn from this marvellous veteran. As a doctor (in Force), his dialogues could have sounded drab and monotonous but because of his brilliant acting capability, everyone enjoyed those scenes.

Prosenjit is truly exceptional as a father dealing with his special son. His love, his helplessness is so moving. And it was amazing to watch young Arya Dasgupta, who performed brilliantly and gave Bumbada (Prosenjit) the perfect support in various important scenes.

The story revolves around this city. Gopi’s (Bhagat) camerawork is so simple yet it captured the emotional turmoils of the characters so effectively. The parallel story of the lawbreakers versus the protectors appeared to be weak and therefore on various occasions distracted the audience. At least I was keen to see the encounter between the father and the son.

We are living in an age of transition. This is a time when every day we are witnessing something or the other is changing. Sometimes the changes make us happy and on many occasions we watch the undesired changes helplessly. Everything around us is becoming fragmented. The distortion of the humanist principles sometimes becomes truly painful. Force talks about sacrifices in a simple way. Some characters in this film have made certain sacrifices for others in a very dignified way. Maybe it’s nothing new, nothing unique but the way this has been treated by director Raja Chanda, the film, despite certain major loopholes, appears meaningful and is worth watching.

what did you like about force? tell t2@abp.in