Starring: Abhishek Chatterjee, Angshuman, Arpita, Sourodeep, Abhinandan, Indrani

Directed by: Sanghamitra Chaudhuri

The theme of Sanghamitra Chaudhuri’s Bidehir Khonje Rabindranath is Tagore’s experiments with the supernatural. Wounded by several deaths in the family, Tagore is known to have conducted séance sessions in Santiniketan and at his Jorasanko home — the basis for which is Tagore scholar Amitabha Chaudhuri’s book Rabindranather Parolok Charcha.

Sanghamitra mixes the documentary tools of still photography, live footage, interviews and voiceover with the story of a group of not-into-Tagore-at-all youngsters holidaying in Santiniketan and returning home converts.

Disc-hopping GenX gang Taniya, Abhi, Rony and Deep couldn’t care less about Tagore. But when they want to join Taniya’s documentary filmmaker brother Jeet (Abhishek) on a holiday in Santiniketan, Jeet takes them along on the condition that they fill in as his assistants.

Jeet decides to work on Tagore’s séance sessions and the docu-feature format introduces Tagore and his ashram.

At the other end lies the story of the film’s making. GenX goes through a radical change as they tail Jeet from Santiniketan and Jorasanko to the edit rooms. From being thoughtless revellers, they are drawn into Tagore’s world, go through trials and tribulations, survive heartbreaks and come out wiser.

But the intermingling of the documentary and narrative strands does not stand easy, and at most junctures the links appear forced. The documentary part suffers from superficial research almost as much as the narrative does from its contrived plot.

Abhishek Chatterjee is the only saving grace in a cast that is stilted and amateurish. Siddhartha Dey’s camerawork is commendable and adds colour to the scenic Santiniketan settings.