The upcoming film, Sharthopor, directed by Annapurna Basu, is a relationship drama that delves into the flipside of filial relationships. Its trailer offers glimpses of this story about a brother and sister in which trouble erupts over the sale of their parental property by the male heir.

Featuring Koel Mallick and Koushik Sen in the roles of the two siblings, Sharthopor is a tale high on emotions and internal conflicts. Dissecting the bond between a brother and sister, it lays bare the faultlines in apparently beautiful and loving family relationships, exposing harsh, bitter truths of life through a story that is realistic and relatable to contemporary audiences.

In the film, Aparna Ghosal, the married younger sister, takes her elder brother Saurav Basu to court to prevent him from selling off their parents’ home after their passing. This disturbs the status quo of their erstwhile relationship based purely on love and affection, with each sibling reacting differently to the matter. Whereas Aparna continues to love her elder brother as before and is deeply pained to have to take recourse to the law, Saurav expresses his hurt and indignation in a completely different way.

The conflict between the siblings takes a heavy emotional toll on both, with matters off court threatening to assume more serious proportions than those on it.

Koel’s performance, as the younger sister clinging to the emotional ties of her paternal home, is heart-touching. The trailer is full of flashback shots of Aparna as a child and as a married daughter, indulging in the expressions of love, care and nurturing showered on her by her parents and elder brother. She endorses every married woman’s unspoken connection to her paternal home and its symbolic association with childhood and a carefree life. To her, that place is like a forever home, a safe space where she is never judged nor has any defined role as a mother or wife or daughter-in-law.

Her emotions clearly reveal her helplessness when she is left with no choice but to take her brother, whom she loves very much, to court in order that she may get to keep her rightful home. Koushik Sen is the very embodiment of the middle-class family man, burdened by financial responsibilities and trying his best to manage his family’s needs within his restricted means. He expresses his cold attitude and growing resentment for his sister with subtlety, making his portrayal of the character complex but authentic. The voice of Aparna’s husband is almost like a choric character in Sharthopor, expressing the moral dilemma of the siblings, and also suggesting and foreshadowing the way the plot might unfold.

What is significant about Sharthopor is the way it examines conventional, idealised sibling relationships from the perspective of inheritance and right to ownership of parents’ assets. The film shows how economic factors often determine decisions that would otherwise be governed by emotion, and how that can adversely affect perfectly beautiful and happy interpersonal relationships. Sharthorpor also contains some important lessons for society by exposing the faults and deficits in a system with outdated laws defined by patriarchy.

Enriched with powerful performances by Ranjit Mallick, Anirban Chakrabarti, Biswajit Chakraborty and others, Sharthopor has an October 21 release date.