Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, May 14: Doubts were raised over hit filmmaker Tathagata Bhattacherjee’s shifting from his comfort zone of crime thrillers to a social theme and that too, on a socially intrinsic and deep-rooted subject of the Bengali community living through ages in traditional joint family structure steadily disintegrating into nuclear families and, of late, moving into the comparatively new trend of single parenting. “Was the traditional Bengali joint family setup better to nurture the roots deeper into the soil of heritage or are the disintegrated, ‘progressive times’ concept of nuclear families and single parenting better suited to present day living in a materialistic world of consumerism that entails a mad race to nowhere?” This is the crux of what director Tathagata proposes without taking sides in his latest social experiment, AKORIK. That the discerning audience has been forced to ponder on the current Bengali community status on this intriguing yet entertaining social drama, AKORIK, that is into its fourth week’s run, a record for recent Bengali films at the very prestigious Nandan – 2 cinema and continuing to fan out into suburban theatres with pressure building up on producers, Iceberg films, and the distributors for all India and satellite releases of this Bengali conscience stirrer.
The tale is grippingly narrated through a bonding between a 75 year old man adhering to the traditional Bengali joint family system and a 10 year kid being brought up by a single mother. This bonding grows among the beautiful and breath-taking climes of Himachal Pradesh that has been frozen for the first time in Bengali cinema.
National Award winners Victor Banerjee and Rituparna Sengupta have essayed the roles of the septuagenarian proudly upholding the values of traditional Bengali joint family roots and the single mother respectively in their usual suave, stellar and reassuring manner along with other popular artistes.
Another soothing factor in AKORIK is director Tathagata Bhattacherjee’s ingenious use of three Rabindranath compositions in original forms. This has happened after a long hiatus since maestros Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Tarun Majumdar. Of course, some directors have randomly used Rabindra Sangeet in their remix forms which audiences have happily forgotten. In Tathagata’s case, the use of the Bard’s lyrical creations is authentic and appropriate. A positive communication emanating from West Bengal is that Tathagata is bent on presenting AKORIK to the citizens of Jamshedpur, especially the Bengali community either through theatre release or doing a special screening. It is a must-watch and feel movie. So, Jamshedpur folks, keep your fingers crossed for AKORIK, an Iceberg Films presentation of director Tathagata Bhattacherjee’s latest and super-hit venture that is about to knock on the city’s door soon.
