Bappaditya Pal

The film is based on a Nabarun Bhattacharya's Novel by Same Name. The Novel is an exceptionally great work by Nabarun for its unconventional way of storytelling and the honest expressions of characters against relentless reality. It was awarded Sahitya Academy Award for its brilliance. The movie is smart adaptation of the same by Suman Mukhopadhya with profound laughter, pathos, and humanity. The movie begins with Herbert Sarkar, the protagonist of the film, cursing a group of people. As the movie proceeds it revels the hidden corners of Herbert’s life in a nonlinear way. He lost his parents accidentally in his childhood. He became a crank ridiculed and ill-treated by everyone including his cousin Dhanna. However his aunt cared him very much. His cousin Krishna and his nephew Binu also loved him. The movie also depicts his struggle to adapt to his surrounding, his tragic love affair with Banalota, his introduction of Communism and the idealism of Lenin, Mao, Stalin, the Maoist Naxalbari movement during the turbulent seventies and his unwitting involvement with that. After Binu’s death Herbert claims that Binu has revealed the location of the diary to him in his dream and he can communicate with dead people. It leads to set up a business under the banner “Dialogues with the dead”. Even in this business his struggle continues. Rationalist Society declares him a fraud and finally he committed suicide. After his body is put inside the electric cremation chamber, and the switch turned on, the chamber explodes.. The incident hits the headlines as a posthumous terroristic act, and a police inquiry is launched to find the mystery behind it. At the end, it was revealed that Binu, during his last visit with Herbert, hid a few dynamite inside Herbert's sleeping mattress and though he would come back in time to take those out but he was before that. After Herbert died Dhanna sends the mattress along with the dead body for cremation. Once inside the cremation chamber, the grenades catch fire and explode. Perhaps the explosion symbolised the outcome of all anger, hate, protest which were remained hidden and unexpressed inside Herbert throughout his life. It is a deeply moving and artistic work by Suman Mukhopadhya.

‘The accidental prime minister’ is a good movie worth watching. This political drama is based on Sanjaya Baru’s book by the same name. It did not appear as a propaganda film to me in spite of the title and the suspicious release time (before the general election 2019). Your view about the political parties or figures will not alter when you leave the cinema hall. It depicts Mr. Baru’s perception about Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and person Dr. Manmohan Singh. The movie begins with the victory of UPA, the complexity in selecting Prime Minister and finally accession of Dr. Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister of India. As movie proceed it covers few politically critical issues and conflict of stands taken by the Prime Minister and the party president. Real footage have been included to support some of these incidents. However, the issues shown in the movie lack of details. Probably it is done intentionally to avoid controversies. The authenticity of the facts which the movie reveal is a separate story all together. Nevertheless the occurrence of events, the humor it delivers and the resemblance of the actors/actress after make up with the real characters keep you focused in the movie. Akshaye Khanna is smooth throughout the movie. On the other hand apart from makeup, the acting of Anupam Kher as Dr. Manmohan Singh is little exaggerated in many scenes. Overall you will not be bored or feel stupid (‘why the hell am I watching this’ kind of feeling) throughout the run time of the movie.