Deepak Chaudhary

This movie happened to catch my attantion on Amazon Prime. But was I disappointed? The initial credits show this quote from Martin Luther King Junior. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Very rightly summarized in above quote, this film is about the famous Dhananjoy Chaterjee case who was convicted for “Rape” and “Murder” of a schoolgirl, and he was executed to death by three courts including Honrary Supreme Court, for this heinous and ‘Rarest of Rare’ Crimes. You will ask whats wrong with that? A person like this deserves a death sentence. But just like Arushi Talwar case, this sentencing was also based on “Circumstantial Evidence”. Due to the nature of the crime, even the Mercy Petition of the convict was rejected, and on 15th Aug 2004, he was ‘freed’. The film through the perspectives of Kavya Sinha(played superbly by Mimi Chakraborty) and his colleague(Kaushik Sen) touches the vital untouched clues, that could have saved a life, that no one noticed, that media, political parties pressure helped to ignore. The film tries to bring out facts that clearly suggest that he was a victim of the circumstances and his fate was like that. In one of the heart wrenching scenes, Dhananjoy’s uncle suggest that “Justice is for rich and poor never get it because of their poverty”. The film also doesn’t conclude who was the killer but presents a theory to suggest the same and the motive, through Kavya’s angle. Coming back to the film, a good crime thriller is one that keeps the viewer engaged till the last scene and Dhananjoy does exactly that. Despite it 140 mins length, the film kept me hooked and if you miss one dialogue, you might miss an important clue. Right from first scene, the film takes its time to build its characters, and once done, gets into a no-nonsense zone. Hats off to Arindam Sil and team for bringing out a vital incident through the medium of a film, just like Aarushi Talwar case, this one also needs to be followed. For the performances, Mimi Chakraborty as Kavya Sinha literally kills it with her confident and Braveura performance. Not only she looks stunning, but certainly knows how to lead the pack, and here’s she clearly the hero. Kaushik Sen, as his Senior Advocate, also compliments and her well and that chemistry between the two is the highlight, discussing the case while doing their office activities, comes out so naturally. Anirban Bhattacharya as Dhananjoy is convincing. Though he doesnt get much screen time, despite being the film about him, he still manages to get that set of emotions right. Arjaa Banerjee as Chandra(Dhananjoy’s wife) is bang on. She doesn’t get much to speak, but excels in whatever she does. A special mention for Paran Bandopadhyay for his heart wrenching performance. He is a very senior actor and he emotes with his eyes. I just couldnt take eyes of him whenever he was on screen. All in all, Dhananjoy is a brilliant crime thriller and a must watch, if you are a fan of no nonsense crime courtroom drama thriller. My rating : 4.25/5