Review of Bengali movie : Samantaral

 Name of the film: Samantaral

Language: Bengali

Release: 24 November 2017

Country: India

Directors: Partha Chakraborty, Chiroprotim Saha

Music director: Indraadip Dasgupta

Cinematography: Supriyo Dutta

Cast:

• Parambrata Chatterjee as Sujan
• Riddhi Sen as Arko
• Soumitra Chatterjee as Akhilesh Chatterjee, Sujan's father
• Surangana Bandyopadhyay as Titli, Arko's girlfriend
• Kushal Chakraborty as Supriyo, the eldest son
• Aparajita Adhya as Raai, Eldest daughter-in-law
• Anindya Banerjee as Kaushik, the youngest son
• Tanusree Chakraborty as Piya, youngest daughter-in-law
• Sayantani Guhathakurta as Runi, youngest daughter, Arko's mother (deceased)
• Siddhartha Roy as Sambit, the psychiatrist

Samantaral (Parallel) is an Indian Bengali film directed by Partha Chakraborty. It was released in 2017 on 24^th November all over the india. It is basically a psychological drama film starring Parambrata Chatterjee and one of the youngest-talented Bengali actors Riddhi Sen.

Theme:

Samantaral, the title of the film translates to “parallel” in English and this film precisely deals with how a family becomes dysfunctional for failing to recognize and accept the reality of a parallel world another member lives within that exists within the same mainstream world in which it lives.

Plot:

Arko ( Riddhi Sen ) returns to his 'mamarbari' (maternal uncles' house) to meet his extended family. Over there, he meets his second uncle Sujan (Parambrata Chatterjee) who is always locked in a room because of his presumed mental illness. Arko takes permission from his grandfather (Soumitra Chatterjee) to allow him to take Sujan out of the house for some time, much to the chagrin of his other uncles (Kushal Chakraborty and Anindya Banerjee) and aunt (Tanusree Chakraborty). As Arko sees his uncle more closely, he realizes that something very wrong has happened to him and the family is hiding a secret. Finally it has been revealed that uncle Sujan is intersex and the family has always wanted to keep this identity shut from outside world. Uncle Sujan commits suicide at the end and donates his eyes to his abusive younger brother (Anindya Banerjee).

Sujon was born beyond a definite, biological sex identity and this rendered him “abnormal” in the eyes of the world including his family. “His mother refused to part with him when, soon after he was born, the eunuchs came to take him away.” On hindsight, by the time the film arrives to its tragic climax with Sujon beyond reach and into a world where such ‘differences’ do not matter, perhaps allowing those eunuchs to take him away would have given him the life he wanted to lead and that would have prevented the travesty of the entire family.

Samantaral is less than a perfect film in many ways. The pace is abnormally slow and the romantic scenes filled with too many songs are perhaps one too many as it keeps the script dragging on. The film picked up in pace, storyline and performance after the interval when incidents, interactions and characters pick up quickly to pull up the reins of the story and hold it within control.

Samataral is both a character-driven as well as an event-driven film and the director takes care, except in the extended climax, not to allow the one to dominate the other. Indraadeep Dasgupta’s music is low-key and subtle and the notes of the violin leave a rich emotional resonance. But what holds the film together is the outstanding performance of all the actors. However, the film would never have become what it has without Parambrato Chatterjee giving the most outstanding performance of his career as Sujon.

This movie actually reflects our conservative society. This movie highlights the ignored truth that our common Bengali families hide every time. A must watch movie to change the monotonous thinking of this society. The sooner we are able to accept every person around us, we will be one step closer of being a better human being. That's what has been said by the author and portrayed through the movie. Nowadays a heart of benevolence is rather scarce to find but they are there still there where they had to be but only being those closed doors. Let us open those doors and welcome every human being as they are whoever they might be in our lives. It’s not always easy to make everyone happy but it’s up to us and totally us not to trap that person or force that person so that it might affect one so much. That one might think of trading one's life for it. We specially the people of our Indian sub continent should change our bad mentality about them as early as possible. We should respect them as well as we respect men and women in our society. We  have to realize that they are not extra burden.  As a human being they have  also the right of living peacefully, they have all the rights that we have.

Samantaral sets an example by unfolding multiple layers of characterization – the mindset of the young represented by Orko and Titlee, the helplessness and guilt that silences the old patriarch, the simmering anger that often bursts out in spurts of violence in Sujon’s corporate-honcho younger brother and his beautiful wife, the wisdom, the affection, and the sense of responsibility he oldest brother and his wife have for Sujon and the orphaned Orko and the vileness of the ‘outsiders’ who people the film.



Gender Identity “Disorder’ is still something we are not only living with but also accepting as ‘not normal.’ In so doing, there is no way to know how many Sujons we are creating to die tragically, unwanted and unloved. Samantaral may not be a great film but it is sure to haunt you for hours after you have walked out of the theatre, trying to identity with the tragedy of people like Sujon.

You must have tears in your eyes in the climax of this movie. If you want to taste the Bengali movie, it is worth watching. Go and watch this film and educate your mind. 

Everyone deserves love – whoever he is, however he is. Never hurt a human heart because God resides in everyone’s heart!