Laborious narrative

Film: Shob Charitro Kalponik
Cast:  Bipasha Basu, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta
Director: Rituparno Ghosh

Flashbacks during the memorial service of her celebrated poet husband Indraneel (Prosenjit Chatterjee) unleash a range of emotions in his widow Radha (Bipasha Basu).

We see the complexities of their relationship, the differing priorities and points of view and in doing so our sympathy, once firmly on Radha’s side, gradually becomes more balanced.

Radha resents Indraneel’s self-absorbed, artistic attitude. In turn, she is a cuckolding, nagging wife. After his death, overcome with guilt, Radha rediscovers her love and loyalty.
Bipasha Basu’s performance wins over the audience, though the dubbed voice does her no favours (and was perhaps unnecessary), especially the staccato English dialogue delivery.

Chatterjee’s portrayal of the pretentious, irresponsible, faux intellectual who dines out on the experiences and stories of others, transforming them into verse, succeeds in making him extremely dislikeable.

The poetry probably has far greater lyrical resonance in the original Bengali than via English subtitles. Director Rituparno Ghosh crafts an aesthetically taut film with wonderful costumes, art direction, camera movements and framing, but the narrative is laborious and the result not rewarding enough.