Mixed doubles

Direction: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Cast: Rahul Bose, Raima Sen, Rituparna Sengupta, Rajat Kapoor
Rating: *

If this dubbed-from-Bengali film has a point, it is not in the least evident. It is so slow and ponderous; that in the middle of a scene when the camera tracks a leaf falling from a tree nothing of the scene is lost because it was going nowhere in the first place.

And that can be said of the entire film, which often consists of dialogue that means nothing except for being flowery in an adolescent sort of way.

For what it is worth, Anuraran is about two married couples (Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta and Rajat Kapoor, Raima Sen) who are in the process of losing the magic in their marriage. Because Rahul and Rajat work together, the four of them are often thrown together, giving the opportunity for some verbal flirting. And so on and so forth till the flirting gives rise to more.

Rahul is given to recording his feelings into a dictaphone, which means he spouts poetry and begins sentences with “Tagore says…” in the most inappropriate of places and times.

Rituparna, face caked with inch-thick foundation, is given to long silences and gasps to show emotion. Raima, looking like Suchitra Sen in Aandhi, is permanently in heat. Rajat Kapoor is the only one who behaves like a normal person.

As for the film, it is so pretentious, indulgent and slow, one would get more thrills out of watching mice scurrying about.
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