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| Movie Poster (courtesy: unknown) |
It’s the last Friday of the month and no such sassy movies hit the theatres. But before the end of the months, Bengali cinema has been lauded up with 9 great released today. Yes, you read it right 9 releases today. You see Bengalis had a hard time choosing what movie to watch. there always is a problem of plenty. While 9 releases simultaneously raptured each other’s market to a great extent, Hindi release Baaghi 2 added insult to injury.
While a huge crowd has been either attracted by Baaghi 2 or by ‘Ghore and Baire ‘ by Koyel and Jissu thanks to its good promotion and big star cast, I guess hardly 30% of the cinematic audience have chosen either from the rest of 8 Bengali movies in unison. After shuffling through bonuses and trailers, and going through synopsis bite from the evenest of the releases today-‘Rong Beronger Kohri’ attracted me the most. Let name be alone, but it is its unique theme that made me choose it.
For all the non-Bengalis reading this lets me first tell you the meaning of what the movie’s title means: Basically it means the color of money. ’Rong Beronger’ is equal to ‘of different color’ and ‘kohri’ which is actually ‘cowrie’ is a medium of exchange which signifies money (in Hindu).
Directed by Ranjan Ghosh, this movie deals with the ties of money and relationship. Let not tell money, but lack of money is what the central theme that is drawing all the incidents in it into a single knot. The film comprises four short stories. The stories of the variant color of money in human life.
This is what hypnosis tells us:
Rong Beronger Korhi is an anthology film that weaves together four tales through the common thread of money. Through these stories, peopled by a host of interesting characters, the film examines how money is more than just a medium of exchange, potent enough to influence and even define various facets of our everyday lives.
The first story revolves around a poor rural couple (Soham and Arunima) who once fell in love with each other as commonly as we all fell in but after a happy marriage is now looking for a divorce. Being a illiterate they don’t have any idea of getting separated lawfully, this is where we see a local councillor named Kharag Mukherjee getting the task done but in exchange of some money, but the male character don’t have that much amount .His adamantness regarding the divorce is a funny sight where even after the divorce they fail to de-love themselves and for remarriage they need money is the seam of the tale for this half an hour. Here money as a color of love is shown. Love won over money.
The second story features much gracious Arunima again in role of Manda who is married to a much older man than her (Chiranjeet Chakraborty), suffering from an inoperable malignant tumor. She is also suffering from a heart problem and being an unlucky daughter (her mother died and father turned alcoholic) she had to refuse her lover Mithun (Arjun Chakraborty) and marry him for she feels a lack of money in her life. Here, money is something that tied her into an unknown relationship but after a while, she fell in love with her husband but a sudden accident throws Manda into a serious dilemma.
Congratulation to those who were guessing that there must be the demonetization tale. Yes, it was. Played by Ritwick Chatterjee, an anonymous character is a victim of demonetization after being fired from his job. His cigarette is being pulled off from his mouth for he didn't have a change and this is what carried him to red light zone. There he encounters a prostitute (Rituparna Sengupta), who’s past story tells the importance of money in his life. While the intense tale is tried to light up by some common day pun talks between the dealer and the character, this story deals with the glittery color of money. I assure you, end of this tale would surely bring you Goosebumps.
The last and the simplest story is about a ‘dhaak’ player Joga (who shows an affinity towards ‘dhaak’ inherited from his father) and her widowed mother (Rituparna). Joga is adamant to cure his mother of some disease she has been suffering (that is never mentioned), for which he needs to go to a city to earn some money. Durga Puja is arriving and ‘dhaak' competition is also being held. He leaves for city promising her mother that he would win the competition and cure her mother with the earned money. He is drowned in 'dhaak' while he receives a heart-breaking news. This story is more like we see poor people dealing with. They need money and it is what carried Joga to leave his mother at the assurance of God. The conclusion of the story is heart filling and the dialogue “Tui ek maa ke chere r ek mayer kache jacchis “ can tentatively make you prepare what is gonna happen next. Remember at Dashami ‘Ma Durga‘ leaves for her house too.
Simple yet beauty- this is what my opinion is about this movie. The movie narrated no such extraordinary tales but some simple tales of simple people around us whom we often refuse to understand makes the movie a worthy watch.While the movie promises a good plot but is let down by an over-simplified script that most often is predictable. (Actually, my friend predicted two of the tales). The acting department is something that is managed ably by an ensemble cast. The actors (especially a de-glam Arunima and Soham) did a commendable job.
While the stories are told apart and somehow of different method, a common string of money beholds them all. There are some pacing issue too (since the stories were predictable) but you will hardly feel for it as is ably covered with some comic scenes too. The voice over does its job too. But it is director Ranjan Ghosh who lack at execution somewhere but the idea of exploring the subject of money through relationships, realities and emotions is unique, he focuses more on the characters than the subject matter.
Critics give it a 2.5 star but I feel it deserve more. I would give it a 3.5 star. Overall it’s a worthy watch.Give it a try, it won't disappoint you.
I have heard people saying ‘hari hari note’, but after watching this you can definitely argue that money is not always green.
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