Pratidwandi

Not having known much about what to expect, I was taken for quite a surprise with the Calcutta Trilogy. With a constantly bleak environment in each film, this series educates about the conditions of that era. Out of the three, this seems to be the happiest, and that should tell you much about the other movies.

This movie is filled with very subtle metaphors and fantastic direction. The story quickly reels you in and the audience would automatically start to root for the protagonist. There is one scene, where the protagonist, previously educated in medicine, hallucinates all the people he finds applying for a particular job position as skeletons. This was a fantastic scene and the framing must have been quite cumbersome, but it really drives in the point.

One other thing that really won me over was the last scene, which was incredibly poignant- a mention about the death of dreams, and the circular nature of life. So many wonderful moments in the movie, but these two struck me the most.

Dhritiman Chatterjee's acting was remarkable and he really delivered quite a performance. He really makes the audience root for him and quickly develops a connection with the viewer. The supporting cast were also fairly good in their roles, although they didn't really have a lot of screen-time, considering this movie was completely from the protagonist's point of view. Overall, this was a really symbolic movie with not-so bleak an ending.