Writer, director: Rangan Chakrabarti

Cast: Jisshu Sengupta, Koel Mullick, Biswajit Chakrabarty, Rita Koiral, Tanima Sen, Kanchan Mullick, Mallika Majumdar, Biswajit Basu

Plot: Love story with funny twists and turns galore to keep you hooked

Verdict Wholesome family entertainment

Mithyl packs her bags and leaves Siliguri for Kolkata to realise her cherished dream of becoming a radio-jockey. She shacks up in a crowded mess where the colourful inmates are moping over boyfriends they have lost or about to lose. But when she tries to move out alone, a big red sign spells out No Entry to a single girl. She steps into a bar where unescorted girls are not allowed. She parks herself at a table where the young and handsome Avik is downing a lemon juice while his cameraman friend is nursing a beer. Avik falls for the girl hook, line and sinker and when she asks him for what appears to be a date, he agrees at once. The so-called date turns out to be a request to Avik to pretend to act as her fiancé, stage a false registered marriage so that she can get a flat to herself. The besoted Avik bends backwards to please this girl who exploits him to the hilt and then asks him to leave. "I can't handle the scene," she tells him just like that, all after he has cooked hot dinners for her, nursed her when she was very sick and even stood in for her at her radio station.

What happens once he leaves? You've guessed it. She suddenly realises that she is in love with him and cannot marry anyone else. Her father suffers a cerebral stroke. He comes out of it with a baby-like lisp ornamenting his speech. The mother forces Mythil into a marriage hurriedly arranged to a nerd who keeps asking his father, "Baba, won't I get married?" It turns out that the father's heart-attack was a fake, the lisp is a fake and the last-minute damage control the father and Avi's friend try out about Avik having met with an accident is also a fake. Even the real marriage, as the curious and involved landlady is informed, is an episode of a television serial being shot. Mythil, complete in bridal gear of red sari, red veil, white crown and massive jewellery rides a two-wheeler right into the nursing home to meet her boyfriend.

Technical Expertise
The funny title - 'The groom will arrive just now' is borrowed from the first line of a Bengali nursery rhyme. The name sets the mood of the film - it is a pro-wedding film with lots of fun and merriment. Does the film carry this idea forward? Yes and no. The characterisations are a bit skewed. Avik's only link with his software engineering is limited to his visiting card that he forgets at Mythil's apartment. The card has a dramatic role to play in uniting the estranged lovers. But that is another story. Mythil is up market, sophisticated and independent. The director has given Koel Mullick a complete image makeover that not only suits her beautifully but also draws attention to her tendency to overact. She controls this tendency after the interval. Jisshu's character is very weak but he tries to rise above it. He deserved a better deal via the script. He is the 'bor' (groom) after all!

Post-interval, it is as if P.C.Sorcar Junior has touched the film with his magic wand. Bor Aashbe Ekhuni turns into a rollicking comedy just because the supporting characters are beautifully scripted by the director and executed by the actors. Their performance raises the film to another plane. Among them are Mythil's parents, Avik's friend Kanchan and the kindly landlady played by Tanima Sen whose brilliantly timed kee kando has everyone in splits. Soumik Halder's camerawork is brilliant, capturing the silhouette of Kolkata in its dusky evenings, or one half of Koel's serious face when she steps in to tell Avik to leave. The music is good but uneven. The title-song weaves other popular nursery rhymes is a bit too loud while the theme song is repeated all too often.

Verdict
The most outstanding quality of Bor Ashbe Ekhuni is its essentially honest Bangla character. Neither the theme, nor the style and approach are an imitation of any Bollywood flick, good, bad or indifferent. The title picked from a famous nursery rhyme we lisped as children, spells out the spirit of the film - wholesome Bangla entertainment for the family. Three stars for the film - one for the screenplay, one for the dialogue and one for the wonderful performances of the supporting actors.