Partha, head honcho of an insurance company, (Sudip Ghosh) and Sheela’s (Sreelekha Mitra) marriage is apparently hunky-dory with anniversary parties and coochie-cooing marred by their childlessness. His younger brother, Pratik (Amitabh Bhattacharya) who has a high-flying job in a BPO firm, has become an alcoholic. His wife Raima (Swastika Mukherjee) tries to put up a brave face for the sake of their daughter Ayesha, handling the situation with dignity and restraint.
Animesh (Rudraneel Ghosh) is an insurance salesman, who fails to reach anywhere remotely close to his sales target every month. His wife Geeta is frustrated when he fails to earn enough even to pay for his son’s admission. The efficient and reasonable Anjali (Maitreyee) works in a BPO. She is engaged to Rahul (Indrajeet), who, desperate to realise his Great American Dream, makes the relationship take a volatile turn when, against Anjali’s wishes, he insists on a double pay-packet even if this means their having to live distanced from each other after marriage.
Technical Expertise
The characters are fleshed out in detail, along with their conflicts and pain with conviction. As the film speeds up to a somewhat stretched climax dotted with too many dramatic coincidences, the problems get sorted out. Partha and Sheela cope with the reality of their lives. Anjali, who has taken the trip with her mother to de-stress herself, meets Rahul, who has come on a tip-off from the older lady. Raima throws away her cell-phone into the sea when her husband calls her from the AA office. Animesh, sacked from his job, tries to take his life but fails in the attempt, much to the relief of Geeta who says, “We have each other,” when her husband tells her that he no longer has a job.
Does life in Kolkata stress young people? Or do corporate pressures stress them? Or, maybe they are too personal to be thrust on external factors? These questions arise during the unfolding of this debutante film by Manoj Michigan, who has also penned the story. The opening frames, with the credits coming up against the backdrop of small shots picked, seemingly at random, from the main film creates an ambience of suspense though this is not a thriller. Performances, mainly by actors from Bengali television, are excellent, led by Rudraneel as Animesh and Swastika as Raima.
Verdict
The script tends to go wobbly and out of focus at places, yet Hello Kolkata makes a powerful and positive statement on the institution of marriage. Contrary to some contemporary Hindi films and teleserials, none of the men are womanizers. Nor are the women adulterous. They all want to establish stable and loving relationships but sometimes fail like real couples do. The film deserves one star for the powerful statement it makes, one star for the actors who have performed extremely well and one for the story grounded in contemporary reality
