Anna, a thoroughly westernised Bengali girl, is tricked by her father in order to find a true-blooded Bengali match for her in India. Enter Raja, her father’s boyhood friend’s naughty son, who teases Anna for her conceited attitude. On Bijoya Dashami, he naughtily smears her hair parting with vermillion, strictly for the married woman. The respective parents decide on a hastily organised engagement. But Anna is in love with Sid, who has a Bengali mother and a British father. Anna agrees on condition that Raja will have to come along with them to know the way she has been brought up on foreign soil. Once back, she does a volte-face and says she will marry none other than Sid. Raj, by then in love with Anna, watches helplessly while she goes gallivanting around the town with her paramour.

But Raj has promised his mother that he will come home with the bride she has liked so much. He follows Anna to find a way to her heart. It is an uphill task because Anna refuses to believe either her parents’ or her friend’s advice against marrying him. She sees reason only after her brother brings home a white bride and when she sees Sid in his true colours. She spurns his engagement ring. The film rushes to a jet-paced climax that sees Raj and Anna getting married in West Bengal the Hindu way, living happily ever after.

Technical Expertise
Poran Joliya Jaaye Re consolidates Dev’s position as one of the most sought-after heroes in Tollywood and takes him one step ahead on his way to box-office success. The audience breaks out in wolf whistles the minute Dev, who plays Raj, makes an entry on the screen riding a bike, with a gamchha wrapped around his neck over a Western attire. “How will you repair the car?” Anna asks Raj when he is examining their car that runs into trouble. “One must sleep,” says Raj and she is aghast! “Oh, I mean under the car…” Raj adds, laughing, as he slides under the car to fix it. Unlike normal masala films, PJJR is dotted with double entendre mouthed by the hero addressed to the leading lady. When he accidentally enters the bathroom and sees her bathing, he laughs at her and says, “I already know your geography, so what about some history?” There is nothing wrong with sexual innuendos in an ambience that does not allow celluloid sexual indulgences. But in PJJR, the script does make it sound coarse.

Dev needs to polish up his dancing. Sometimes his dancing steps seem like he is practising a fight scene! But he has an endearing charm and a freshness that exudes youth, warmth and attraction. He scores well in the comic scenes but cannot emote well in sentimental situation. Subhasree, attractive but without much of grey matter to speak of, is the first young lady in Bengali cinema that can carry short skirts quite well. She needs to work on her figure some more. Aritra, the child actor, who deserves a place in the Guinness Book for being the most precocious child in the world, is tragedy personified. The less one sees of him, the better. Jeet Ganguly’s music is very good. The song where Raj fantasises is composed and orchestrated beautifully. Harish Joshi’s cinematography captures Malaysia very well though the script keeps referring to it as “Bilet” or Vilayat. The film has good production values and thankfully ends instead of going on and on.
Verdict
One star for total production values and one star for the music.