MACHER JHOL -- a review


MACHER JHOL – a review


If the name “MACHER JHOL’’ or ‘fish curry’ turns you off or if you think that this is going to be another silly Bengali comedy, then you will be in for a surprise. I was.
The story is about a successful Bengali master chef, Devdutta Sen (Ritwick Chakraborty), better known as Dev D in Paris who has severed all ties with his home town, Kolkata, enjoying what he does best, cooking and running his own French restaurant. But a call from home about his mother’s ill health takes him back to his roots, leaving his live-in French girl-friend behind.
Coming back to his ancestral home after years, he faces his tyrant of a father who does not welcome him. However, he is in a quandary when his mother in the nursing home wishes to have ‘Macher Jhol’ -- once made by him when he was a boy and didn’t really follow any recipe. With all his newly acquired mastery of the French cuisine he cannot recall how to repeat the same feat of making simple, homemade, Bengali Macher Jhol.
Director Pratim D.Gupta, famous for his “Shaheb Bibi Golam”, has given us this time a movie that speaks of aspiring dreams and disparities between two generations that is subtle in treatment.
Ritwick Chakraborty was excellent as the protagonist. He is a natural. The other lead actors Paoli Dam, Mamata Shankar and Sumonto Mukherjee have all done quite well.
The best part of the movie, I thought, was the editing, the script and dialogue that kept the pace of the movie rolling most effectively.
Cinematography was beautiful and noteworthy. Music by Anupam Roy was mellow and the background score was remarkable. In all, a delightful movie that can touch every chord in your heart, ‘Macher Jhol’ is definitely a good movie to watch.
Dola Dutta Roy ©

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA -- a review

LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA – a review If you haven't seen 'Lipstick Under my Burkha' then you have probably not seen a movie that is bold in its presentation, unique in its matter and bla`ze about public reactions that it might generate. The movie is about the journey of four spunky women in the congested back lanes of Bhopal who dare to dream and rebel, that too in a claustrophobic mansion, ‘Hawai Mahal’, given out to poverty-stricken tenants. Like the name of the building  itself, their dreams too remain elusive and dim. Yet they chase a fantasy of their own, conspicuously in a trance. Lily (Ahana Kumra), a beautician by profession, doesn't believe in arranged marriages. Rehana (Plabita Borthakur), a Freshman in college, chooses to do away with the Burkha and Shirin Aslam (Konkana Sen Sharma), hates to endure domestic rape day in and day out. Even a loving, middle-aged, but bossy Usha, (Ratna Pathak) wants to break away from her elderly ‘Buaji’ image an...
Read more

POSTO -- a review

POSTO – a review BY Dola Dutta Roy Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee are no new names in the Bengali movie industry today. The journey for them making movies of substance has been long and arduous at times. But with the startling success of Ichche and Muktodhara in 2012 --followed, in quick succession, by hits with Alik Shukh, Ramdhonu, Bela Sheshe and Prakton, the duo have created ripples in the genre of new wave movies by treading cautiously on the line between offbeat cinema and mainstream fares. Today they are proud partners of a production company – Windows Productions. The title 'Posto' evokes the taste of relishing the delicious poppy seeds so loved by most Bengalis in their food and the audience is, perhaps, half-expecting a movie drawn in a comic vein. At least, I was. But it is far from a comedy of any sort. This is not the story of any culinary feat. It is simply the story of a seven-year old child who is loved enormously by his grandparents who wouldn’...
Read more

KALANK - a film review

KALANK – a film review If you are a movie addict and love the extravaganza of a genre that Prithviraj Kapoor, V. Shantharam and Sanjay Leela Bhansali have popularized in Bollywood, you may, perhaps, like to take a peek at ‘Kalank”. Kalank is an intense family drama portraying a love story spread across communal conflicts set in the backdrop of the 1940s. Directed by Abhishek Varman, it is co-produced by Dharma Productions, Fox Star Studios, as well as, Nadiadwala and Grandsons. To its credit, the film has an ensemble cast with Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha and Aditya Roy Kapur. Set in Lahore during the spell of British rule in the sub-continent, the movie opens with the documentation of the Partition by a journalist interviewing Alia Bhatt who reveals a tragic story of deception and rejection, of trust gained and lost, of communal conflicts that slay love to make room for a soulless compromise just to stay alive. The theme is...
Read more