India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
musical drama film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...
directed by
Srijit Mukherji
Srijit Mukherji (born 23 September 1977) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Bengali cinema.
His regular collaboration with veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee brought him into the limelight. His first featur ...
, starring
Prosenjit Chatterjee
Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors of modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. He is the son of Bollyw ...
Swastika Mukherjee
Swastika Mukherjee (born 13 December 1980) is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bengali and Hindi films and television. She is the daughter of actor Santu Mukhopadhyay. Throughout her career, she received various accolades including fou ...
. The main focus of the plot revolves around the life and notable works of Anthony Firingee (Hensman Anthony), a 19th-century
Bengali language
Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...
folk poet of Portuguese origin, along with other supporting characters. The time frame of the storyline jumps between two different periods—19th century and the present day (2013). The music of Jaatiswar is composed by
Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
i born and brought up in
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
, falls in love with Mahamaya Bandopadhyay and tries to woo her. Since he can just barely utter a few Bengali words (and that too in the wrong places), Mahamaya throws him a hurdle to cross - if he can write a song with correct Bengali lyrics and sing it without any accent or mistake, she would think of a possible relationship. Rohit accepts the challenge and goes to Portugal to study colonial history.
Two years pass. Mahamaya is now a radio jockey at a popular radio station. Rohit is in Portugal but still very much in love with her. His Bengali is being refined by his friend and classmate Bodhi. Rohit chooses the music course and decides to do a dissertation on the 19th Century folk poet Hensman Anthony ( Anthony Firingee). He goes to Calcutta and then to Farashdanga, Chandannagar, where Anthony lived and composed his songs. He goes to the local library to get some books where he meets the assistant librarian, a mysterious man named Kushal Hajra, who claims to be the re-incarnation of Anthony himself. Kushal laments that the visions of his previous life are haunting him every day, and slowly taking over the memory of his present life. Rohit promises to take him to Calcutta for treatment, in return he demands the life history of Anthony.
The story then goes back to the 19th Century, where Anthony impresses the villagers with his musical talent. He saves a young Bengali widow, Soudamini, from performing ''sati'' and later marries her. But he yearns to learn the Bengali language and compose songs in that language. He learns it, reading Hindu scriptures and understanding the meaning of the folk compositions. In those days, ''kavigaan''s were very popular in Calcutta, where two ''kaviyaal''s or folk poets would face each other with their respective groups and compete with each other through songs and poems. Anthony was impressed by the ''kavigaan''s and decided to form a group on his own. He used to compose the songs himself, and on the first occasion met the woman ''kaviyaal'', Joggeshwari, whom he defeats. Slowly, as he began to progress in his career as a ''kaviyaal'', he competed with noted ''kaviyaal''s of the time like Ram Basu and Thakur Singha.
Simultaneously, in the present timeline, Kushal is taken to a psychiatrist, where he is informed that to stop the visions, he must complete a work which he could not possibly do as Anthony. Kushal's visions get stronger and stronger. Rohit meanwhile has found a way to sing his latest Bengali composition in front of Mahamaya, whose radio company has decided to organize a competition among bands hailing both from West Bengal and Bangladesh, "Bandemonium". Bodhi, who meanwhile had come to Calcutta to meet Rohit, takes him to Sidhu (playing himself) to arrange musicians for Rohit's performance. Meanwhile, Mahamaya had also started developing feelings for Rohit.
Kushal reveals to Rohit the story of Anthony's last ''kavigaan''. Anthony had been planning to do a Durga-puja all by himself. But the villagers were against this, as, to them, Anthony is a ''firingee'' (foreigner) who had no right to perform a Hindu puja. He tells Soudamini that he is going to Calcutta for another ''kavigaan'', and so won't be staying during the days of the puja. As planned, he leaves for Calcutta on the day of the puja. This time, his competition is with the best ''kaviyaal'', Bhola Moira. The competition heightens and Anthony wins after a tough fight.
In the present timeline, the day of "Bandemonium" has arrived. Rohit goes on stage and performs his Bengali song ''E Tumi Kemon Tumi'' as Mahamaya looks on, tears in her eyes. Within the song, the film goes back to the 19th Century. After Anthony returned from Calcutta, victorious against Bhola Moira, he finds his house and his
Durga
Durga (, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars.
Durga's legend centres around combating evils and demonic ...
idol set on fire by the villagers. He finds Soudamini dead and nobody around. With his love killed and his faith shattered, he digs a grave for her, and then for himself (as he had once promised jokingly to his wife).
During the show, Bodhi brings Kushal to the auditorium to see the performance of Rohit. Kushal meets Mahamaya, and then leaves abruptly. After the performance, Rohit and Mahamaya profess their love for each other backstage. Rohit suddenly is informed that Kushal is missing. He, along with Mahamaya, goes to Kushal's house in Chandannagar, where they find him completely insane and lost in his visions. He attacks Rohit and then blabbers rubbish. Rohit, heartbroken, leaves with Mahamaya, realising that Kushal is beyond cure now. The film then ends with a final twist, revealing Mahamaya as the reincarnation of Soudamini, though she remembers nothing of her previous birth. Anthony had wanted to apologize to his wife for leaving her alone to get killed by the neighbours, which Kushal does after Mahamaya leaves with Rohit. The visions will not haunt him anymore. The film ends as Kabir Suman's song "''Jaatishwar''" plays in the background.
Cast
*
Prosenjit Chatterjee
Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors of modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. He is the son of Bollyw ...
Swastika Mukherjee
Swastika Mukherjee (born 13 December 1980) is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bengali and Hindi films and television. She is the daughter of actor Santu Mukhopadhyay. Throughout her career, she received various accolades including fou ...
in dual roles as
**Mahamaya Bandyopadhyay aka Maya
**Soudamini, wife of Hensman Anthony
*
Abir Chatterjee
Abir Chatterjee (born 18 November 1980) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the son of theatre personalities Phalguni Chatterjee and Rumki Chatterjee. He started his career with Bengali television and made his debut i ...
as Bodhi ( Guest Appearance)
* Rahul Banerjee as Amitava (Guest Appearance)
*
Riya Sen
Riya Sen (born Riya Dev Varma; 24 January 1981) is an Indian actress and model born into the royal family of Tripura to Bharat Dev Varma and Moon Moon Sen Sen predominantly appears in Hindi, Bengali, English, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam fi ...
as Sudeshna (Guest Appearance)
*
Mamata Shankar
Mamata Shankar (born 7 January 1955) is an Indian actress and dancer. She is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has acted in films by directors including Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghosh. ...
as Mahamaya's mother (Guest Appearance)
* Ananya Chatterjee as Joggeshwari (Special Appearance)
* Sumit Samaddar as Gourhari, an angry villager
*
Dwijen Bandopadhyay
Dwijen Bandyopadhyay (22 September 1949 – 27 September 2017) was a veteran Bengali actor and theater personality from West Bengal, India. He worked onstage from the 1970s. Bandyopadhyay has also been a professor in the department of Drama at R ...
as the village priest
*
Kharaj Mukherjee
Kharaj Mukherjee or Kharaj Mukhopadhyay is an Indian actor, comedian and singer. He won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association – Best Male Playback Award in 2004 for the film '' Patalghar''. Over the years, he has established himself as on ...
Lalon
Lalon (; died 17 October 1890), also known as Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir, Shahji, was a Bengali spiritual leader, philosopher, mystic poet and social reformer. Regarded as an icon of Bengali culture, he inspired and influenced many philosophers, ...
Srijit Mukherji
Srijit Mukherji (born 23 September 1977) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Bengali cinema.
His regular collaboration with veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee brought him into the limelight. His first featur ...
as Bikram Botobyal aka Vicky, Mahamaya's boss
* Dr. Kaushik Ghosh as Dr. Sengupta
*
Bharat Kaul
Bharat Kaul is an Indian actor mainly known for villainous and antagonistic roles in Bengali films. He has also appeared in Hindi films. He is a Vice President of the "West Bengal Motion Picture Artists' Forum" along with Sabyasachi Chakrabar ...
as Rohit's father
* Chaitali Dasgupta as Rohit's mother
* Sumant M Sarkar as Librarian
*
Kabir Suman
Kabir Suman (; born as Suman Chattopadhyay; 16 March 1949) is an Indian singer-songwriter, musician, music director, music composer, writer, actor, politician, and former journalist.Anindya Chatterjee as himself
*
Rupam Islam
Rupam Islam (born 25 January 1974) is an Indian singer-songwriter, music composer, and writer. He is the lead vocalist of the Bengali rock band Fossils. Outside of his rock music work, Islam has also contributed to several Bengali film pro ...
Anupam Roy
Anupam Roy (born 29 March 1982) is an Indian Bengali singer-songwriter, music director, composer, writer, guitarist, playback singer, engineer from Kolkata, India. He made his debut with ''Amake Amar Moto Thakte Dao'' & ''Benche Thakar Gaan'', ...
as himself
* Debleena Sen as Girl ar radio station
Soundtrack
Kabir Suman
Kabir Suman (; born as Suman Chattopadhyay; 16 March 1949) is an Indian singer-songwriter, musician, music director, music composer, writer, actor, politician, and former journalist.Indradip Dasgupta is the assistant music director. The album was critically and commercially successful. All the ''kabigaans'' of the film is included in the album. The ''kabigaans'' bring back a long lost era of Bengali music through this film. Curiously, the song ''Jaatishwar'' which is taken from Kabir Suman's own album Jaatishwar(1997), is not included in the soundtrack, but is used during the end credits of the film, probably to emphasize on the protagonist's state of mind.
Track list
Reception
The film was released on 17 January 2014 in India and received positive critical reviews. It is hailed as one of the best works of Srijit Mukherji and Prosenjit Chatterjee. The film had a special screening for the President of India
Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...
on 15 January 2014 in
Rashtrapati Bhavan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrapati Bhavana''; ; formerly Viceroy's House (1931–1947) and Government House (1947–1950)) is the official residence of the President of the Republic of India at the western end of Rajpath, Rai ...
in
New Delhi
New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...