Kashmakash Review

'Kashmakash' is a film that starts off on a slow note, stays slow, continues to be slow and ends quite slowly as well. In fact after a while the proceedings become so stagnant, especially in most of the second half of the film, that you start losing attention and get back thinking about other worldly matters even as the narrative moves forward at a snail pace. In short, the film fails to grip you due to which you start losing interest at a rapid pace.

Set in Bengal, 1920s, 'Kashmakash' is about the dilemma that a young lawyer Jishu Sengupta is facing who leaves his educated and upper class girlfriend (Raima Sen) behind in order to fulfil the wish of his father who wants him to marry an uneducated poor girl (Riya Sen) instead. An accident soon after marriage results in a twist in the tale which leaves Jishu in a precarious situation where he further finds himself on crossroads of life. Raima too decides to move on and finds solace in a doctor (Prosenjit Chatterjee) who has a past of his own. However fate has something else decided for each of these four characters.

Agreed that you pretty much understand the genre of the film in its very first five minutes and also surrender to the fact that it is going to be an art house drama. However the twist in the tale 30 minutes of the film does revive your interest in the proceedings. In fact one just can't see this turnaround in fortunes and only starts wondering if the film would have made for a much more captivating watch had it instead been set in today's setting and lent a much more contemporary feel. Now that would have only enhanced the audience base for the film.

Unfortunately though 'Kashmakash' instead decides to continue in the 20s mode which means that few minutes after the twist, it is back to square one. Yes, there are some genuinely engaging moments where Raima's dad Dhritiman Chatterjee (seen earlier as a blind neighbour in '13 B' and quite good here again) comforts her so that she can come out of her heart break. However such scenes are far and few as the graph of 'Kashmakash' starts sliding down in the film's second half. There is a very good twist in the second half as well but Rituparno Ghosh continues to underplay it all rather than enhancing the drama.

Riya's decision to walk out of Jishu's house, her landing up at Prosenjit's house, his own ultra-quick love story with Raima, her sighting of Jishu, his realisation of truth - all of these are such coincidences that even Manmohan Desai would have been proud of. However he would certainly not have been enthralled to see such lost and found opportunity seeing an art house treatment instead of a full blown romantic commercial treatment.

Riya's potrayal of an innocent character of a 'balika vadhu' is such that you do fall in love with her but that doesn't quite compensate for the sombre mood that Jishu (who looks strikingly similar to Riteish Deshmukh at number of points) carries right through the film. Raima is effortless and plain natural yet again though one would have expected more histrionics from the senior-most of the lot, Prosenjit.

Ok, so 'Kashmakash' is a film set in a different era. This means that for a story which has a setting closer to a century back, 'Kashmakash' is bound to have a different narrative style. However there is one thing to be different and sticking to the film's setting and another to be not even make an attempt at being entertaining. Yes, it is miles ahead of another film belonging to similar genre, 'The Japanese Wife', but still at the end of it all, it has a very restricted audience for itself which can cope up with such a subject and old fashioned treatment.

Rating: **1/2