|  Chokher
Bali Movie Review
This review is not about the story of the film. Most
connoisseurs would for sure have an idea of what Rabindra
Nath Tagore's Chokher Bali is about. Yes one thing I
will tell you about the story the end is a little illogical.
When one sees a film whose language
one doesn't understand, one tends to sub consciously
concentrate on all other aspects of the filmmaking,
doing it for this movie is a treat read on.
Great credit goes to Director Ghosh
for a brilliant screenplay. The way he has established
the characters Binodini (Aishwariya Rai) so gorgeous
and plain, yet so unpredictable. The demure Ashalata
(Raima Sen), her husband Mahendra (Prasenjit Chaterjee)
and a host of other characters in the film. The movie
has its own pace yet it is so "involving".
Aishwariya Rai plays a widow, and is
without make up in most of the movie. She has acted
fantastically and sure would be a National Award contender.
With this she leaves whatever competition she had very
far behind. Not only does she look gorgeous, one can't
make out that Begnali is a foreign language for her.
Raima Sen plays the dominated underage
wife to Prasenjit (Gajendra) has also acted well. She
is demure and soft-spoken in most of the film, yet is
very convincing in the parts where she needs to get
aggressive.
The movie is shot very well; more so
the entire movie has a "yellow tinge". It's
been colour corrected in postproduction so as to give
the 1902-1905 "look". The Art direction of
the film is fabulous, not overstated yet dramatic in
look, in the right places. The background score deserves
special mention. Very minimalist and at times just a
solo voice singing in Bengali hence highlighting the
mood of the scene.
While the overall film is great, the
original story especially the end spoils it. All in
all a great effort by Ghosh. |
