Bengali Movie Review: Baishe Srabon

 (29 Oct 2011)

Srijit Mukherji delivers a stunning masterpiece in the form of Baishe Srabon. What begins with a mysterious murder ends with the final one at the final moment of the film. I’m giving 4.5 out of 5 to this poetic thriller film.

Baise Srabon – which in Bengali means the twenty second day of the month of Srabon – lives through the promise that the story mounts early on. A series of street-killing of innocent people rocks Kolkata, with a seemingly clueless police force chewing their own thumbs. The commonness in the murders is chits of old Bengali poems that the killer leaves by the side of the dead bodies, apparently offering hard-nut clues to the motive and mode of the murders. But as is evident, the police department simply fails to read between the lines.

The overall fertile acting department in this film – even Raima Sen pulls off an above mediocre performance, something not known of her – gets an uppish boost with the entry of a sacked cop, Probir, played by the talented Prosenjit, who is brought in to the case after a string of persuading campaigns.

Gautam Ghosh brilliantly plays an eccentric poet who believes he has some divine connection with Rabindranath Tagore, and also laments the lack of recognition of his poetic talent by publishing houses. The obvious fallout of which is an ever-increasing vengeance in him to go on a killing spree.

The film is smartly studded with adult vocabulary; the timing and cleverness of the dialogue delivery shall make you laugh it out and still feel engrossed and engaged. The songs are not shot around the garden or the trees and only complement the flow of story-telling. All the protagonists in the film stand out with their performances; my favorites are Prosenjit and Gautam Ghosh.

The director stupendously succeeds in taking control of your mind and attention as the story unfolds in its unique fashion, offering you an almost unthinkable twist right after you thought the film was over.

This certainly is one of the films that Bengali cinema can ride on, in redeeming some of its lost pride. Watch it before someone reveals to you who the serial killer was!