Cast: Girish Karnad, Rupa Ganguly, Rajeev Pillai, Sulagna Panigrahi, Rajesh Shringarpure
Director:Kiran Phadnis
Rating: * *
A tale of duty, love, betrayal and revenge set in the naxal infested area, Purulia, in West Bengal, this film directed by Kiran Phadnis is long drawn and meandering in it’s telling. A young orphan finds a secure home with a dance Guru( an unlikely Girish Karnad). And he grows up in the Guru’s household alongside the guru’s daughter(Sulagna Panigrahi) whom he loves. But the girl is more interested in flashier Gambhira, who whisks her away in marriage soon enough only to ill-treat her later through copious revelations of his true cruel, naxalite self. The orphan boy, now man and a dancer of repute himself, is heartbroken by his loss at love and goes off into the Himalayas in search of peace. A few years later he hears of Gambhira’s treatment of his dear Guruji/benefactor and this prompts him to return to a face-off with his rival ending in protracted tragedy.
The narrative while pinning it’s hopes on embellishing the Guru-Shishya relationship tends to go all over the place with unnecessary subplots featuring love, betrayal, revenge and war between ideologies. It’s neither interesting nor involving. The unnecessary indulgences in formulaic clichés adds to the boredom. Rupa Ganguly has been wasted in a role that has nothing much to do while Girish Karnad looks quite ill-at-ease as the dancer Guru. The relatively fresh younger cast manage to look comely even if they don’t appear to have the skills to lend their performances some much needed gravitas. Strictly avoidable fare this!
