Film: Rosogolla
Cast: Ujaan Ganguly, Avantika, Kharaj Mukherjee, Kaushik Sen,Aparajita Adhya, Rajatava Dutta and Bidipta Chakraborty, Shantilal Mukherjee,Subhashree Ganguly, Chiranjeet Chakraborty
Director: Pavel
Rating: * *
The much revered Bengali sweet ‘Rosogolla’ becomes the focus ofthis Pavel directed biopic that traces the humble origins of its creator NabinChandra Das (portrayed by Ujaan Ganguly) whose single-minded pursuit redefinedthe very nature of ‘mishti’ as we know it today. Even fellow inventors of otherfamous Bengali sweets, like Bhola Moira and Bhim Chandra Nag, are featured inthe film.
It’s not a film about food as much as it is a vain attemptat galvanizing a spot in posterity for the ubiquitous rosogulla. Pavel’snarrative hightailing Nabin Kumar’s so-alluding, a tryst with destiny, ispretty much hare-brained and illogical to boot. He is the poor relation with awidowed mother and his obsessive pursuit of culinary skill is frowned upon byhis richer relatives. Of course, his widowed mother will turn heaven and earthto help him to his eventual goal. Stereotypical characters, heavy melodrama,and ridiculous set-ups are par for the course here. Nabin Kumar is portrayed asdim-witted, lacking in social graces, and all too easily conned. His mothermouth-feeds him even at age 20 which is a bit ridiculous even if we considerits setting of a distant past. In fact it’s hard to believe in a film aboutfood where the creator himself is never shown tasting his own creation. There’sa sequence in the film where Nabin Kumar makes special sweets for a marriageparty and is subsequently beaten up because the guests start vomiting blood. Wesee his partner accidentally dropping a few opium seeds into the stir-pot andthis causes the inadvertent poisoning, we are made to believe. A few seeds in aboiling cauldron of sugar water meant to feed a few hundred guests arecertainly not capable of creating this kind of health hazard.
In fact much of ‘Rosogolla’ is drenched in symbolic fervor andcopious sentiment. Nabin Kumar doesn’t even belong to a sweet-merchant family.He barely apprentices at a sweet shop and even there he doesn’t create anysweets of his own, neither does he make the regular ones. So his skill in thatdepartment is entirely questionable. Pavel in fact merely taps into Bengalisentimentality to hit his sweet spot. The spongy reverence does not allow forgritty emotional attachment either. The performances are juvenile, the directionis ham-handed and the unremarkable pacing and plotting don’t allow for muchattachment.
We’re well aware of the recent skirmish between Bengal andOdisha regarding the ownership of the rosogolla. And the much more recentdevelopment of celebrating an annual Rosogolla Diwas, also lends immediatepoignancy to a film on its so-called origins. Pavel’s film is neither realisticnor gritty drama – it’s merely fantasy prodded on by an intent to create auniverse for the sweet that has taken the course of ‘legend’ in the east.
