Today's film review may be coming a bit late but when the Hindi Cinema Blog comes across witty and fun cinema, we tend to say "better late than never"!
Bhooter Bhobishyot is a witty tale that gives us food for thought as it tells us the story of ancient Calcutta mansions which are being increasingly demolished to make way for the construction of modern shopping malls. The catch is that ghosts that inhabited and happily haunted the capital's heritage properties are finding themselves homeless without the civil society or the government doing anything about it! Ayan (Parambrata Chatterjee, who, for Bollywood buffs unfamiliar with Tollywood, is the pitch-perfect actor who starred opposite Vidya Balan in Kahaani) is an aspiring feature film maker. He listens to the story of a motley crew of ghosts from all social backgrounds, times, creeds, tastes and even nationalities in the search for the perfect plot to make a super hit movie.
A huge applause goes to Anik Dutta for the dialogues as well as to all actors, holding a special mention for Sabyasachi Chakraborty, who appears as a masterful storyteller. Despite the fact that I am not a Bengali speaker and cannot claim to have understood all of the various hilarious satiric references throughout the film, I was still completely charmed by the story, simple and efficient direction and most of the dialogue. Wit reaches far heights thanks to incisively funny lines and references: A yesteryear film star character named Kadalibala (which may be translated as "Bananabala") discusses flirting techniques with a low-waist-jean-clad teen in the hopes of finding a young "bhoot" boyfriend. Episodes of India's history merrily mix together while a ringtone using "Satyajit Ray's voice" chirps in the background. Modern ghosts hang out at the most happening social media network: Spookbook... and the list continues at a happy pace, only to be occasionally slowed down by musical interludes which I would have personally done without, except for the final item number.
The real question is, will this spooky crowd succeed in putting their joint effort towards saving their crumbling home, Chowdhuribari mansion? The answer is possibly in a quote belonging to cultivated gangster "Promod" (get it?) Podhan: “United we stand... Divided we misunderstand!”
Watch the Bhooter Bhobishyot trailer
Read more about Bhooter Bhobishyot on Wikipedia
Directed by: Anik Dutta
Produced by: Joy Ganguly
Dialogue and screenplay: Anik Dutta
Cast: Swastika Mukherjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Paran Bandyopadhyay,
Samadarshi Dutta, Pablo Patranabis, Mumtaz Sorcar, Paran Banerjee, Biswajit Chakraborty, Mir Afsar Ali, Kharaj Mukherjee, Sumit Samaddar, George Baker, Monami Ghosh