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All that begins well need not necessarily end well. Street Light,directed by Animesh Roy,is a good example. The film opens on a dark,dimly-lit street of an unnamed city showing a girl dressed in a very short skirt,being stalked by a bunch of shady-looking man. Amitava (Abhishek Chatterjee),the corporate hero rescues her and brings her to his spacious apartment. There he suffers a heart-attack and the young girl in the shortest of mini-skirts gives him a life-saving injection and he is fine. Amitava is a married man but his wife Mitali (Locket Chatterjee) has walked out on him. Hiya (Nibedita),the beautiful young girl fond of micro-minis discovers his wife Mitalis things and learns that the husband still loves his wife. One would have thought lovey-dovey photographs of the married pair were enough to drive home the picture of a happy past. But the director thinks otherwise and asks the cinematographer to close in on shots of sanitary napkins Mitali has left behind in a drawer to be discovered by Hiya! Disgusting! But may be there is an issue of sponsorship involved,who knows? Lots of intimate bedroom scenes between Amitava and Hiya fail to sizzle for want of chemistry in their choreography where Abhishek is very mechanical and Nibedita,with thunder -thighs,is artificial in her coyness.
Why did Amitavas wife Mitali walk out on the marriage though he so lovingly wrote things on her bare back with her bright red lipstick? One,he was too busy in his corporate life Two,she had big dreams of becoming a star in Bollywood though she still wears salwar-kurtas at home that went out of fashion two decades ago as a fashion statement! And who,pray,is Hiya? Since Amitava is too busy in bed with her,he does not care to find out her background. It is a convenient escape route for the script to create the grand melodrama at Amitavas friend-cum-doctors (Arjun Chakraborty)
wedding anniversary party where a tipsy doctor recognises this high-end prostitute. She slaps the man and walks out shell-shocked back to her lavish digs to take up from where she left off. Amitava follows her home only to find Mitali has come back.
The film then moves on to create an apology of a female bonding story between Mitali and Hiya ten years later in Mumbai. Hiya is now a famous Mumbai star thanks to Mitalis efforts to give her some respectability. Mitali with a ten-year-old daughter in tow who they have named Hiya,tells the star that Amitava died of a heart attack two years ago and that she now works somewhere as a school teacher! The poor scriptwriter could not imagine anything better for a housewife-wanting-to-be-a-Bollywood star readily accepting the role of a mollified single-mother-cum-schoolteacher!
Street Light has such a grinding pace and such badly-done song sequences that even a good musical score fails to spill over into the dark and depressing mood of the film. The editing is very bad. Abhishek is a good actor but after a point of time,he appears disinterested in the role and the film. Locket is good in a sketchily put-together role while Nibedita needs to polish up her body and her act. The songs are good especially the Tagore song and a Hindi number on the soundtrack.
Verdict: **
One star for the music and one for Abhishek,Locket,Arjun and Pulakitas acting.
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