Koyekti Meyer Golpo (Bangla)

Writer-director: Subrata Sen

Cast: Subrat Dutt,Parno Mitra,Raima Sen,Tanushree Chakraborty,Locket Chatterjee,Mumtaz Sorcar,Mita Chatterjee,Santilal Mukherjee and others

Subrata Sen began his directorial debut with Ek Je Aachey Kanya,a different film. He could not repeat the feat ever again. Koyekti Meyer Golpo proves that no matter how original a plot is,it can collapse like a pack of cards if the director fails to translate his concept to reality. Sen struck upon a unique concept of exploring the world of four young women employed by an escort agency. The owner (Santilal Mukherjee) is a mafia don who pulls on fruit-flavoured hookahs,wears kajal and talks in a strange drawl. He has a much younger wife (Mumtaz Sorcar) who works out vigorously,takes drugs,gets a kick out of massages and likes both men and women.

Molly (Parno Mitra) is given a romantic angle that does not jell with the ‘escort’ philosophy. She falls in love with Ashesh (Subrat Dutt),a blind writer who finds his ten-year-long writer’s block fading away in her company. Pooja (Tanushree Chakraborty) is the most aggressive. She saunters into an industrialist’s (Supriyo Dutta) office along with a new entrant (Raima Sen),flashes a pen-drive filled with photographs of the industrialist in compromising positions. Before you can bat an eyelid,he hands over ‘1 crore in cold cash. She directly approaches a potential customer at a pub after a very badly executed dance number. The new entrant (Raima Sen) joins the clique because she is ditched by her boyfriend. Sen has tried to play around with the form with a circu-linear structure that is more puzzling than experimental.

Is this the correct picture of how escort girls function? Sen should have kept his attention focussed on the psycho-social dimensions of an escort agency instead of touching the surface of a dozen other issues that confuse the narrative with badly presented clutter – drug addiction,sexual harassment,sting operations,lesbian love,rape,genetic insanity,etc. The ribbons at the bottom of the screen decry the very things that are almost graphically displayed on screen,albeit,minus aesthetics of any kind. As a result,the escort agency comes across as a hub for blackmailing rich men. Molly takes her share of the booty and goes to her blind lover. Pooja withdraws from the agency too.

RATINGS : The two stars are for the acting and Chandan Roy Choudhury’s musical score which,is completely wasted due to bad cinematography. The opening frames picturised on Siddhu crooning a number,captured without imagination with unaesthetic camera angles is ample warning about the film that follows.