Not worth it: Bhalobasha Zindabad

Producer: Roudra Movies
Director: Reshmi Mitra
Cast: Rahul, Priyanka,Papia Adhikari,Rudranil Ghosh,Kharaj Mukherjee
Raj,the grandson and sole heir to the property of the Sanyal family,falls in love with a flower-seller Kusum,who besides suffering from abject poverty is burdened with the responsibility of an alcoholic father,a sick sister and an admirer with strong streaks of violence. She refuses to fall for Raj but finally relents. The cootchie-cooing begins in real earnest. Raj walks out of the clutches of his Hitler-like grandmother Nirupama Sanyal only to land in a real mess. He fails to get a job because the grandma warns everyone not to give him a job. When Kusum’s sister falls critically ill,Raj sees a hoarding announcing a kick-boxing contest that will fetch a prize money of Rs10 lakhs. He persuades the Muslim owner of an akhada to train him in a couple of weeks so that he can bag the prize. Meanwhile,Kusum’s admirer Bishu has clinched a deal with her. He will marry her and foot the hospital bill for her sister. Raj,who is hurt in the boxing contest despite winning the championship,pulls off his tubes,totters into the marriage mandap,and forces a reluctant Kusum to bend to his lisping baby talk of which she is so fond. But Bishu knifes him in the abdomen and twists the knife several times. The crowd breaks into a chant that goes Bhalobasha zindabad and all’s well with the world though we do not know whether Raj survives the knife attack on not.

Technical expertise
The magic chemistry between Rahul and Priyanka that set the screen on fire last year in Chirodini Tumi Je Amaar is completely missing in Bhalobasha Zindabad. In fact,you keep wondering when all this will be over. Reshmi Mitra fails miserably in her first feature film. The script is wobbly and weak,never mind the few seconds of lip-to-lip service between Kusum and Raj. Kusum,the flower-seller,wears designer tops and skirts despite her poverty. Rahul is a total misfit as a millionaire heir to the Sanyal riches. His height,body and looks simply do not belong to the character he plays. Papiya Adhikari,who plays Nirupama Sanyal,with her voice dubbed by actress Rita Koiral,wears a streaked wig and pins it to her natural hair in a way that one can easily see the hairline and the black hair underneath. Her on-screen histrionics are terrible. But the worst hit in this exaggerated melodrama conveniently going under the genre of a musical romance is actor-singer Kharaj Mukherjee as Raj’s uncle who is reduced to a junior artiste with a bit role that might as well not have been in the script. For your information,there is no kick-boxing in the film,only boxing,plain and simple.

The dream scenes are orchestrated so amateurishly and crudely that you could catch up on your forty winks but for the loud decibels that threaten to strip you of your hearing. Veteran music director Ashok Bhadra’s score is a disappointment. The saving grace of the film,if there is one,is actor Rudranil Ghosh who comes across with a sparkling performance as the many-hued,cold-blooded,ruthless villain Bishu.
Verdict
The only star goes to Rudranil for his portrayal of the only character in the script that has been convincingly written.