Achena Prem

Story,screenplay and dialogue:

Manjil Banerjee

Stars: Akash,Reshmi,Bhaskar Banerjee,Arundhati Roy,Bodhisatta Majumdar,Subhashish Mukherjee and others

Swapan Saha was once one of the biggest filmmakers in Bengali mainstream cinema. His films,though not patronised by the intellectual urban audience,hit the jackpot in the suburbs without fail till his name became synonymous with thumping box-office hits. His recent films,however,reveal he has lost his magic touch. But this is probably because he casts new actors in challenging leads,which they are unable to handle. Achena Prem is one example.

Akash is a radio jockey who conducts a popular counselling programme on a private radio station. One day,he meets a girl,who is weeping at a bus-stop and falls head over heels in love with her without knowing her name. The girl takes shelter with a friend and also lands a job. But she doesn’t love Akash. In fact,the very emotion called reciprocal love between the hero and the heroine is completely absent. So one really cannot understand why the film is called Achena Prem which means ‘unfamiliar love.’ The only ‘love’ one sees is shown through badly-choreographed and orchestrated dream scenes that hit you in the face because there is absolutely no build-up to the relationship. Tanu,the pretty,weepy girl finally spills the beans about her constant weeping. She is thrown out of the house by her father after the death of her mother. He then brings in another woman. But Akash unites the father and daughter as her birthday gift. The reunion brings an unexpected twist in the tale but everything happens for the best.

Ashok Bhadra’s music is singularly unimpressive and the editor is just a name in the credit titles of the film. To make matters worse,the director and the production designer,if there is one,have made no attempt to disguise the plastic backdrop of the Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad where the entire film was shot. So,when the characters refer to the scenario as ‘Kolkata’ it seems like a bad joke. It’s time Bengali mainstream filmmakers kept away from Ramoji Rao Film City because the scenes stick out like sore thumbs in every second Bengali film,taking away whatever little ambient credibility it could have commanded.

Subhashish Mukherjee tries his best to outlive the weak characterisation of Akash’s naïve and simple office colleague who is taken for a ride by a female colleague and her boyfriend and is perhaps,the sole saving-grace of this film. Akash is terrible in his debut performance. He is not bothered about improving his body language and even his dress sense is terrible. The way he counsels his listeners on his radio programme in terms of posture,speaking into the mike and standing with or without the earphone looks fake. Reshmi as Tanu has precious little to do except weep or wear a sullen expression but when she smiles,she lights up the otherwise ‘dark’ film.

RATING: One star for Subhashish and one star for the storyline that had potential but remained untapped,thanks to newcomer Akash.