El Aranya

The forest mafia encroaching into illegal tree-felling in the North of Bengal could have been a wonderful film specially because it opens with Ajit Dutta Subhash Chatterjee,a primary schoolteacher who talks to trees and loves them like his own children. He later becomes crazy and wanders through the tree-lined forests to try and save them from their killer Santosh Jadhav Sudesh Kaul in vain. The elder of his two daughters,Sujata Debasree Roy takes care of him while Antara Dipanwita the younger one,keeps looking blankly into space as the mafia king has bumped off her lover Bibhash Firdaus,a dedicated social activist who was crusading against the tree-felling through street-plays. But nothing happens to Jadhav because the local police work for him. Antara,however,does not forget to dress up in designer kurti-salwars even in her depressed state. Where she gets them from or finds the money to buy them are questions best left alone. Sujata,a schoolteacher,is committed to her father and sister and accepts her single status as inevitable.

Bikram Abhishek takes on as the new forest officer,pounces on the evil Jadhav and with a couple of badly-choreographed and picturised song-dance sequences with Antara,succeeds in putting Jadhav and his gang behind bars. Antara loses no time in filling in the vacuum created by Firdaus murder with her eyes now focussed on Bikram. One fails to understand that when a director decides to take up a social issue,why does he also try to please the mass audience without the skills of an Aamir Khan who can do both with such great success. So Ei Aranya,despite striving to spread the message that forests should be saved,turns out to be a bad mishmash of an issue-based film and a commercial potboiler. The worst thing that happened to this film is Sudesh Kaul,who occupies so much screen space with his wild grimaces,100-decibel signature-tune and a loud turn as Santosh Jadhav.

The second actor who spoils the film is Dipanwita who has a poker face and cannot even deliver simple dialogues. Debasree is good but she does not seem keen on the proceedings though she too,like her younger sister,is always dressed in designer cotton saris.

The street theatre group is one more fly in this badly-concocted soup. Director of photography Baidyanath Basak has failed to do justice as most of the times the actors end up facing a static camera. Firdaus is subtle for a change. The best thing about this film is the brilliant,low-key acting by Subhash Chatterjee,a little-known actor who plays Ajit Dutta. He is ably supported by Abhishek,Debasree,Dipankar Dey and Anamika Saha.

RATING:

The film deserves two stars one for the acting of the major cast and one for the directors choice of subject. If only he had got his focus right.