“Never say goodbye” is the catchy English translation of debutant director S.K. Muralidharan’s feature film Kokhono Bolona Bidaye. Produce by Pankaj Agarwal under his banner P.B. Films Private Limited, this film, in a manner of speaking, transcends the linguistic and geographical barriers of Bengali cinema because the director is from the South while the producer is from Rajasthan though both have adopted Kolkata as their home city. Muralidharan, an established choreographer in films and for reality dance shows, is seeing the fruition of his cherished dreams through this film.
Jisshu Sengupta, who plays the happy-go-lucky hero Akash in the film pitted against the pretty new face Malobika Banerjee, says, “I know it is a cliché to say that this film is different but in the case of Kokhono Bidaye Bolo Naa, I must admit that the film is indeed different and we are all thankful both to Murali-da and to Pankaj-ji for making such a wholesome family film.”
Set within a suburban town in West Bengal, it is rooted in a large extended family where life is filled with music, bonhomie, a lot of fun and games. Akash takes his life as one big game till circumstances force him to leave the comfortable cocoon of the home to migrate to Kolkata and try to cope with the nitty-gritty of life in a mess-residence. Barsha is a pretty city-bred girl. Akash meets Barsha, a beautiful girl he meets at a party his new friend Abhi takes him to. He listens to her song and alls head over heels in love with her. His life changes from the fun-filled days with his extended family to taking time off from his work schedule to meet Barsha for their rendezvous.
Rajatava Dutta and Mrinal Mukherjee, generally typecast as villains, are playing positive characters in the film. “In fact, there is no real villain in the film,” informs Rajatava, adding, “if one must at all talk about a villain, and it is Akash who combines both the roles of hero and villain inthe film.” The film promises a lot of music scored by Ashok Bhadra with lyrics penned by Priyo Chattopadhyay. Sweety, another newcomer in Bengali cinema, has a meaty role as Jisshu’s kid sister Chhutki who enjoy a close bonding. Akash brings Barsha home to meet the family. The family takes to Barsha at once. But there is a sudden change in plans when Chhutki is to get married. From then on,the film commences towards a dramatic climax.
“There is no violence, no item numbers and none of the ingredients to pull the box office in the film and yet it is an out-and-out commercial,” says Jisshu who is all praise for the ambience within which he worked during the shooting. Malabika praised Muralidharan for the way he actually acted out and explained very patiently, what he expected of the artist in a given shot “which make it easier for me to interact with the other actors who are veterans in the industry,” she beamed. R. Bhagabath is D.O.P. andthe film that has just concluded its shoot, will begin post-production immediately to ready the film for a March/April release. Others in the ensemble cast comprises of Uttam Mohanty, Kalyani Mandal, Santana Bose, Chhabi Talukdar, Soma Chakraborty, Ashok Mukherjee and Manjusree Ganguly. |
