Prakton: Nothing About Ex

Taniya fought with me, when I simply asked her to confirm. “Should I go today to Nehru Place?” She flamed up. She accused me of not putting her in my top priority and then used some fence-sharp words, which dug my skin and pinched my heart. I didn’t blame her. I came back from office and then went hurriedly to Nehru Place, showed my M-ticket to a uniformed doorman in Satyam Cinema, went upstairs and found my seat in a fairly large hall. It was eight in evening and I could hear all Bengali chatter around. The movie, ‘Praktan’ was about to start. My job was simple. Watch it and then relay it to her. She loved the title tracks and the trailer. She wanted badly to watch the movie, but she was out of any means. Hence, me.

My little research about the movie revealed interesting facts. It was being released in many USA theaters today and Mukesh Bhatt had bought the copyright for a Hindi remake with same title even before it was released. And the belligerent couple was none other than Prasenjit and Rituparna, the two torchbearers of Bengali cinema and fallen lovers. Naturally expectation was high, and then it was just gone.

The story follows Sudipa Sen (Rituparna), a divorcee architect who shares her train berth with a mom-daughter duo, Manali (Aparajita Addha) and Putul. She finds out that Manali is the current happy wife of her ex-husband Ujan Banerjee (Prasenjit), a tour guide based in Kolkata and she compares her experiences with that of Manali throughout the journey. Ujan joins them in Nagpur, in a way to surprise her wife. The story also follows the passengers in other compartments. A singer group (Chandrabindu’s Anindya & Upal; Bhumi’s Surajit and Anupam Roy), an elderly couple (Soumitra and Sabitri) and a newlywed couple.

Blunders. Yes, that was the word. In a story of two reminiscent lovers, the director duo had inserted tens of unnecessary forgettable weak characters. They totally killed the spirit of the movie. Post Intermission, a thirty minute long antaskhari played by all above, was too much ridiculous. What was the need for that? How the directors could even think about it? And the newlywed couple. To insert some cheap humor in the movie, they danced foolish, talked rubbish and were childish. The singer group just sang some songs and then left no damn mark. Even Soumitra and Sabitri invoked some laugh in audience, but their characters were beyond repairable.

Prasenjit as Ujan Banerjee seemingly tried his best, but Ujan was not believable. In first marriage, he behaved like a snob, a smug male egoist and in second marriage, he was a perfect husband. How? There was no answer. He showed less emotions and less remorse about his first broken marriage. On the contrary, Sudipa Sen even after being a truly independent woman and happily married now, cried inconsolably thinking about his ex-husband, first marriage and brutal break-up and out of jealousy towards Malini. This absurd dualism murdered those characters.

The only worthy and mentionable character was Malini (Aparajita). She smiles loud, talks too much, cares more than enough and understands the family intricacies better than anyone. Her marriage was fixed to an NRI settled in USA, but due to dowry issue, she was married to a divorcee, who ran a small tour programme (don’t understand the logic though). At the end, she thanked Sudipa for handing him over Ujan, quite melodramatically, but believably. In a pond of badly rotten fishes, she stands apart as a fresh rotten fish.

Songs are good. Cinematography is better. And the Kolkata, shown little though, is best.

Acting is bad. Characters are worse. Story is worst.    

When back at home, I relayed the story to Taniya, she paused and asked, ‘What’s praktan about it?’

I thought a second. There was nothing. And we fought in morning about that. Nothing. Maybe every relationship has its own intricacies and niceties. So better not to reply.