Chhobighar Film Society screened Raj Chakraborty’s Shontaan, a family drama about a father Saradindu (Mithun Chakraborty) who takes his son Indranil (Ritwick Chakraborty) to court for neglect. We see the family dynamics play out over the years through flashbacks while Saradindu is discussing what brought him to take this radical action with his attorney played by Subhashree Ganguly. The limitations of the script or her role may have contributed to what came off as a lifeless performance.

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Anashua Majumdar plays Mala, Saradindu wife and Indranil’s mother, caught in the middle of the dispute between father and son and steals every scene with subtilty and a nuanced, flawless performance.  Other notable roles are Kharaj Mukherjee as Indranil’s high powered lawyer and Sohini Sengupta, who plays Saradindu and Mala’s caregiver/maid with warmth and compassion for the older couple, silently and sometimes not so silently observing the family interactions.

   

This movie, like the majority of Bengali cinema, could have been significantly tighter and more impactful with editing shaving at least 20 minutes.  

Mithun Chakraborty’s every sigh, every hesitant, exhausted step spoke as much as his dialogue of the pain and humiliation he faces after living an honorable life and trying his best for his family.  The role also was tailor made to express all the emotions audiences would naturally feel for the protagonist.

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The moments of tenderness between him and Mala, his wife, were just charming.  Contrasting Mala’s private teasing (asking if Saradindu’s college crush, Aparna would attend their reunion and his unequivocal assertion that Mala was his first and last love) with Riya’s comment to Indranil to wrap his arm around her for a group selfie, the audience gets the vastly different worlds the two generations live in side by side and the source of their conflicts.

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Ritwick Chakraborty is a capable actor. Here he was given not just the role of the villain but a two-dimensional one solely for the reaction of his suffering parents.  He is shallow, rude, uncaring, selfish and disrespectful. We do not see why though.  We do not see his struggles, doubts, growth or maturity, which is why the ending while satisfying to the audience can come off sudden and disingenuous.

 

While his role is the one the audience will naturally despise, the real villain is the economy in Kolkata: the high inflation and lack of stable pensions that will not let a person, live a moral, decent middle-class life and live their older years with dignity.

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It is painful to watch Saradindu’s situation but the character’s refusal to understand a changing world and his son’s place in it contributes to it a little. He is idealistic, but something more akin to his previous generations. During a conversation when his son asks for a contact to help grease the wheels of government bureaucracy, Saradindu seems completely unaware of the way things work in Kolkata of incessant pulling strings and asking favors of remote contacts.  It has been that way for the last 40 years. Perhaps Indranil did not want Riya to be in a situation to sell family jewelry to pay for their financial responsibilities. The audience is denied the reality of life in Kolkata today and how difficult it is to ensure one’s children are successful.  If he was able to respect his father’s teaching but also show following them exactly in these times will jeopardize opportunities for his son, it would have made Indranil a more layered character.

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The role of social media and how it further isolates older generations is highlighted in the conversation between Saradindu and his nephew who complains he doesn’t interact on their family WhatsApp group.  Saradindu wants to look at people eye to eye and feel the emotions behind their interactions when he speaks with them.  That genuine bond built over a lifetime is on full display with his interaction with his family, wife, and friend circle, even college friends he has not seen in decades. But these are the sentiments of a bygone era while now perception is reality.  Photos of foreign trips, drinking champagne with friends, even donning the costume of a doting daughter-in-law with sari draped over one’s head out of respect for in-laws, can sway public perception and even family members. Saradindu doesn’t understand the world his son lives in and doesn’t want to as well.

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Shontaan while primarily is the clash between father and son, it expands out to show the clash between old Kolkata society and new, as well as the rapidly changing values as younger generations struggle to compete on a global scale and older generations are left isolated and feeling abandoned.  Despite some flaws in execution, it is a timely and watchable movie.