Shonar Pahar – Bengali – Netflix – Rating 8/10
What a treat to watch Grande Dame, Tanuja in a role that doesn’t call for make up or theatrics.
In a simple story where Upama Mukherjee, a single mom, feels abandoned when her son, Jisshu Sengupta as Sowmya gets married to Arunima Ghosh as Moumita. The senior is lonely which makes her grouchy, demanding and unforgiving even when the daughter in law makes an effort thus mom and son drift further apart.
Writer, Director, the good looking Parambrata Chatterjee as Rajdeep who runs an orphanage comes up with this brilliant idea of a young boy, Bitlu played by Srijato Banerjee, spending time with Upama.. Whose name he promptly shortens to Uma.
After the initial resentment of putting up with a noisy child in the house Uma comes around to sharing the stories she wrote when younger for and about her son, Papun. The tales get spun into newer more meaningful stories when the patron of the orphanage, Soumitra Chatterjee lovingly called ‘Toy Man’ schemes and plans for Uma and Bitlu to go looking for the elusive Golden Mountains.
Loved the recreation of a younger Uma (Gargi Roychowdhury) and Papun.. In flashbacks and stories.
A beautifully woven story which doesn’t need knowledge of the language to be part of Uma and Bitlu’s precious friendship. The social message of the unfortunate abuse and abandonment of parents in their silver years is strong too. The treasure of love which we don’t have to go far to the golden mountains to search for has been well captured in poems and a couple of very meaningful songs.
Shonar Pahar Movie Rating: 08/10
Title: Shonar Pahar
Year of Release: 2018
Directed and Written by: Parambrata Chatterjee
Running Time: 130 minutes
Language: Bengali
Country of Origin: India (Tollywood)
Production Company: GreenTouch Entertainment
Distributed by: Star Synergy Entertainment
[…] Reviewed by: Shyamala Nawab […]