Asamapta – Bengali Film Review
Indra (Ritwick) visits his college friend who lives in a hill station. His friend, Moloy, is a professor and is married to beautiful looking Swastika.
About Moloy:
He is a professor who drinks (alcohol) all the time. When Indra asks him how does he teach when he is drinking all the time – he says I drink, so do the students- so it makes no difference. Meaning: Like teacher, like students. So government has basically recruited below average, loser kind of males as teachers or professors and the poor parents who live hand to mouth paying for the school and college fees of their wards are basically just paying the salary of a mediocre/ loser professor who is rather ruining the character and personality of the students who come under his tutelage.
Asim is a student of Moloy who visits his house basically to get a glimpse of his pretty wife. Wife Swastika is a playful kind of a woman….but at least she does not have intentions of sleeping with the student. She sleeps with Moloy’s colleague though ….because Moloy is incapable of quenching her sexual thirst…at least she has the sense to not ruin young boys by initiating them in the world of sex – many such kind of women actually ruin the characters of young teenage boys by luring them into having physical relationship with them!
People in the locality know Moloy as Tuku’s husband (Tuku – his wife Swstika)…because of her scandalous life, she is pretty famous in the small town.
Moloy and Tuku’s son is sent away to a boarding school so that he does not witness the constant fights of his parents – they were pretty loud and abusive while fighting! Imagine, parents are paying the college authorities in order to be taught by Moloy…whose own son hates to come home even during vacations!
So this is a typical picture of a college professor in India…in a small hill station of India!
Also shows the pains that men (husbands) go through when they have a promiscuous life partner! How world has taken a full round circle – years ago we had ‘Sahib, bibi, ghulam’ where the husband went effing around courtesans in brothels….and now…since females have no brothels to visit for male sex-workers…so they hire the services of anyone who shows interest! Hail World!
About Indra
He seemed to be afraid of marriage or commitment – he thought that marriage would ruin love.
He was confused…a deep thinker.
About Paoli
Paoli was in love with Indra and they were about to get married too.
On the day of their marriage, Indra did not turn up and that left her completely devastated.
She then gets married to a happy-go-lucky man who tries his best to amuse her and entertain her and bring her out of the setback she had had because of Indra.
In spite of all the clownish activities her poor husband did to entertain her, she remained unhappy – used to get drunk…so basically she never could forget her first love for Indra.
Conclusion – Film is pretty old school –after all it is written by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay – born 2 Nov, 1935. (Shares birthday with SRK!!) This kind of story is really not applicable in today’s world…esp. Paoli’s mental state – girls nowadays change boyfriends every week…and don’t even remember the names of their ex(s)! Film is very slow moving! Film is trying to imply that marriage is a must…however ‘Failed’ the institution is. Dustu daat theke badhano daat bhalo. (Better to extract the teeth that pains you….artificial teeth is good enough).
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