User Reviews

I watched a dvdrip version of this movie and just spell-bounded...This is such a film that will touch everyone's heart,viewer will find their child-adulthood in the movie....

As seen through the eyes of the youngest male member of the family, Rono, Dutta vs Dutta throws us back at a time when the city not only witnessed the arrival of hippies and the Naxalites, it also saw the emergence of a pioneering Bangla rock band that revolutionized the music scenario with its scathing lyrics and melodies that caught on like wildfire. Rono ( Ranodeep Bose) is forced to come back home from his boarding school in Darjeeling since his father couldn't pay off his school fees. All of 17, Rono finds the city, his school and his home an impossible place to live in. He struggles to adjust in his new environment - stuck at the crossroads of choosing a career and following his true calling, acting. Amidst the constant bickering at home - with his father and uncle (Anjan Dutt and Biswajit Chakraborty resepectively) forever fighting over the ancestral house, his mother (Rita Kayral) who drowns herself in alcohol, a grandfather ( Dipankar De) who plays music, a mentally challenged uncle (Subhasish Mukhopadhyay), a rebellious elder sister China ( Arpita Chatterjee) who first declares her love for Ghenti Kaku (Shankar Chakraborty), a man of her father's age and then ends up marrying a Naxalite (Kaushik Sen) - Rono finds a friend, philosopher and guide in an extraordinary character played by Srijit Mukherji, who thrives on poem and music, and believes he can change the middle-class Bengali mindset with his creations. He encourages Rono to speak his heart out to the girl he loves. It is interesting to note the way Anjan Dutt has subtly paid a tribute to the legendary Goutam Chattopadhyay and his band Mohiner Ghoraguli through Srijit's character, who comes as a pleasant surprise in the film. Like Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona, this film too has some good music by Neel Dutt. The film's colour scheme, interspersed with black and white shots, is handled well. Anjan Dutt as Rono and China's advocate father, Biren, behaves like a feudal lord but a failure in reality - both in his personal and professional life. With his flamboyant mannerisms, Anjan is comical at times but yet manages to draw sympathy from the audience. Though Anjan tries to present the father-son equation in a convincing manner it could have been a lot better. Roopa Ganguly's portrayal of Runu Mashi, albeit in two-three scenes, makes an impact. Ronodeep with his restrained acting looks natural on screen.

However, the plot comes across as a total mishmash and therefore, loses punch. Given, it is an autobiographical take on the director's life and time, a few characters in the film strongly remind us of what we have seen before. For eg: Rita Kayral pleading Anjan to stay back at home seems to be a direct lift from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Dipankar De's sudden appearance and trying to bring the family together has a resemblance to Rabi Ghosh's character in Tapan Sinha's Galpo Holeo Satti... we really wonder why.

Sadly, not everyone can relate to such characters or the storyline. Also the film drags in the first half. The characters keep repeating certain lines as if to drive home the fact that they are real. Had the director not ended the film at the right juncture, it would have been really disheartening for the viewers.

So,kudos to Anjan Dutta for giving us such a nice film.