OTI UTTAM (SO YOU UTTAM): One might say, it is a gimmicky movie, but young adults with an old soul and of course the Gen-X generation who grew up watching re-runs of old black and white movies on the Telly and also their parents who still go misty-eyed over Uttam Kumar the superstar who died young. This is a conservative movie starring Gourav Chatterjee who perhaps never saw his ‘Dadu’ in his living years paying homage to Suchitra Sen and the veteran actress Sabitri Chatterjee but gives a back-handed compliment to Supriya Devi to keep it real and in keeping with the Bengali sentiment who thrives in nostalgia. The Edit FX team did a fantastic job with recreating the image of the matinee idol along with the deep-fake technology. But they could not create the hug (despite having ‘huggingface’ in their kitty) because Uttam Kumar was always presented as taller than his heroines (although the real Arun Chatterjee was a medium-built man). The movie touches upon his revelry with Tarun Kumar and his easy camaraderie with Biswajit although the latter was more successful in Bollywood than him. I don’t know why Jadavpur University is depicted in the same vein as people used to depict Viswa Bharati University in Shantiniketan a few years back. Jadavpur University was created in the pre-independence era and the ‘Makers of JU’ were driven by passion and integrity and they gave the students the freedom to balance out ‘Prem, Porashuno and Politics’ and leave the campus happy with high-ticket jobs. All said and done, an enjoyable movie with great music and production value if you can ignore the current Bong trend of ‘hookah, babes, the tui-tokari lingo and French kissing’.
AninditaRoyMusings 