In the vast number of regional films produced in India, mostly commercial, there are very few movies that can catch viewers’ attention outside any specific region. Director Mainak Bhaumik’s Bengali drama “Bedroom” is one of those few exceptions that have stood out with exceptional content and universal appeal with characters that represent urban Indians and their modern age relationships.
One of the finest aspects of this movie is that while portraying characters from urban India, the director very aptly interlinked those within three different stories. “Bedroom,” tells the story of three couples: Anando and Priyanka; Joy and Ritika; and Dev and Ipshita.
Anando (Abir Chatterjee) is a workaholic software engineer who is married to Priyanka (Paoli Dam) a loving housewife craving for her husband’s attention. Their marital relationship is strained as the man is not able to find time for her woman under the extreme workload and his wish to get a promotion in his job. However, their relationship suddenly comes to a toss when Priyanka meets her former boyfriend and Anando loses his job.
Next in the story, we have an aspiring actor turned drama teacher Joy (Rahul) who is into a live-in relationship with his ambitious and most modern fashion photographer girlfriend Ritika (Parno Mittra). Although both are in deep love with each other, Joy’s male ego does not let him to aspect the fact that his partner earns more and practically runs the house. Their relationship seems to be under the verge of a breakdown with their continuous verbal spats that even led Ritika to go for an occasional fling.
Next up, there is Dev (Rudranil Ghosh) a talented actor who is very much successful in being with a new girl almost every other day. In one of his earlier true-love relationship, in which he had found his girlfriend two-timing has left him with the belief that love and marriage are not for him at all. However, the day comes when this hard-nosed man finally meets a woman, journalist Ipshita (Ushashie Chakraborty). But both have their fear of rejection which never let them confess their feelings for each other.
This is not all. In addition to these stories where Anando, Joy, and Dev are friends, there are other characters: Tanisha (played by Tanusree Chakraborty) who believes that Joy can overlook her present life of a prostitute; Rajat (Vikram Chatterjee), an NRI investment banker and the former lover of Priyanka, who has returned to the city to rekindle the old love; and a wannabe model played by Anubrata who has a casual fling with Ritika.
The movie is about how all these characters dealing with their problems. It is for the audience to see if all those characters go down with the complexities of life or come out clean with new hope. Kudos to the director for bringing so many complicated stories yet making the movie fresh and comprehensible to catch your attention. “Bedroom” is a new kind of cinema to a regional platform, although I am not too sure if Bengali cinema often produces such movies.
Cast: Abir Chatterjee, Rahul, Rudranil Ghosh, Paoli, Parno Mittra, Tanusree Chakraborty, Ushasie Chakraborty, Vikram Chatterjee, Biswanath Basu, and Anubrata Basu, among others
Director: Mainak Bhaumik
Writer: Mainak Bhaumik
Cinematographer: Supriyo Dutta
Language: Bengali
Release Date: January 6, 2012
Here is an interesting Bengali film “Jekhane Bhooter Bhoy” with three amusing ghost stories.
