Arekti Premer Golpo (Bangla, Just Another Love Story, 2010)
Cast: Rituparno Ghosh, Indraneil Sengupta, Jisshu Sengupta, Raima Sen
Director: Kaushik Ganguly
After watching Chitrangada, Unishe April and Arekti Premer Golpo back-to-back, my respect towards movies as a medium of storytelling is increasing day by day.
Why am I choosing to go back to movies directed or starring Rituparno Ghosh? Those movies stir the soul and make you think about what love was meant to be and what it has come to mean to most of the world around us.
A man who was a riddle in himself has the audacity to make and act in movies that question your sense of right and wrong and make you ponder about it long after you have watched them. While Chitrangada (2012) deemed as a biopic of the great director himself, shows someone so capable of giving selflessly for the sake of love, Arekti Premer Golpo (2010) can be safely called a prequel of Chitrangada. It dwells on the same transgender issues from the eyes of another very famous Jatra artist Chapal Bhaduri.
Chapal Rani is a woman trapped in a man’s body in 1950s, stuck in a time warp where he would have to either go on being the pawn of society and keep acting like a man or give it all up for the sake of embracing the inner woman in him.
Directed by Kaushik Ghosh, starring Rituparno Ghosh, Indraneil Sengupta, Jisshu Sengupta and Raima Sen this one is a high emotion drama. Rituparno da, stars as a documentary director who is making a movie on Chapal Rani (again played by Rituparno Ghosh in his youth).
The flashback takes the viewers through the journey of Chapal and how he was loved by a much married man only to be used years later as a servant to his wife. And how selflessly Chapal serves her doing all the menial tasks and bonds with his wife as a penance for breaking her house.
As Chapal’s story progresses, the director himself starts feeling the parallels between his own life and Chapal’s. Not sure how but Rituparno Ghosh is able to bring so much of femininity in his roles not even a female actor would be able to bring out. Washing clothes, cooking , making tea, dancing he got a big canvas to bring out the real woman in him through this movie and I am glad.
It takes a lot of courage to be out there in open, letting your guards down and be vulnerable to people around you and be at their mercy to not to hurt you for your weaknesses and there would be few, very few who would actually respect that trust you place in them. Rest would make sure they walk all over you and leave your broken pieces as a reminder to not to let any one be close to you ever again.
Chapal Rani learnt the lesson, very late. But through him, Abhiroop Sen learnt his lesson and moved on. Arekti Premer Golpo is highly recommended for people who look out for reality in movies and who appreciate the sensitivities that a movie is able to achieve without being too intrusive and explicit.
Shakun Rana Narang is Administrator of Moviemaniacs Facebook Group. The opinions shared by the reviewers are their personal opinions and does not reflect the collective opinion of Moviemaniacs Facebook Group or Learning and Creativity emagazine.
Arekti Premer Golpo (Just Another Love Story)
Full Movie With English Subtitles
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