CHAAR (Bengali) Four-in-one delight

Cast: Saswata Chatterjee, Abir Chatterjee, Koel Mullick, Shubhrajit Mitra, Paran Bandopadhyay, Pijush Ganguly, Rajatava Dutta, Sreelekha Mitra, Sudipta Chakraborty and others

By Shoma A. Chatterji

“Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.” – Neil Gaiman, English author. Sandip Ray picks four outstanding short stories by three renowned authors for his new film Chaar meaning four. Each story stands independent of the rest and explores different worlds, characters and incidents with the prized twist in the tale short stories are famous for.
There is an element of excitement and heightened suspense in each story. Bateshwar-er Abadaan (written by Parasuram) deals with an arrogant writer both surprised and humbled by the deep impact his serialised novel has made on a young reader. Paran Bandopadhyay is excellent in a layered performance. Saswata as the doctor and Sreelekha as his wife are also very good.
Dui Bondhu (Satyajit Ray’s story) is about two friends meeting on an assigned time and date 25 years after they go their different ways because the father of one is transferred to a different city. Pijush and Rajatava, both brilliant theatre actors, have fleshed out their characters with remarkable skill.
Kagtarua (The Scarecrow) by Satyajit Ray is about a famous singer whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He suddenly discovers a scarecrow in the fields moving towards him. His panic dissipates when the animated scarecrow takes him back to the past when he was a servant in a singer’s home and was thrown out for a theft he did not commit. A surrealistic touch marks the twist in the tale that is a scathing but understated comment on the ruthlessness of an employer towards a loyal and honest servant. Was the singer dreaming? Or was it for real?
Pareeksha (by Saradindu Bandopadhyay) shot entirely in black-and-white gives the film a period flavour that takes us back to films shot in the 1940s and early 50s’. Monika (Koel Mullick) arrives at the richly decorated mansion of England-returned Binayak Bose (Abir Chatterjee) to ‘test’ his eligibility to be her husband as her family is negotiating a marriage between the two. Koel and Abir are both dressed up to look like characters popping out of a Kanan Devi-P.C. Barua New Theatres’ film. It has delightful touches of humour and a brick-by-brick building up of suspense and exciting romance.
The tightly-knit scripts invest each film with a rhythm and the carefully chosen locations widens the horizons. The stories have specific ethnicity but the ideology lacing each is universal. Shirsa Ray’s camera, especially in Kagtarua as it pans across dark clouds looming across the sky with the premonition of something intriguing about to happen is astounding. A shot of pigeons perched on a wire as also his B & W exploration in the last film is unforgettable. The darkly lit interiors of the author’s flat where he converses with the famous star are also a treat to watch. The dialogues are pithy, humorous and direct. Sandip Ray honed his directorial skills with Feluda series and his foray into fiction, he has acquired command over fiction and suspense. Chaar is a four-in-one delight.