Shororipu Movie Review

Detective Chandrakanta (Chiranjeet) is called on to solve the mystery behind five high-profile murders committed in the city on the same evening. He deduces them to be crimes of passion, revolving around the six human vices, or the shororipu.

Shororipu is a twisted film. This becomes all the more evident, as detective Chandrakanta unravels the workings of dark human minds one after the other. And in that lies the film’s strength. It titillates the darkness dormant in each of us and twists it around us — over and over again — effectively making the film a really immersive experience.

That said, the narrative does leave some gaping holes. The biggest one? Why does Raka Choudhury (Sohana) trick her husband Joshua Bane (Rajatava) and lover Shekhar Dutta (Indraneil) to pay for the same diamond? While this ensures that the diamond store manager Subhodeep Nandi (Rudranil) gets the full price for the stone, it does leave a big question unanswered — why does she do it? It’s obvious that Subhodeep and she have some sort of a pact, but what is it? Why is there no mention of it anywhere in the film?

The small and big holes apart, the film is a dark treat with large doses of humour (primarily coming from Konineeca and Rajesh Sharma). And the best part? Every actor has played their roles to perfection, with Chiranjeet, Rajatava and Konineeca leading from the front. Even Rajesh Sharma plays DCP Sharma — Chandrakanta’s childhood friend — with elan. His snappy retorts always elicit smiles. Konineeca (Koni), too, plays the detective’s confused and slow assistant, a la Kitty (of Karamchand Jasoos fame), to perfection. Rajatava, too, has managed to play the part of a religion-obsessed businessman in the best way possible. His expressions and body language in every twist and turn of the film are perfect. As for the rest (read Rudranil, Indranil and Sohana) their characters hardly demand too much and they have done justice to their rather important roles. But I won’t say they have done it the best way possible.

As the film’s central character, Chandrakanta, Chiranjeet has done really well, though he hardly plays a field detective, who sniffs around or exchanges bullets with criminals. He seems more of a Sherlock Holmes, who turns out to be made of something entirely different in the climactic twist. Sohini (Miss July) has too short a screen time to make a mark, though Sudipta (Bohni) manages to impress with her new ‘pierced’ avatar and emotional outbursts.

But the aspect that makes the film really gripping is the way the story has been treated — the pauses, the repetitions and the vice-specific episodes. Debut director Ayan Chakraborti has, in a way, introduced a novel way of storytelling to Bengali cinema. It’s not about the episodes; it’s the way the whole narrative has been packaged. That’s fresh, and thrilling. The camera work and editing, too, are engaging and without unnecessary jerks. And of course, the background score and the music by Dev Sen keeps the thrill alive, though the sudden item song seems a bit out of place.

Overall, Shororipu is a film you should definitely watch. Just make sure you go with someone who you won’t feel embarrassed with when the occasional slang or intimate scene pops up on screen.