Review of Bengali Film Ramdhanu

"Ramdhanu" is a simply told story with simple characters with whom we can identify. The director duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee have bring another interesting and unique subject of our day to day life which is admission of a kid in a good school.

The story is an adaptation of Suchitra Bhattacharya's novel "Ramdhanu Rang". It traces the emotions of parents who are trying to get their child admitted to the best possible school. How much pressure they have to go through for their children. Laltu Datta (Shiboprasad Mukherjee) and Mitali Datta (Gargi Roychowdhury) have played a middle class couple who wants to admit their child Gogol (Akashneel Mitra) to a well reputed English medium school. For this they are ready to take help from anyone from political leaders to police officer to the uniform supplier of the school to the fourth grade staff of the school. They are even ready to pay bribe if required. When all these do not work they take up the challenge to groom themselves by joining a parent grooming course for parents to clear the admission interview for the parents in the schools. Finally they understand that more focus should be given on better education than better school.

The story idea is truly unconventional though it is a very familiar aspect of our regular life but no filmmaker has thought it as film subject so far.So the credit should be given to the director duo for choosing such an unconventional story idea. 
And the acreenplay written by Shiboprasad himself brings life to the story. The moments and characters are very real and the audiences can identify with them. There is a solid dose of light hearted laghter scenes at the same time there is some emotional quotient too. For example the when Laltu Datta gives speech on evening library during the interview is hilarious. Similarly some other scenes involving Laltu's preparation for the interview is quite funny too or the scene where he sends someone else as his kid's father to give the interview. There are two sub plots too one involving Mitalli's foreigner sister in law and another involving Laltu and Mitalli's neighbors an old age lonely couple. These two subplots works very well in favor of the story line to support the importance of better education in any medium compared to better school and English medium.

The only problem with story is that fun and interesting elements are lesser in the second half. The whole plot involving the parent grooming course is new concept but it could have been done in a better way. There was no need to bring parents from each corner of India that too in a very cliched format. Also towards the end the drama goes little over the top which does not go well with the light hearted spirit of rest of the story.

The director duo Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy have done a brilliant job. From choosing a newer concept to make it look and feel like believable, all credit should be given to them. Without becoming too much loud they have succeeded to give the message too without compromising with the entertainment value.

As the leading man Shiboprasad Mukherjee is just too good as medicine shopkeeper Laltu Datta. By his brilliant acting , dialogue delivery and body language he has looked every bit of Laltu Datta perfectly. He has portrayed the under confident but lovable father very well. Watch him in the scenes where he is getting ready for the interview or when he gives an ex-tempo on evening library. He is just too good with his mannerism that he looked like Laltu Datta on screen.

Gargi Roychowdhury is another surprise of this movie. She has played the character Mitalli Datta with perfection. She is never too loud rather she has underplayed her character very well without saying much dialogues.

Lots of thing had been said as Rachana Banerjee's comeback in this movie, but unfortunately she is not much there in the film. Her role starts in second half only and in every scenes she is crowded with almost a dozen of junior artistes who has played the parents in her grooming center. So she does not get enough scope to do anything, whatever chance she has got she is just okay in that.

Among the supporting cast the child actor Akashneel Mitra is very cute and adorable and he has done a very good job. Kharaj Mukherjee is brilliant as the school uniform supplier Mr. Singhania. He has little screen time but he is such a fine actor for him it does not matters how lengthy is his role he can bring our attention in every scene.

Among the technical team it can be said that the production design by Amit Chatterjee is very good and realistic. Same can be said for the costumes by Ruma Sengupta and make up artistes. The cinematographyby Shirsha Ray is good. The dialogues penned by the director duo is very nice and funny. There is no scope for songs and it is good that unnecessary songs have not been forced. Most of the songs comes in background and it goes well with the narration.

Overall "Ramdhanu" is film that will caught your attention from the first scene and you will never get bored. You can enjoy it with your family as well as friends, no matter what is your age you will be feel attached with the subject and characters.