- Date of Release: 13 June 2025
- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Language: Bengali
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Grihapravesh
Indraadip Dasgupta’s fifth feature film as a director is marketed as a tribute to the body of work of filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh. The plot points, characters, the chamber drama setup revolving around a woman soaked in melancholy quiet evidently tries to honor the auteur’s legacy. The first thing which hinders the film from being a proper fitting to the legacy of Rituparno’s work is the absence of nuance, the complex but intrusive characterization. The film deals with the melancholy of woman left alone after marriage, which invites an ideal premise to explore grief and longing, but we are served with just dialogues, with which the primary exposition of the characters are conveyed to the audience. The dialogues reveal quiet bluntly the emotional state of the characters within the first half of the film which is unexpected and disappointing from a film paying tribute to the auteur.
The rich visual aesthetics shows promise throughout, as Pradip Mukherjee shoots with an unparallel lyricism. The house becomes a character, an undeniable silent witness to the boiling sense of loneliness each and every character is suffering from. The walls, the murals, preparation for the upcoming Durga Puja everything looks heavenly and sometimes eclipses the lack of subtleness in other departments.
The film also captures Subhasree Ganguly (Titli, the lead protagonist) at her finest, be it the close ups, or be the silent moments where she is conveying through eyes only. She tries her best to articulate the most complex nuances which the script fails to churn out anywhere. With a sense of duty towards his in-laws , there is a certain realization in her character, that it is not only her suffering from loss but also her in-laws where someone has lost a son and someone a brother, she overcomes self-pity and with grace as she accepts the responsibility. All of this information although spoon fed to the audience, Subhasree still manages to bring a sense of genuineness to her portrayal.
The role of Meghdoot (Jeetu Kamal) is also mishandled. There are different shades which his character has but it is always shown from the perspective of the protagonist, we never get to feel for his longings, desires which was very much needed to where the film was headed especially at the climactic revelation. Owing to the sensible agenda, the film tries to convey, it is quite disappointing how it’s dealt with.
The subplot with Rudranil Ghosh also gets lost into thin air after a certain point, which although was very generic could have been given a better closure, we are never shown his arc except one scene with Sohini Sengupta (her maternal aunt). It is quiet surprising to see an actor like Rudranil Ghosh being wasted into a half-baked character. The veterans (Sohini Sengupta,Kaushik Ganguly) stay true to their role and performs according to their skillset and amplifies the emotional subtext.
Jeetu Kamal looks graceful too, although not given much of a depth as his character demands for, there is a certain charm in his performance. There is a a scene which announces his arrival in the life of Titli(Subhasree),where the sudden gust of wind dismantles the alleys of Kolkata ,and there is a drone shot which shows his car advancing to Titli’s home as a guest. It is very well made and a nod to the name his character has, ‘Meghdoot’ (which means rain, or one who sends message through clouds).The character also has a message to deliver, over all it is quite impressive how it plays with the name.
Indraadip Dasgupta (director) is also a known music director, so he uses music as an instrument of storytelling in his films, but here the songs and the music both seems overburdened ,it doesn’t add anything worth to the film.
The film running at a length of more than 2 and a half hours feels very much outstretched with redundant characters, unresolved subplots and an unnecessary cameo at the end which makes no sense.
It is a frustrating watch specifically for the premise it sets up, the potential it had with the characters. It is evident though that Indraadip Dasgupta has tried to invoke a sense of suppressed emotions but ends up doing a one-dimensional narrative which never really hits the right spot despite Subhasree giving a superlative performance.
