Ekti Tarar Khonje (Beyond the Stars) [2010]

Avik Mukherjee, one of the finest cinematographers in the country, decided to make his directorial debut with Ekti Tara Knonje. I thus had a lot of expectation going into the theatre, and I must admit the film started off quite well; hence one might very well appreciate my disappointment when the promise wasn’t realised. In a way, this movie about a small-town boy who comes to Calcutta to be in the movies and becomes an unwitting part of a crime syndicate, reminded me a lot about the disappointment I felt upon watching another movie by a renowned DOP turned director – Christopher Doyle’s Away With Words. The prime problem with this film lies in the director’s inability to rein in his indulgence into aesthetics without giving much thought on strengthening its narrative drive, more so because it was at the end of the day a plot-based film; consequently, the movie got turned into a collection beautiful but incohesive shots and vignettes. The second problem with the film lied in the director’s inability to control his urges where showing-boasting his film knowledge goes, and hence littering it with film references. Ironically, however, the film’s most memorable moment occurs when Dhritiman Chatterjee’s character enacts the “Of all the gin joints…” scene from Casablanca, followed by Shayan Munshi’s character playing out the “Someday a real rain will come…” sequence from Taxi Driver. The film has some wonderful songs though.





Director: Avik Mukherjee
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller
Language: Bengali
Country: India