If Shukno Lanka showed a Satyajit Ray-esque filmmaker choosing a middle-aged, down-and-out character actor for his latest film (which in a way was a reflection of Ray’s Parash Pathar), Srijit Mukherji’s Autograph is a 180-degree flip to that. Here a young, untested filmmaker with bid ideas gets to cast the reigning superstar for his first venture. And both films had as its central protagonist two superstars of Bengali cinema, Mithun Chakrabarty and Prosenjeet Chatterjee, respectively, albeit in hugely contrasting roles. A modern day rendition of and tribute to the Ray masterpiece Nayak, the movie-within-the-movie has a young and cocky lady getting to meet and know a superstar while on flight. In the movie, however, we see that the actor, despite his immense fame, is essentially an extremely lonely, guilt-ridden man who, like the character of the Ray film, was a small-time theatre actor, who, despite the protests and pleadings of his acting teacher, made the jump to celluloid, principally for the sake of money. The film has been exceedingly well acted by Prosenjeet, as well as, Indranil Sengupta as the young filmmaker desperate to make it big. Nandana Sen, however disappoints as the director’s fiancé who gets to become the unlikely leading lady of the movie. Though some parts of the movie felt clichéd and could have been better dealt with, there’s no denying the movie’s artistic value. And I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that the protagonist is named Arun Chatterjee – which in essence was the real name of Uttam Kumar, who was the principal protagonist of Ray’s Nayak and the biggest superstar that Bengali cinema has ever had.
Director: Srijit Mukherji
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Showbiz Drama
Language: Bengali
Country: India
