BHAGYOLOKKHI “INSPIRED” BUT WATCH-WORTHY

Those who have already watched the Hindi film Lootcase featuring Kunal Kemmu in the lead will conclude that Bhagyolokkhi is a straight lift from this Hindi film. Maybe, the “idea” has been an ‘inspiration’ and though this is never shown in the credits, one must concede that director Mainak Bhaumik has certainly taken “inspiration” but has given it such a totally Bangla identity that one may just bypass the “inspiration” and watch this as an independent Bengali film. For those who have already watched Lootcase, it may not be possible to convince them of the film being “original”. But for those who have not watched Lootcase, Bhagyolokkhi might just turn out to be an entertainer woven in with thrills and murders and kidnappings galore. Bhaumik has also introduced innovations to make the film look ‘original,’ which, looking back on the film, he has pulled it off.

Satya  (Ritwick Chakraborty) and Kaberi Ganguly, (Solanki Roy), a married couple in their mid-30's, are trapped in a boring and stressful  middle-class life, worrying about expenses after sending their son to Delhi to study in school and live with Satya’s brother who lives in Delhi.

The couple is not financially sound as Kaberi has just lost her school job and Satya, a journalist, fights with his editor quits on the spot which the editor, quite shockingly, agrees to. While he is trying to drown his woes by downing a few pegs at the local bar, a young man (Bimal Guru), accompanies Satya claiming to be his friend in school to Satya’s home though Satya does not recognize this guy at all. Kaberi is quite unhappy with the sudden entry of this ‘friend’ who promises to leave to catch his flight the next morning. But he dies of a drug overdose and their discovery of his red suitcase filled with around Rs.10 crore changes the drama of their entire, middle-class, constantly squabbling life together. The couple is scared stiff but from this point on, the mystery begins to thicken trapping the couple in a life sandwiched between a frustratingly jobless entity and the hope to hide the huge stash of cash that would change their lives forever. They invent ways to hide the dead body and learn things related to heinous crimes they knew nothing about.

Each step Satya and Kaberi take to find out what they ought to do with this huge stash, lands the couple in one dangerous zone to the next unfolding a series of criminals beginning with a Minister who runs an underground trade in heroin with the help of a mafia leader (Loknath Dey) and his two mercenary killers, strangely named Laal and Neel. The three goons and the minister heighten up the chase for the lost bag of cash and the missing man who was supposed to deliver it to them. The police, headed by a strangely erratic police inspector (Neel Mukherjee) and his junior (Subrat Dutt) on the one hand and the Minister and his mafia head (Loknath Dey) on the other find out that the missing man had taken shelter in the couple’s home but he, alongwith the suitcase he was carrying the haul supposed to be delivered to the minister and/or the mafia, is missing.

This cat-and-mouse game which traps the young couple filling their every waking minute with the fear of sudden death keeps on till the problem is solved and the couple’s life ends happily and affluently ever after, like a fairy tale. Did they return the suitcase stashed with underworld money like an honest couple? The film does not answer this in so many words but we can see that Kaberi is busy modernizing her flat with a huge television set, brand new furniture and so on. And both husband and wife are jobless.

What ails the film are some very illogical moves within the script which raises many questions but- leaves them unanswered. One is - why does the head of the police chief (Neel Mukherjee) in charge of the investigation into the lost suitcase followed by the murders of a few, deliver his dialogues in a highly theatrical and stylized manner? Why do the mafia head and his two mercenary killers always dress in black? Will such ‘uniformity’ not mark them out by the police? Neel and Laal also carry their ammunition along yet the police fail to nab them. The old man who sits on a bench right below the window of the young couple and comes to them about complaints of “betel juice” falling on him, or, a  piece of meat on another day, is not explained at all. There is a very pretty television actress (Swastika Dutta) who is the mistress of the minister. She is shown to be murdered once in her flat and again on the streets later on. How and why? If the first murder was a dream, who was dreaming it?

The music, the cinematography and the editing, specially the night scenes  are lit up and cinematographed beautifully but somehow, the married pair of Satya and Kaberi  turn out to be quite mundane and boring. But that precisely, seems to have been the director’s intention.

 “I wanted to make a film about an ordinary middle class mundane husband and wife and throw them in the world of crime and fantasy and see where it goes. To me, Bhaggyolokkhi is a mix of real life drama that leaps into a world of fantasy for real life people. I am indebted to Nandy movies and my producer for being excited to tell this story with me,” says director Mainak Bhaumik.

The film has a tightly-knit script but it lacks the humour the original Lootcase had as value-added     entertainment. The acting by the lead actors beginning with Ritwick Chakraborty right through Subrata Dutta has professional polish though Loknath is becoming too typed in negative roles linked to crime. Neel Mukherjee could have been allowed to remain natural because the stylized theatricality does not go with the film. There is just too much blood and gore which might make some sections of the audience take it like a thriller bordering on horror. The film lacks soft emotions like tenderness though Ritwick and Solanki express their growing panic well and hold this right till the end when we see them walking into the sunset holding hands captured in silhouette with their backs to the camera Charlie Chaplin anyone?

*****