Mitthye Premer Gaan review: Anirban Bhattacharya is the modern-age Devdas in this saga

3/5

Story: It’s complicated. A small-time musician from Kharagpur Avik Sanyal (Anirban Bhattacharya) meets Anwesha (Ishaa Saha) and they fall in love. Anwesha is the daughter of Pt Haripada Roy (Debesh Chattopadhyay) – a classical musician and guru of Aditya (Arjun Chakrabarty). Aditya is a fine musician and classical music snob while Pt Haripada takes Avik under his wings. Aditya looks down upon Avik. What happens to the love story between Avik and Anwesha will have to be seen in the films.

Review: What could have been a deeply passionate love story becomes a half-baked and complicated journey of a socially awkward, introverted individual, Avik. More than Anwesha, the film makes you feel that Avik needs a counsellor to address his deep insecurities and uncertainties.

The film has a complicated storyline with a lot of characters. Sadly, a strong focus on Avik’s crisis has not allowed the script to develop the other characters to their full potential. For example, Avik’s mother’s (fascinatingly played by Sudipa Basu) crisis is intriguing but less explored. The same goes for Anusha Viswanathan’s character. She makes a stellar entry and makes out with Anirban at one point and that’s all she does. Her character, unfortunately, establishes nothing.

Another problem is that the film goes on for a long time. Even by the end, a series of unnecessary sequences drag the film to boredom.

Anirban is a good actor and expresses a lot of pathos and emotional turbulence. While he presents the character with elan, his pathos, after a point, becomes tiresome. It is because of his vulnerable childhood and his father’s disregard, Avik has become a shy person. He fails to open up and refuses to let love come into his life and the whole film becomes a saga of his heartbreak. He sings, rants and drinks like a fish. The focus is given so much on his emotional setbacks that the film fails to show any amount of success in his career convincingly.

Ishaa’s character Anwesha is far more relatable and the actress does a good job. Arjun as Aditya is very convincing. His straight-faced snobbery, his style of looking down upon Avik, and his sexual jealousy look real on screen. Soumya Mukherjee, as Deb – Avik’s friend and manager, has also done a good job in the film.

Mitthye Premer Gaan is an out-and-out musical. Many of the songs have already topped the chartbusters. It is definitely a successful album.

Verdict: Paroma Neotia is a new director on the block of an industry that is predominantly run by men. The world here is so skewed in favour of men that deep misogynistic content often becomes the recipe for success and the heart and soul of numerous films. Paroma’s presence, in this scenario, is like a whiff of fresh air. This is her first film and there are signs that if she doesn’t miss the mark, there will be far more interesting output from under her director’s hat.