Given my diverse interests, is it any surprise to anyone
that I have started another blog – this one dedicated to reviewing the movies
that I see every other week? I hope not. This particular one has been suggested
by Rudra, my husband and as soon as he did, I could not wait to start writing…
What are the odds of you travelling with your ex-partner’s
current wife in a train? Pretty good, if you watch this movie. Praktaan
(Former) begins with two ladies journeying in the same AC first class
compartment from Mumbai to Kolkata, Sudipa (Rituparna Sengupta) and Malini
(Aparajita Addho). Very soon in the movie, Sudipa realizes that Malini is
married to her ex-husband, Ujaan Mukherjee (Prasenjit Chatterjee), tour guide
and travel company owner and quite the male chauvinist (as Sudipa remembers) to
boot. The two ladies are the exact opposite in nature and Malini gushes her way
into making friends with Sudipa, getting her to babysit her eight-year old
daughter and sharing her food with her. Sudipa is the 21st century career woman,
an architect and independent in her own way. Malini is the ex-accountant who
gave it all up when she had her daughter and is full of free advice on how to
handle in-laws after marriage. Interspersed with the present day conversation
between the two, are flashbacks to Sudipa’s marriage with Ujaan. In the same AC
first class, there are other passengers; a honeymoon couple, a senior citizen
and his wife returning from visiting their son who is about to go abroad, and a
band of musicians.
Initially, Sudipa dislikes Malini heartily, who strikes her
as extremely backward and eminently
suitable for Ujaan’s conservative family. However, as the journey progresses
and she asks some very pointed questions about life with her husband to Malini,
who does not think twice about answering them, Sudipa’s view of Malini begins
to change. She realizes that comprise and adjustment are not two dirty words.
She also makes friends with Putul nee Udipa Mukherjee and plays games with her
throughout the journey.
In the flashback scenes between Sudipa and Ujaan, the two
are shown to have met when she goes on a heritage walk conducted by Ujaan and
then brazenly expresses her interest in him. Next, they are shown as a married
couple, who are at each other’s throats constantly due to her career-oriented
nature and femninism and his conservative ideas about how a wife should seek “permission”
from her husband to go to her father’s house. Ridiculous in today’s age but
truly such people do still exist, even in urban Kolkata, who expect such arcane
things in a marriage. Sudipa’s constant complaint is that Ujaan has no time for
her from his tour walks. She tries to express her need for him at every step,
and wants him to have his own business, them to have their own flat, but is
brutally shot down every time. Ujaan is jealous of Sudipa’s career, financial
independence, and her boss and picks a fight with her about anything he can at
every chance he gets. The marriage blows up when he does not accompany her to
Mondarmoni or even follow her there, even after promising he would, for a trip
that was supposed to be an effort between the two to spend some time alone with
each other, working at their marriage. The fiery Sudipa leaves him at this
juncture and later files for divorce.
In the train, years later, it is very evident from her
expressions that she regrets some of what she has done, and when Ujaan turns up
on the train at Nagpur to surprise his wife on her birthday, he is shown to
have regret as well. Malini has managed to make a different man out of him, and
he is now a devoted husband, father, and entrepreneur, everything that Sudipa
had wanted him to be! The rest of the journey are stolen glances between the
two ex-partners and an interrupted conversation in the corridor in which Ujaan apologizes to
Sudipa. There are scenes in the movie, where conversations between the other
passengers are shown and a nice antakshari between them all to break the monotony
of the marriage story. The movie ends when the train reaches Kolkata, by when,
Malini has guessed that Sudipa is her husband’s ex-wife and deals a parting
blow to Sudipa letting her know that she knows, by thanking her for the best “birthday
gift” - Ujaan. Ujaan had wondered whether Sudipa had remarried and he gets his
answer in the last scene of the movie when her husband comes to pick her up
from Howrah station (Saswata Banerjee in a surprise guest appearance).
Speaking about performances, Rituparna and Aparajita are
excellent – both playing their parts to perfection. Prasenjit Chatterjee is
good, but a little stilted in some scenes. Soumitra and Sabitri, playing the
senior citizen couple are fantastic – which is only expected from veterans like
them. The band of musicians play their small parts well – Aninda Chatterjee,
Anupam Roy, Surajit et al and the music of the movie is mellifluous due to
their presence. Manali Dey and Biswanath Basu as the honeymooning couple are
perfect for comic relief with their gooey-ness with each other. The story is a
good one, except for the unlikeliness of someone meeting her ex-husband’s
partner on a train. The back story is well woven but the marriage begins a
little abruptly, without enough lead-in. Minor characters like the ticket
collector and the attendants are also good cameos.
All in all, I feel Praktaan deserves a 4.5 out of 5 –
definitely worth a watch, maybe even two!
