Soumitra’s last movie falls short of becoming memorable

72 Ghonta. Photo: Collected

Six seemingly unrelated events occur following-up the suicide of a stand-up comedian. In fact, the demise of the comedian weaves together the six individual stories.

This suicide sets off the plot of '72 Ghanta', directed by Atano Ghosh and starred by Soumitro Chaterjee along with other famous faces of Tallywood. 

The movie is about how an unexpected event in someone else's life can have a butterfly effect on others' lives. For the next 109 minutes runtime, these stories are narrated one after one, with no back and forth jumps.

The fact that '72 Ghanta' is Soumitra's last film, which was released posthumously, had me determined to watch the movie instantly. Moreover, a Tallywood movie being released on Chorki, a Bangladeshi OTT platform, doubled my interest.

Six stories, 12 protagonists and a timeframe of 72 hours - this is the movie's plot outline.

In all the stories except one, the protagonists (each story has two) are strangers to each other. Only in the closing story the two protagonists knew each other before their latest encounter. 

A conflict exists between the two characters and the protagonists' lives are painted on two opposite poles - their realities completely different from one another.

The film portrays a leisurely (or sluggish) world. There is little action and you can pinpoint those scenes. 

Each and every actor reacts to the serious events calmly and talks slowly. There is no rush in the world of Atanu Ghosh, whose signature style is slow buildups.

However, unlike his earlier works, '72 Ghanta' lacks the 'Atanu depth'. Although the plot was far from being boring, at some point I wanted the movie to pace up a little. 

Nonetheless, that's a futile feeling. The movie continues with the same tone until the last minute.

The film is star-studded, with Soumitra Chatterjee, Abir Chatterjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Indrani Halder, Paran Banerjee, to name a few, and big names always excite me. 

The film's poster displays Soumitra at the top-middle - his portrait bigger than others. In another poster, there is only Soumitra and Abir Chaterjee. If you watch the movie just for Soumitra, you will be slightly misled as he is not the only protagonist. There are 11 others who bear the same significance.

As a viewer, the six stories were an overkill for me. I instead would have preferred if there were lesser stories with more depth because neither were the stories rewarding, nor were they not impactful. It also seems to me that the quality of the stories gradually diminished as the movie progressed.

Because of the loosely weaved story, the film's cinematography, acting and music got sidelined despite being up to the mark. And despite having a great cast, the movie fared poorly overall.

In the very last story, humour was added in contrast with the up-until-now flow of the plot. A little bit of excitement followed sarcasm but it fell short of reaching a climax. 

However, the characters in the movie are very captivating. Attempts have been made to make its dialogues artistic and sophisticated by careful articulation. 

On top of that, different characters with different traits are a big plus. Owing to the cast, it is difficult to find faults in individual acting. 

Overall, the movie was not bad, per se, but '72 Ghanta' was a tad disappointing for me.

When a movie falls in the hands of greatness like the legendary Soumitra, heartthrob Abir and a director like Atanu Ghosh, and fails to meet expectations, it can be disappointing. 

That being said, it will be difficult for us to remember the movie for any reason other than the fact that it is Soumitra's last film.