Sayantan Mukherjee’s upcoming film Jhora Palok, based on Bengali poet Jibanananda Das’s controversial semi-autobiographical novel Mallyaban, will be released in theatres on 17 June.
Starring Bratya Basu as the greatest Bengali poet of the post-Tagore era, the film was recently screened at the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival.
Conceived in two different timelines, Jhora Palok stars Jaya Ahsan as Das’s wife Labanyaprabha and also, in the avatar of Surangana, an eminent filmmaker from the present era. Rahul Banerjee will be seen as a younger version of the writer in the film.
Kaushik Sen, Debshankar Halder, Biplab Mukherjee, Santilal Mukherjee, Sreela Majumdar and Padmanabha Dasgupta will feature in Jhora Palok.
Speaking to a news channel, the director said, "Bratya Da and Jaya Ahsan are extremely confident about the film. Bratya Da has delivered an unprecedented performance. I do not expect people to throng to watch Jhora Palok as it is not a mainstream film. But if people invest their time in the film, we will be convinced that they have not forgotten Jibanananda yet."
Souvik Kundu's Aay Khuku Aay, starring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Ditipriya Roy, will be released on the same date. However, the director clarified that Jhora Palok is not competing with any films that have been released in recent times.