Adda review: Confusing collage that doesn't establish the director's intentions clearly

The multiple narratives in Devayush Chowdhary’s film, Adda (2019), emerge through the various informal adda sessions, but not all of them have a proper journey.

The film intends to form a critique of various issues, including relationships, raising a voice against the system, dependence on the digital world and consensual sex. However, apart from a few heartfelt moments of friendship, to which the audiences will perhaps relate to, the other discourses only seem to be thrown about without the aim of a long-term effect.

In an interview with Cinestaan.com, the director spoke of his intention to explore the possibility of regeneration in the city of Kolkata, which many consider dead these days. There are two figures - one angelic (Sabyasachi Chakraborty) and one demonic (Dipangshu Acharya), who arrive in the city to decide the fate of its citizens.

At the end of the film, it is just the turn of destiny that allows certain characters to drop their ego and the demonic figure, and decide to not destroy these mortals, whom they considered to be hopeless.

The problem is, the adda sessions and the various narrative don’t have an intrinsic connection to Kolkata. Just because, certain narratives have the association to the Hok Kolorob movement initiated by Jadavpur University, or the friends love to play football in the mud, doesn’t mean these narratives are quintessentially Kolkata-centric.

Had Chowdhary attempted to address the issue of staying optimistic towards human civilization, he could have infused more depth into the narratives. There is no denying that he attempted to portray the reality of struggling actors, marital rape, complications in friendship with honesty.

However, amongst all the narratives, while Saayoni Ghosh’s seem to be dealing with the most serious issue of consensual sex, marital rape and work-related abuses, it hardly has a delineated journey. Also, the culmination of her story doesn’t really quite make sense and appears imposed.

Rudro (Indrasish Roy), Saayoni’s husband, delivers some quotes and theories on marriage, sexuality and the system of society before he decides to allow his wife to have a peaceful life by divorcing her, which eventually allows him to follow his dream as well.

While Afreen’s (Ritwika Pal) narrative doesn’t have much significance beyond her rebellious nature, Sourav Das’s character is only there in the film to propagate the idea that certain people cannot get over their roots, no matter how much luxury they can afford to, that too, only through a few dialogues.

Childhood friends Sahu (Swarnav Banerjee), Puro (Prantik Banerjee), Bappa (Jit Das), Ira (Dipanwita Nath) also get back to their roots, to have their relationship sorted and perhaps, that is the only connection their narrative has with Kolkata, the city. Their equation and the performances of the cast are also quite natural, leaving an impact on the audience.

Soumitra Chatterjee’s narrative doesn’t make much sense. On the one hand, he is projected as a former revolutionary, but on the other hand, his primary concern seems to be digital dependence than any other grave issues of the country.

Though he is labelled as a part of the corrupt system at the end, the entire episode is presented quite superficially. As if a student’s verbal protest against Chatterjee’s stand seems to be enough to deal with all the complex issues around.

There are too many characters in the film. They all have grey shades and are filled with potentials. However, at the end, Devayush and his co-writer, only choose the narrative of the friend circle, which is the easiest to deal with, to have a proper journey.

The rest rather backfires except for Ghosh’s narrative. All the characters seem to take refuge in their adda or some verbal discussions to get over the reality and suddenly, all are presented to be at a resolved stage of life in the climax, accompanied by the song 'Ami Chini Go'. Whether the director wanted to project that the people of Kolkata can find a solution to every problem through their verbal expertise or that they can actually rise above it, isn't quite clear.

Amongst all the performances, Swarnav Banerjee, Jit Das, Indrasish Roy and Ritwika Pal’s are the most noteworthy.

The dubbing of the film could have been better, as at certain places, it seems out of sync and creates a discomfort in the experience, particularly as the film is dialogue-based. The dialogues of the angelic and demonic figures, written in rhymes are rather impressive. There are subtle criticisms on the incidents of lynching and fanaticism in the name of religion in the dialogues, which is commendable.

Roopesh Shaji’s camerawork, Saikat Sekhareswar Ray’s editing and Joydeep T Banerji’s background score are some of the factors that ensure that the audience stays engaged till the end of the film.

However, the film engages primarily with the hope to deliver a bit more of the slice of drama. The film seems to be a deliberate collage of certain narratives, of which some could have been dealt more seriously and some, perhaps, could have been left out. Nevertheless, it is some of the characters, spontaneously enacted, which stay memorable even after coming out of the theatre.