Bhalobasar Bari review: A melodramatic plot with no twist to engage the audience

Legendary director Tarun Majumder’s Bhalobasar Bari (Abode Of Love) tells a melodramatic decade old story from a society.

Despite the values and ideals the film tries to project, the slow pace and predictability of the plot fails to entertain or spread any kind of message whatsoever.

Based on Pracheta Gupta’s story, the plot of Bhalobasar Bari revolves around two lower middle class families full of archetypal characters without complexities.

The protagonist Buli (Rituparna Sengupta) starts looking for a job as soon as her father (Dwijen Bandyopadhyay) is suddnely let go from a job as the clerk at a jute mill.

A talented singer and a music teacher, Buli auditions for a film but the director tries to molest her. Buli's friend Chandra saves her at the right moment.

Eventually, the benevolent Chandra gets her a job at Bharat Mata Tours and Travels where Buli comes across Kalyan (Pratik Sen). Kalyan is apparently a jovial guy who also has some tragic stories behind his wit and smile.

The film begins to change its course as Buli’s parents, with the help of a friend (Bibhas Chakraborty), arrange her marriage to a rich businessman. Eventually, the film leads to a point where Buli choses love over everything else to build her nest.

Bhalobasar Bari has many loopholes. Buli is victimised numerous times through the film, but she does not raise her voice against them. Until the very end, the offenders run scott-free.

Repressive ideas with no underlying critique, such as a girl being a burden for her parents, and a bride being her mother-in-law's maid, don't really fit in a film made for the present day audience, irrespective of the period the film is based in.

Also, the subplot of a local thug, who first bullies Buli and then takes the charge of decorating the venue of her marriage, seems totally redundant.

The film's progression is very predictable too. The instant connection between Kalyan’s mother (Chitra Sen) and Buli, Kalyan's bonding with Buli, the evilness of Buli’s rich fiance and the conditions laid down by him before marriage, are too typical for the audience to find any originality and purpose in the film.

The characters, though mostly well enacted, are extremely flat. Thankfully the characters of Chandra and Buli’s father’s friend escalate the pace of the plot a few times. The actress who plays Chandra brings out the drama well as the friend of the protagonist.

The late Dwijen Bandyopadhyay suits his character well, as the agitated clerk and a father burdened with two daughters.

Bibhas Chakraborty portrays the typical Bengali character with a subtle and dramatic performance. Shrila Majumdar's act as a meek, vulnerable wife and mother seems natural.

Rituparna Sengupta’s performance as Buli goes through highs and lows with her stock expressions. As a newcomer, Pratik Sen maintains his performance as an ideal, dedicated son and employee throughout the film.

Arjun Chakraborty also gives a fairly good performance as the head honcho of Bharat Mata Tours and Travels.

However, the characterisations do not allow the actors to exploit their potentials to the expected extent. The performances are mostly tuned to be extremely dramatic and theatrical, perhaps, this is what the script demanded.

The use of Rabindra sangeet only adds to the monotony of the plot instead of magnifying the moods of the sequences. Shantanu Basu’s background score often seems to be straight from the theatre.

Apart from some decent performances and a good deal of imposed values of bowing to God and touching the feet of the elders before embarking on any auspicious work, the film does not offer any treat to the audience. Neither its tragic moments, nor its romantic scenes contain any build-up to engage the audience until the end.