Honeymoon review: Minus melodrama and clichéd ending, this one's an enjoyable trip

Premendu Bikash Chaki’s Honeymoon is a modern-day adaptation of Salil Sen’s Chhutir Phande (1970), starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen and Utpal Dutt. The film is full of entertainment with decent performances and humorous dialogues. The romantic comedy is a reminder of Priyadarshan’s films in many ways — the typical heroine of a soft nature, a commanding elderly figure and a relatively meek yet indomitable hero whose repeated failures to get close to the heroine create hilarious moments on screen.

Based on Samaresh Basu’s novel, the film mostly lives up to expectation except for the melodramatic sequences. There are a few loopholes in the end that could have been avoided to make it less predictable and over-the-top.

The protagonists, Gitin (Soham Chakraborty) and Jayati (Subhasree Ganguly), have been married for a year; however, they have not managed to go on a honeymoon as Gitin’s tyrannical boss PK Bhattacharya (Ranjit Mallick) is against granting leave to employees.

Gitin finally grabs a chance when Bhattacharya himself plans to go on a trip. He lies to his boss about his illness and travels to North Bengal to enjoy a sweet honeymoon with his wife.

Trouble creeps in when PK Bhattacharya also lands up at the same resort to enjoy his holiday and bumps into Jayati in the absence of Gitin. From here on, the twists begin. To save his job, Gitin tries hard to escape with Jayati, without revealing himself.

PK Bhattacharya, on the other hand, is extremely authoritative and not ready to allow the apparently helpless lady to go away with any 'random' person.

With the course of the plot, PK Bhattacharya’s character unfolds as well. A bachelor all his life, Bhattacharya gradually begins to see the colours of life in the company of a young woman and reveals his own tender emotions.

The serene location in the lush green of North Bengal infuses freshness in the film and adds to the romance of the plot as the focus shifts from the couple to PK Bhattacharya and Jayati. Bhattacharya’s affinity towards Jayati makes a lot of sense until it involves unnecessary explanation in the end and also loses logic as the form of his affection suddenly changes.

The dream sequence in the beginning in which Gitin watches his bride escaping with a person who regularly irons their clothes adds to the couple’s desperate wish for a honeymoon and sets the mood of the film.

Their prompt decision of the holiday justly makes it hard for the couple to find proper accommodation and eventually their stay at a resort that has already been booked by Bhattacharya builds up the plot for the recurring twists.

The moments of Bhattacharya’s encounters with Jayati, caretaker Basant (Partha Sarathi Chakraborty) and Chitoo (Rudranil Ghosh) are crafted with intensity and the dialogues in these sequences are the funniest. The conflicts and the conversations between Bhattacharya and Chitoo are enough to make the audience break into a riot of laughter.

Ranjit Mallick excels more as an ageing man discovering new feelings and trying to appear attractive to Jayati than as the tyrannical boss. He is extremely natural in the comic sequences as well. Subhasree Ganguly mostly manages with her stock expressions but moulds herself well in a few comic sequences. Soham Chakraborty’s act is decent.

Rudranil Ghosh is definitely the dark horse of the film. His act as the simpleton Chitoo with faltering speech and funny facial caricatures are worth every penny.

Partha Sarathi Chakraborty, too, is masterful in the slapstick moments. It can be said that without the characters of Chitoo and Basanta, the film would not be half as entertaining as it is. Chitoo also reminds us of the stock character of a hero’s partner in most of Priyadarshan’s films.

Scriptwriter Padmanabha Dasgupta and Chaki’s collaboration is commendable as the two have understood each other’s demands. While Chaki creates the moments, Dasgupta’s words are the pulse of the film.

The background score by Savvy Gupta is typical. The title track 'Honeymoon' by Savvy Gupta and Akriti Kakkar is average. In contrast, 'Naina Tore' by Ujjaini Mukherjee and 'Tui Amake Agle Rakh' by Raj Burman and Madhubanti Bagchi are soulful renditions. Dipangshu Acharya’s lyrics in 'Tui Amake Agle Rakh' add to the mood of a perfect honeymoon.

Despite the plot twists, Honeymoon heavily relies on its characters. The film touches a certain point of excellence midway, then drops with a clichéd ending.

Correction, 29 November 2021: An earlier version of this review misspelt the director's first name as Purnendu.