Roushni Sarkar
Kolkata, 10 Mar 2018 17:33 IST
A bit more intensity, while maintaining the natural pace, could have made the audience relate and empathise more with the primary subject matter of debut director Dr Kishnendu Chatterjee's film.
Dr Krishnendu Chatterjee’s Ka Kha Ga Gha is an original story on the struggling newcomers in a film industry. Famous for his stand-up comedy shows, Chatterjee proves his capabilities by delivering a simple and humorous story which is not over-loaded with buffoonery or funny punch lines.
In the film, when the young talents repeatedly fail to convince the directors or the producers of their talents, they take inspiration from a script, written by one of them, to change their reality. The story comes a full circle as it links the dreams of the newcomers with that of an age old struggling actor, who has only been cast in roles that barely have the significance of props in films.
The film subtly critiques the exploitation of the young aspirant artistes and the sad treatment towards them. The modern trend of showing regressive content in Bengali mega serials has also been ridiculed in the film through low-key sarcasm.
Ka Kha Ga Gha reveals the dark reality of the film industry without getting serious in approach and not turning preachy. The laidback pace of the film adds to the simplicity of the plot, but takes away the drama at certain points. The director might have attempted a naturalistic story-telling with the momentum, but has failed in bringing out the intensity in a few crucial points.
The film begins with a shooting scene featuring aged artiste Madhab Datta (Paran Bandopadhyay). As he takes a break and goes into his make-up van, a young journalist comes in to take his interview. Datta begins telling his story behind appearing in a leading role at his age and goes into flashback.
Originally a tea-vendor, Datta, harbours deep sympathy for young aspirants who leave their parents and hometown to build a career in the film industry. He provides low costs rooms for them or lets them stay for free in his house. In his mess room, stays aspirant script writer Kharaj (Iman Chakraborty), struggling actor Ganesh (Sourav Das). Roommates Kalyan (Samadarshi Dutta) wishes to be a director and Ghanta (Sayan Ghosh) wishes to become the most dreaded villain of the industry.
Ganesh, Ghanta and another roommate who suffers from a speech defect regularly return home hopeless, either from auditions or a new film. Ganesh’s supportive girlfriend Priya (Saayoni Ghosh) arranges money for him as a producer asks for Rs20,000 from him to attend an acting workshop.
One evening, the entire group listens to a unique story by Kharaj and realise that they only lack a producer to venture on a film of their own. Datta suggests them to contact Bhabatosh Adhikari (Kaushik Ganguly), the owner of a biscuit factory, instead of a producer, to invest in their film. Adhikari doesn’t find their story to be convincing at all and refuses to listen to the script.
Having been let down by their last hope, the team sets out on the Ka Kha Ga Gha (acronym of Kalyan, Kharaj, Ganesh, Ghanta) mission to play their last card and accomplish their dream.
Most of the archetypal characters in the film are embodiment of their passion and dreams. Though the youngsters seem to be too naïve at times, the characterisation add to their innocence and helplessness at large. Also, director Chatterjee consciously makes it a point that the characters retain their individuality and self-respect in compromising situations. Along with comic moments and various other emotions, the director also doesn’t let go of the opportunity to insert a bit of romance in the plot.
Veteran actor Paran Bandopadhyay and director and actor Kaushik Ganguly shine in their respective roles. Bandopadhyay brings out nostalgia, an undaunted desire to become an actor and a few moments of desperation with ease. Kaushik Ganguly gets into the skin of the drunkard owner of a biscuit company. He plays well the otherwise docile, but negligent husband for whom nothing matters more than biscuits.
Aparajita Auddy acts well as the sweet natured yet lonely Madhabi boudi who desperately craves for a child and seeks attention from her husband.
Sumit Datta fits well into the stock character who has not been able to find a suitable role in a film despite struggling for years, but has dialogues, names and dates associated to films memorised to the core. He lends all his emotions in portraying his unspoken love for Madhabi boudi and creates more effect than the other couple (Saayoni Ghosh and Sourav Das) does.
Mir Afsar Ali as usual delivers his best in his cameo act. A little maturity in the performances of the newcomers (Sourav Das, Sayan Ghosh, Iman Chakraborty) perhaps could have added to the honesty of the film.
Cinematographer Joydeep Banerjee maintains a drawing room setting throughout the film. He also experiments on the sequence of the title track sung by Rupam Islam by shooting the entire song in a single shot.
Prabudhdha Banerjee’s background score and Anindya Chatterjee’s songs, especially 'Naam Na Jana Pakhi' by Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal definitely provide with moments of relief and add freshness to the film. Item number ‘Kuchur Muchur’ sung by Prashmita Paul and picturised on Rii Sen is quite a unique composition in Bengali cinema. Needless to say that nobody could have rendered the title track better than Rupam with his bass voice.
Debut director Chatterjee mostly achieves success with an attempt to make a feel-good film that can be watched with family. However, as the film doesn’t offer many twists, a bit more intensity, while maintaining the natural pace, could have made the audience relate and empathise more to the story of struggle, the primary subject matter of the film.