Love Via Friendship review: Sanchayan Chakraborty's directorial debut gives nothing but disappointment

The story of Love Via Friendship has been told countless times over the years, the humour in it is only fit for stand-up comedy shows and the performances are less than amateur. If sensibilities and common sense are put aside, then perhaps, the film could be tolerated.

It seems director Sanchayan Chakraborty was also aware of the lacking strength in the story and had little faith in the performances of the protagonists. He, therefore, added in the character of God (Paran Bandopadhayay), who plays the sutradhar (narrator). While looking over the mortals from heaven, the God delivers commentary throughout the film; as if trying his best to engage the audience.

Love Via Friendship is Kavya (Parijat Chakraborty) and Samrat's (Samrat Hazra) love story. Samrat, who is already engaged to Sonia under the pressure of his business tycoon father, goes on a trip with his friends Apurba (Apurba Roy), Soham and his wife Soumi (Tamori Chaudhuri). There he meets and falls in love with Kavya, who is also engaged to another man. The hero, who has always been a dutiful son, decides to break his engagement with Sonia.

In order to win the hand of the bride, he reaches Kavya’s palace-like-home where the arrangements of her marriage are in progress under the supervision of her strict and influential brother Chandrashekhar (Supriyo Dutta). From here on, the film focuses on how Samrat, along with the help of his group of friends, tries to unite with Kavya.

The character of God makes appearances at crucial points in the film, with a humorous paraphrase of the previous and upcoming incidents. As the entity behind the destiny of the characters, he creates the various hurdles before the lovers finally unite. He breaks the wall between the film and the audience and his continuous philosophising creates an apparent impression of the playfulness of the almighty.

While the entire film is replete with loopholes, the unnecessary dragging of the plot in the second half before Samrat finally expresses his love to Kavya is enough to for the audience to lose its patience.

The dialogues are no help either. At certain points it seems as if the actors have improvised on their own, without a proper script in hand.

Kavya’s sudden ranting of meaningless philosophy turns comic and fails to evoke any empathy for her character or her opinions whatsoever. Apurba has only been given jokes throughout the film; a few create hilarious moments, but most only cause irritation.

Parijat Chakraborty tries her best to come out of her pretty face and act as the vulnerable heroine dominated by her influential brothers. The rest of the newcomers, barely manage to deliver their dialogues in front of the camera, let alone bringing any characterisation.

Samrat Hazra’s performance as the meek lover and the youngest member of the family, who is mostly of no use without the help of his friends and his elder brother, is naïve to a fault.

Veteran actor Paran Bandopadhyay proves his brilliance as an actor irrespective of the quality of the content. Although Chandrashekar’s characterisation as a Bengal based Kannad zamindar (landowner) is unintentionally hilarious, Supriyo Dutta delivers a fairly decent performance within the limitations. Apurba Roy’s act as the friend of the protagonist fails to step outside stand-up comedy genre.

The action sequences in the film too are not serious at all and an absolute lack of logic prevails. Samrat’s sudden and mighty come back at the right location after being severely bashed up by a bunch of goons can only be classified as nonsense.

Perhaps songs 'Aaj Akla Mon' by Shaan and Anwesha and 'Mon Keno Sunchhe Na Baron' are the only moments of relief in the entire film, not for their picturisation but because of the sheer quality of the renditions and the composition by Pijush Chakraborty.

Sanchayan Chakraborty fails miserably as both director and the screenwriter of Love Via Friendship. One really wonders whether he hoped to
achieve success with such a flawed script by depending on a bunch of exceptionally inexperienced actors, or merely wanted to present a platform to the newcomers.

There is not a single factor that saves the film, not even Paran Bandopadhyay and Supriyo Dutta’s dedicated performances.