Parineeta review: All about Subhasree Ganguly's discovery as an actress

The trailer of Raj Chakraborty’s film Parineeta (2019) appealed to the audience primarily because it presented actress Subhasree Ganguly in a never-before-seen avatar. Also, the charm of a love story from school life raised the anticipation for the audience to get nostalgic.

However, the film has more to offer. From the second half, it takes a turn towards a thriller, which doesn’t live up to the energy and expectation the film creates in its first half.

The performances and screenplay both add to the dramatic intensity of the first half. The small details of innocent romance will make you smile too. The screenplay of this portion has been written in a way so that every female audience can relate some chapters of their life to it. The charm of falling for an elder brother in the neighbourhood and the curiosity around love and sex within teenagers with realistic depiction make the first half thoroughly enjoyable.

Mehul (Subhasree Ganguly) is madly in love with Babai da (Ritwick Chakraborty), who she has been admiring since her childhood. Babai da has a good reputation in the neighbourhood for his academic achievements and his mother (Laboni Sarkar) is eager to get him married.

However, Mehul, bubbly and loved by young and adults alike, jeopardizes all of Babai’s mother’s attempts of getting him married. On the other hand, affectionate towards Mehul, Babai only considers her as a loving sister.

Mehul cannot stop daydreaming, and in her heart, all Babai’s affectionate gestures turn into romantic moves. Her expectations continues to rise until she faces massive heartbreak, followed by the biggest tragedy of her life when Babai commits suicide.

The trailer gave a hint of the storyline till this part. As the second part picks up with a chapter in Mehul’s life when she has lost all the zest and enthusiasm of youth, the plot progression turns quite slow and boring.

Though, on the one hand Mehul cannot get over Babai’s death and her sudden transformation at her new workplace generates intrigue; the uncertainty in the storyline tests the patience of the audience.

The climax of the film is a big letdown as it takes the plot further away from where it begins. Mehul’s head-over-heel crush on Babai and no concentration in her studies are situations with which we can all perhaps relate. However, in the second half, the moments of Mehul hallucinating Babai are way too unrealistic and her dialogues in the ending are cheesy and outdated.

The film undoubtedly presents Ganguly in a new avatar and it is gratifying to see her portraying multiple shades in a single film. Though she seems over enthusiastic in her attempt to turn into a bubbly teenager, her efforts are laudable. Even in the second half, her composure and command over character only makes the film worthy of watching.

Ritwick Chakraborty has also attempted to come out of his mannerisms to fit into a character, which all of us have come across at some point of our lives. The way he tries not to stand out with his minimalistic performance is also commendable.

Gaurav Chakrabarty can be seen in a negative character for the first time and he does justice to it in his brief appearance. However, his dialogues could have been written with a bit more depth. Laboni Sarkar, Adrit Roy and Tulika Basu too shine in their respective avatars.

One of the reasons for the drop in the temperament of the second half is the lack of originality in Padmanabha Dasgupta’s writing. Manas Ganguly and Sanglap Bhowmick’s camerawork and editing respectively also make more sense in the first half, beautifully capturing the emotions and moments of little joy in Mehul’s heart.

Arko Pravo Mukerjee’s song 'Tomake', rendered by Sreya Ghosal, is fit for delineating Mehul’s moments of daydreaming and her total submission to the love of her life. 'Shei Tumi', on the other hand, pronounces the pangs of pain in her endless misery. Indraadip Dasgupta’s background score is average in terms of its innovative applications.

Parineeta can only boast of some endearing performances throughout but not a consistent storyline. If only Raj Chakraborty could have conceived the film in the form of a love story rather than mixing up the genres, the film could have been far more enjoyable.