Sukhpreet Kahlon
New Delhi, 13 Jun 2022 17:48 IST
Sohag Sen’s short film traces the pain of losing a loved one.
Theatre director and actor Sohag Sen’s short film The Sorrow Of Love, which takes its title from the eponymous poem by WB Yeats, examines the reverberations that the sudden loss of a loved one has on the people who are left behind.
The film stars Anindya Chatterjee, Monalisa Chatterjee Dasgupta and Sen herself and is presented by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee.
Offering glimpses into the two same-sex couples, the short reveals how the lives of Arnab (Anindya Chatterjee), and Trina (Monalisa Chatterjee Dasgupta) are upturned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like countless others who lost loved ones to the disease, they, too, grapple to understand what has taken place.
We see the love between Arnab and his partner Ranjan (Rudrarup Mukhopadhyay) through flashbacks, as well as the warm bond that the former shares with the latter's mother (Sohag Sen). In complete contrast, we do not see much of the other couple, Trina and the deceased Gandharvi, and learn about them through snatches of conversations. Unable to accept the relationship between her daughter and Trina, Gandharvi's mother, Mrs Iyengar (Swaroopa Ghosh) sees Trina as the root of all evil.
Woven within the grief of the family members are insights into the acceptance of their sexuality. Unable to come to terms with her grief, Mrs Iyengar blames Trina for her daughter’s loss. Sen presents two mothers coping with loss, though both have very different reactions to the situation. One wishes that the relationship between Trina and Gandharvi would have been etched out a bit more as their story feels incomplete.
Just as in the poem, the distraught companions find themselves to be somehow composed despite their loss, reminding us that life goes on. “And all that lamentation of the leaves, Could but compose man's image and his cry.”
The Sorrow Of Love was screened at the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.
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