NoukaDubi...The Novel Wreck

Scene 1 :- Jishu Sengupta ( aka Ramesh ) ditched his ladylove Raima Sen ( aka Hemnalini) 's b'day (without informing her ) to visit his father who in turn forcibly put his son in marriage pedestal. Ramesh almost vanished from the city due his accidental marriage followed by a boat wreck. Not affected by his mysterious absence Hemnalini keeps singing Rabindra Sangeet happily in her theatrical home- looking like a Christmas tree.

Scene 2 :- Hem came to know about Ramesh's marriage and his wife Kamala ( meanwhile Ramesh proposed her to marry him! ofcourse hush-hushing his already existed wifey factor). A devastated Hemnalini keeps singing Rabindra Sangeet- without looking like a Christmas tree.

Scene 3 :- Hem proposed a dumbfounded Nalinaksha ( Prosenjit) out of the blue and at the end of the movie, she broke off with him bizarrely and still keeps singing Rabindra Sangeet.

Rabindranath is like one of the main characters in Rituporno Ghosh directed visual treat- NoukaDubi. Mainly Two songs kept repeating in the film and one can astonish why there is unrequired over indulgence of rabindra sangeet in the movie. Apart from that, Nouka Dubi - whose tag line suggests Boat Wreck is actually a Novel Wreck for me. It's hard to portray Tagore's mammoth saga of love, betrayal, Natural calamity, separation,mistaken identity,hands of destiny in silver screen. It needs a lot of trimming in the script. But here, the script has been so trimmed that many incidents seem inconsistent. There was a sexual undercurrent between Ramesh and Kamala in the novel- specially in the scene when Rames kept waiting outside Kamala's cabin on the steamer in the night. But here Ramesh and Kamala's love is sexless - even there was no hint of subtle attraction from Ramesh to Kamala -even after spending and sleeping so many days and nights together under one roof( the later though admitted that she likes him ).

Hemnalini's character is confused. In the novel Hem was kinda damsel in distress. To show her strong, in the film - she has been portrayed as a go-getter girl who takes her own decision but in the process of it - lacks emotion and credibility ( she keeps jumping b/w Ramesh and Nalinaksha and failed to show any kinda mental attachment to any of them- specially what she did to poor Nalinaksha- by refusing him for marriage without any solid ground ,when she was the one who took the initiative to propose him quite boldly! ). And Raima- though looks like a poetry in motion in celluloid - her make up is overdone.

Riya Sen tried her best to refrain from her usual nyakamo while acting and she looks cute indeed.

Prosenjit looked old and tired in the frames.

For me, Jishu Sengupta is the real show stealer.

Dhritiman Chatterji is as usual self-composed and restrained on the screen ( i wish - if only all of the ladki ka baaps in bengal could be as cool n as supportive as him for their respective daughters' man hunting and love escapades :( :( :( )

Visually, the film is a treat to watch- specially the scene where Ramesh first discovers an unconscious Kamala - laying beside an half emerging idol of Durga ( supreme class ! ).

The costumes and sets are good but most of the times OTT.

Overall, NoukaDubi is a well crafted period piece which had it's soul in the wrong place.