The Loneliness Within

Pratyabartan is a new Bengali film which gets across the message about a “return to one’s roots” by an urban, upward-climbing neutral family who are settled in Kolkata. The film opens on an upwardly mobile, slightly Westernised nuclear Bengali family settled in Kolkata. What happens when their teenage daughter, studying in an elitist, English-medium school, falls back on her academics as she is addicted to her cell-phone. While Dr. Dipankar Sanyal (Shilajit Majumdar) has a very business medical practice, his wife, Shalini (Aparajita Adya) is attached to a NGO involved in fighting for women’s rights. Thus, the daughter Disha (Mistu), is left to cope with the absence of her very busy parents. She does it by neglecting her academics and getting addicted to the digital media.

Problems for the parents escalate when the principal of the school calls them to complain about their daughter’s falling back on academics. They really cannot understand why this is happening and go along with their lives as usual till something critical happens when the girl is caught in a police raid on a nightclub known for drug-pushing. Dipankar and his wife decide to visit Dipankar’s parents who are settled in their humble homestead somewhere in a small town in West Bengal. The father (Anjan Dutt) was never in agreement with his son’s decision to migrate to Kolkata. His wife (Roopa Ganguly) is content keeping house, cooking while the old man keeps busy reading and gardening.

The migration is initially disliked by Disha but she slowly adapts to the simple small-town life, becomes friends with her grandfather and the little daughter of the housemaid who lives in. She is surprised with how little makes this little girl happy and how a simple life can also be a happy life. Do the Sanyal’s decide to settle down in this simple small town where Dr. Sanyal wishes to go back to his charitable practice here.

But when the family comes back to Kolkata to protect the daughter’s schooling which has decided not only to rusticate her but also to legally ban her from any formal education, the film begins to collapse on its knees. It takes up a lot of footage in the script and is extra-melodramatic. Why should all the students be invited to attend this ‘court-martial’ kind of hearing? Is this ethical since the school is elitist and exclusive?

The narrative moves smoothly in its linear narrative adding the punch of a younger brother of the doctor who is has a genetic heart problem and dies somewhere in the middle. But how is it that with such a high-profile doctor for an older brother, he lacks the kind of treatment he could have had?

This is a lacking but the wonderful performances of all the actors including the little girl and the girl who plays Disha lifts the film from sliding down to sheer melodrama. Special mention must be paid to Anjan Dutt as Dr. Sanyal’s father and Roopa Ganguly who comes back to the screen after a considerable gap are a wonderful gift for the audience.

The cinematography suits the demands of the script and the subject, specially focused on working parents who forget their responsibilities towards their child is commendable. The editing could have been a bit seamless. The focus on the famous rap singer is well-done.

That touch of the mother Shalini taking anti-depression drugs minus consultation and the daughter pinching the capsules without reason is an excellent reminder for urban parents who have moved away from the raw realities of life and forgotten to imbibe the beauties of Nature and natural food.

According to writer-director Samarpan Sengupta, Pratyabartan is “the story of our time” - a reflection of rapidly changing cities, the race for success, the lure of social media, and the quiet loneliness that increasingly defines urban life. He says the film’s characters are not imaginary but mirror contemporary India, where many people long to reconnect, listen, and truly live. Sengupta hopes audiences leave the theatre not only moved by the story but also reflecting on their own lives, relationships, and emotions.

Pratyabartan which means “return” for this film is not just literal but also metaphorical as it draws our attention to the contrast between the complexities of material ambition and the happiness of life lived in simplicity against Nature. At the same time, it is not really a practical solution.

(The writer is a noted film scholar. Views personal.)