Calcutta Mail
Director: Sudhir Mishra
Music: Vuju Shah & Anand Raaj Anand; Lyrics:
Year: 2003
Running Time: 2 hrs and 7 minutes
The influence of director Sudhir Mishra’s art
house film background is often easy to discern in this generally commercial
film that stars three of Bollywood’s biggest stars – Anil Kapoor, Rani
Mukerjee and Manisha Koirala. Though at a high-level plot summary it might
sound like a typical Bollywood action/romance/thriller, Mishra throws it
into a realistic gritty street milieu that gives it a sense of urgency,
danger and excitement. He also shows a great eye for detail, color, lighting
and his cinematography wonderfully captures the claustrophobic street life,
the dingy bars, the dark lonely nights, the crowded tenements, the mass
demonstrations and occasional moments of beauty that pass for life in Calcutta
(Kolkata). As much as any actor, the city itself is a major character in
the film. The first half of the film is an edgy mysterious dive into the
heart of this city and the pace is rapid fire, but the narrative weakens
later when the back-story begins to unfold and it takes on a more commercial
feel as the ending looms. Overall though, it holds up quite well and is
an enjoyable ride.
Avinash (Anil Kapoor) comes to Calcutta from Bihar
with what appears to be a near psychotic purpose in mind. Arriving by train
he immediately tries getting into contact with a man called Paswan through
an intermediary named Ghatak (Saurabh Shukla). As soon as word starts filtering
through the criminal underground that Avinash has come to Calcutta it sets
off fear, loathing and various alarms that prompt various parties to begin
readying themselves for war. In the meantime, Avinash finds a place to
live and stay low by renting a cheap one-room apartment in a four-story
tenement enclave. It turns out that Bulbul (Rani Mukerjee) is already living
in the apartment but has been unable to pay the rent and has refused to
leave. Avinash takes pity on her and allows her to stay and volunteers
to sleep on the balcony outside the door. He also realizes that he will
have little time for sleep as he has one thing on his mind – grim revenge.
In so many of his films Anil Kapoor seems so relentlessly
serious with a strong streak of self-righteousness running up and down
his body. This characteristic has always made it difficult for me to take
warmly to him, but there are some films in which this plays out just right
– in Nayak as the good citizen going after political corruption and in
Taal as the egomaniac showman – and here as well. Grim and dour perfectly
reflect the circumstances of his character and Anil plays him like a red-hot
poker iron always on the verge of cracking up or killing someone. It is
a terrific anguished performance and a lengthy flashback allows him to
show some range and a kinder, gentler side.
Bulbul becomes fascinated with this mysterious
stranger and begins to draw him out and find out what he is all about.
After much prodding Avinash breaks down and reluctantly tells her his story.
Years previously he had been on a train to Calcutta when he came across
Sanjana (Manisha Koirala) who was on the run from Lakhan (Sayaji Shinde),
a sadistic thug who is her prospective husband and a bunch of his gang.
Her father (Satish Kaushik) is a wealthy and influential politician who
needs Lakhan’s brutal ways in his corner and what better way then to make
him part of the family. Trade a daughter for a strong and cruel right hand
man.
After watching him shoot a man dead at point blank
on their first date, Sanjana feels they just might not be the most compatible
couple in the world and tries to skip town. Lakhan gets on the train though
and ferociously searches for her and only Anil comes to her aid. Now six
years later Avinash has come to Calcutta to kill Lakhan and get something
that belongs to him. He begins tracking him down on the mean streets of
Calcutta, but Lakhan is looking for him as well – he needs Avinash dead
- the sooner the better.
It is a tense film full of twists and turns and
sporadic sudden violence that perhaps could have done without any musical
interludes. In fact, when the first one comes at the 36-minute mark, it
is almost a shock and is a blow to the edgy noir like atmosphere that had
been built up – but it is an excellent song and features Rani doing a dance
in the rain – so I can’t really complain! There are two other songs as
well – neither is a really good fit – the second one in particular felt
like it belonged to a different film.
Another aspect of the film that detracts from
the suspense is Rani’s character. As much as I relish seeing Rani in any
film, her character is not a good fit in this film and one feels that the
director is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. There is no reason
to add a romantic angle and as the truth about her character is revealed
it seems even more forced – still the final line of the film almost makes
it alright and as Rani can do – leaves one feeling all warm and gooey inside.
My rating for this film: 7.5