Calcutta News

Language : Malayalam
Banner : Kayal Films
Director : Blessy
Producer : Thampy Antony
Camera : S. Kumar
Story : Blessy
Screenplay : Blessy
Dialogue : Blessy
Lyrics : Vayalar Sarathchandra Varma
Music : Debjyothi Misra
Distribution : Century Release
Release : 2008 January 25
Cast : Dileep, Meera Jasmine, Indrajith, Vimala Raman, Innocent, Thampy Antony, Manasa, Bindu Panicker, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Unni Sivapal, Tom Jacob, Chitra Shenayi

Blessy's fourth film 'Calcutta News' cannot perhaps be called bad film. But neither can it be called a good one. One expected a lot more from the director who gave us 'Kazhcha', 'Thanmatra' and 'Palunku'. 'Calcutta News' is just another film, that's all one can say about it.

'Calcutta News' takes us to the City of Joy, where lives Ajith Thomas, a television reporter. Ajith has won a prestigious award for his documentary named 'Shadows of Calcutta', which was shot mostly using the camera on his cell-phone. Ajith lives in Kolkata along with his widowed mother (his father incidentally was an excellent footballer) and his two younger sisters. He happens to meet a happy couple on a few occasions during his wanderings. And then one day he sees a news item on TV showing the husband lying dead in a wetland under mysterious circumstances. He wonders what became of the lovely girl who used to be with the guy.

Very soon the girl who is called Krishnapriya, is found locked up inside the rather cheap lodgings where the couple had been dwelling. She is unaware of her husband's death. Ajith and his team rescue her and bring her along with them. It is then that Krishnapriya's story unfolds. Her husband Harikumar was actually a link in the city's sex racket and he had married the poor and orphaned girl only to sell her off at a high price to a rich man, with whom he had already made a deal. But another gang with whom he had made a similar deal and from whom he had received money too comes in the way and finishes him off.

After Ajith rescues Krishnapriya, he lodges her along with some of his colleagues, all young girls. Ajith and Krishnapriya slowly get drawn towards each other. But then things begin to take a different turn, for there are people following Krishnapriya.

Dileep's performance as Ajith though Okay, can in no way be called riveting. He even seems miscast in some sequences. His body language and dialogue delivery falters at many places. The occasional dialogues in English that the character has to deliver have been uttered very poorly by the actor. He seems to have made a better job of the Bengali dialogues, for which he evidently got better coaching.

Meera Jasmine is good as Krishnapriya, but it definitely is not her best performance. Innocent as the Kairali Samajam secretary is his usual self. However, the sequences where he loses his voice after seeing the ghost of the dead Harikumar, seems highly contrived. Bindu Panicker as his wife is just passable. The same is the case with Indrajith as Harikumar. Thampy Antony as the psychiatrist is good. Vimala as Ajith's colleague Smitha too is good.

The highlight of the film is the excellent camera work by S. Kumar, who has beautifully covered the city of Kolkata. Hats off to this immensely talented cinematographer and his team! Debjyothi Misra the music-director has done a commendable job too. Editing and artwork also have been done well.

The problem with 'Calcutta News' is the story, which offers nothing spectacular or new. We have seen a similar story in 'Sutradharan', but of course the backdrop and the treatment were different. The sensitive manner in which a similar story was treated by Santhana Bharathi in the Tamil film 'Mahanadi 'too should be remembered in this context.

The film is not bad, but it is definitely not what was expected from Blessy, especially after the good movies he has given us. An average film that may not make much of an impact at the box office, that's what 'Calcutta News', is. The film wouldn't have come in for so much criticism had it been from a less accomplished director.

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