Prosenjit Chatterjee accepts a rookie Director's (Indraneil Sengupta) script to produce and act on. He wants to prove to his critics, that He is the industry and that his star power can steer a movie towards success all by itself. Nandana Sen, whose screen name is Srinandita, and she plays the role of an young columnist in the film within the film 'Ajker Nayak'. She is also the director's live-in partner, and cast against Prosenjit in the onscreen film. There her name is Jahnvi. Within the course of the shoot, Prosenjit falls in love with Srinandita and instead of exploiting the director, he himself becomes a soft prey. One of the rare verbal aberrations of the hero in front of Jahnvi gets recorded in a video camera unaware of both. The director uses the tape to promote the film by selling it to the media for a negative publicity of the film! The livid Hero/Producer scraps the launch of the movie. The director continues his quest for film making. Jahnvi is not a part of this sinister (or is it?) design of her boyfriend and chooses to move away from this conundrum to find her own abode of peace. Money, success, paparazzi, or the allurement of being a lady love of a superstar does not hold her back. This film is a tribute to Satyajit Ray's 'Nayak'. Many scenes and images are adapted from Ray's only work with Tollywood's undisputed 'Nayak' Uttam Kumar and I must say Srijit Mukherjee has settled his scores on the higher end!
The casting is a perfect mix of the old and the new. In the lead we have Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta and Nandana Sen. The filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee himself is a new comer. The female lead Nandana Sen is good. She could be better, though. Her interaction with the lonely, dejected Arun Chatterjee ( Prosenjit) demanded a lot more maturity. Indraneil is very good. In fact his smart, suave look has been used exceptionally well by Srijit Mukherjee. And Prosenjit Chatterjee is at his career best. He has lent complete credence to the character of Arun Chatterjee. If I were to choose a reason to watch this movie, I would lobby hard for Prosenjit. After countless run of-the-mill Swapan Saha 'gharana' movies, this one is Chatterjee’s class act after a long time. Indeed, the film once again proved that Prosenjit's acting acumen has remained majorly unutilized.
Music by Debojyoti Mishra is definitely a fantastic relief from the painful Bengali film songs that we are forced to listen to these days. Rupam Islam’s ‘Beche Thakar Gaan’ and Shreya Ghosal’s ‘Chal Raastay’ are the two best numbers.
One of the reasons I do not watch Bengali movies is their ever receding line of demarcation with 'Jatra'. This one though, is very fresh in its dialogue composition. The characters speak day to day, realistic language and a lot of subtle humour has been peppered throughout the script to provide comic relief.
The story will make you think about it for a long time after the show is over. An average cinema lover like me would not come out of the theatre satisfied, since it is difficult to grasp the storyline, which has multiple layers in it. Autograph leaves you in a dilemma. Is it a film about the unending web of exploitation that runs like an undercurrent in the glamour world? Or is it a tale about the emotional loneliness of a superstar who thinks he is omnipotent! Or is it a movie about relationships..some that never consummate, and some, even though thought to be complete, do not stand the test of time. Or is it about innocence? The story teller allows us to make our own observation! The film allows its audience ample opportunity to understand it their way.
All said and done, Autograph is a commendable work by Srijit and his crew, and definitely worth a watch!
