Chowrasta means the meeting point of four roads. The movie deals with mainly four corners held by various people. This film depicts the sundry lives of these commoners and then what happens when they criss-cross each other at the chowrasta (four roads) at the central point of Darjeeling. Chowrasta movie review…
The characters are Nandana (Roopa Ganguly), a fading star from Bollywood with a twelve year old son, the honeymooning couple Rita and Sunny (Naved Aslam and Aparajita), the tea planter Jimmy (Victor Banerjee) from Darjeeling, and the terrorist Kenny (Atul Kulkarni) on run.
Jimmy, a distraught tea-planter writes love letters to his deceased wife. Loneliness has gripped him as he even contemplates ending his life.
As Nandana discovers that there is not much left in her life, she is in search of someone who will look after her twelve year old son. She has had so many affairs that she doesn’t know who the actual father of her son is. Now she has come to confront her divorced husband, a strict school teacher.
A squabbling couple, Rita and Sunny begin to face differences in reality and at one time even wondering whether it was all worth it. Rita has realized that her expectations from Sunny are different from what he really is capable of.
Kenny, a terrorist on the run, who sought the formation of Gorkhaland, evading the law, realizes after all that he had given to the cause, is not worth the sacrifice. None of his people cared whether he was dead or alive.
Four parallel stories, all of them interlace on Darjeeling’s main street, going their way. As people say, you never lose anything on the hills, instead you only find something. All of them found what they wanted at the crossroads of their life.
Victor Bannerjee is aptly cast as the lamenting melancholic old man who mourn his wife’s death. Roopa Ganguly has beautifully portrayed the middle aged flustered actress, who tries to find solutions to her troubles, only to see her problems aggravate further. a Aparajita and Naved Aslam as the eloped couple are fine, while Atul Kulkarni has yet again come up with a credible performance as a terrorist on the run.
Chowrasta is set in picturesque Darjeeling, a lovely hill station, which itself lends freshness in the story. Beauty of this film is that each character is trying to find a new stability in their disconcerted lives. It is a serious drama for niche audience who can analyze, assess and interpret at several instances in the narrative ad they unfold.
Cast of Chowrasta:
Jimmy – Victor Banerjee
Kenny – Atul Kulkarni
Nandana – Roopa Ganguly
Sunny – Naved Aslam
Rita – Aparajita
Jojo – Arijit Dutta
ArunTamang – Bhaskar Pradhan
Sonam Shiring – Vikas Pradhan
Rick – Neil Bose
Dip – Saswata Chatterjee
Purang Gongha
Credits & Crew of Chowrasta:
Banner – Unilux Films
Producer – S.D. Ahuja
Directors – Anjan Dutt, Budhdev Das Gupta, Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen
Story / Writer – Anjan Dutt
Cinematography – Indranil Mukherjee
Music Director – Neel Dutt
Editor – Arghyakamal Mitra
Costume – Chanda Dutt
Singers – Kunal Ganjawala, Anjan Dutt
Chowrasta, movie review