In Kolkata, there is an age old Bengali tradition called ‘adda’ where friends get together in the rains, & exchange stories & gossip, over drinks & dinner. Via Darjeeling movie review…
One rainy evening, idling over drinks and dinner, Inspector Robin Datt (Vinay Pathak) narrates to his friends, a curious story of about two years back from his police files –
Newly married couple Ankur (Kay Kay Menon) and Rimli (Sonali Kulkarni) were on a honeymoon in Darjeeling. One day, Ankur had a squabble with the taxi driver for reckless driving. On the eve of their return to Kolkata, Ankur suddenly went missing. Investigations by Inspector Robin revealed that Ankur was short tempered too. To make the matter complex, Rimli felt that some stranger Bonny (Parvin Dabbas) was stalking her. Ankur could not be located and some days later, the case was closed abruptly…
It’s a rainy night, chit-chating & discussing the mystery of the missing husband amongst them, each one tries to give their own versions where personalities of Ankur and Rimli change, professions and motif change. Each one trying to blend in to the ‘story’ themselves giving it a new turn, every time.
This incomplete and a vague story excites the group of friends (Rajat Kapoor, Simone Singh, Sandhya Mridul and Prashant Narayanan). Each one tries to interpret what could have occurred subsequently, clearly giving a glimpse of their inner selves.
Perhaps Rimli was in love with the stranger and the two had schemed to kill Ankur.
Or maybe Ankur was planning to bump off Rimli with help of the stranger?
Maybe, the stranger wanted to murder Rimli as she had ditched him and married Ankur.
Or perhaps the story narrated by Robin was fabricated ?
It has host of brilliant performers like Kay Kay Menon, Rajat Kapoor, the wild looking Sandhya Mridul, Sonali Kulkarni and especially Vinay Pathak who, with each movie makes you think that this has to be his best performance, but then he comes up with another good one. The pretty Sonali Kulkarni a good actress she is, portrays the same role from different points of view and her performance is very good every time. Simone Singh is such a fine actress!
Very impressive is how we can observe for the first half of Via Darjeeling, quite interesting too and then suspense element arrives on the right time. Then… slowly things start falling apart and then onwards the audience begin to feel not much into the movie.
What this movie lacks is a good climax. How can you leave a movie or a reading a novel in the middle and then leave it to viewers and readers respectively to interpret the finale. Initial attempt of bringing out a tale of twists and turns was good but then it is not woven with a concrete subject and the lack of a tight script. It is an off-beat experimental flick, recommended only for those who love this genre of cinema.
CREDITS of Via Darjeeling:
Banner: Moxie Entertainments P Ltd
Produced by Joy Ganguly, Soumo Ganguly
Directed by Arindam Nandy
Screenplay – Ranjan Das, Arindam Nandy, Siladitya Sanyal
Dialogues – Atul Sabharwal
Cinematography: Abhik Mukherjee
Music: Prabuddha Banerjee
OTHER CREDITS of Via Darjeeling:
Executive Producers – Kumud Shahi, Arindam Sil
Film Editing by Arghakamal Mitra
Art Direction by Indranil Ghosh
Production Manager – Dinesh Raut
First Assistant Director – Shibnath Dey
ADR Recordist – Amit Ahire
Sound Designer – Bishwadeep Chatterjee
Sound Re-recording mixer – Leslie Fernandes
Visual Effects by Shamsher Walia
Line producer: PIXION
Costumes – Shonali Gaekwad, Agnimitra Paul
Assistant Editor – Montu Das
Via Darjeeling, movie review