A powerful tale on mother-son relationship

Suchitra Bhattacharya is known for penning heart-rending stories and etching out powerful characters who strike a...

Suchitra Bhattacharya is known for penning heart-rending stories and etching out powerful characters who strike a chord with the audience. Her earlier two works Dahan and Tolly Lights have not only been adapted for the big screen by Rituparno Ghosh and actor-turned-director Arjun Chakraborty but have also won rave reviews. Icche marks the directorial debut of actor-software director Shiboprosad Mukherjee who was earlier seen as Jhinuk (Indrani Haldar)s brother in Dahan. He has directed the film along with Nandita Roy. Icche is being jointly presented by actress Rituparna Sengupta and producer Rakesh Singh who heads Vignesh Films Production.

Icche is about a mothers obsession for her only son, says Mukherjee. Though the film has been ready since two years,its release has been stalled for unspecified reasons. Noted theater director,actor and filmmaker Bratya Basu,who is currently Minister for Higher Education in the West Bengal state government,plays the role of Manas,the meek and submissive husband of Mamata,(Sohini Sengupta). Sengupta had earlier won the National Award for her sparkling performance of the mentally-challenged Khuku in Aparna Sens Paromitar Ek Din.

Icche was supposed to be the launch vehicle of Samadarshi,who plays Manas and Mamatas son Soumik. But since this movie was stalled,his later films were released earlier. It is a very complex role but Shibuda and Sohinidi helped me to interpret and portray the character of this brilliant boy who is caught between his academic brilliance and his mothers pressure on him to perform better, says Samadarshi. His character has many layers. Initially he shares a close bond with his mother but things change when she starts interfering in his love life.

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The film has an original take on the mother-son relationship and this is what drew me to the role of Manas. My character loves his wife Mamata but is unable to fulfill her dreams. As a result,she has a lot of resentment against him. He tries to make peace between the unrelenting mother and a belligerent son, says Bratya whose role is a far cry from his usual image of a villain in films and on television.

Lead singer and composer Surojit Chatterjee of the famous Bangla Band Bhoomi has penned the lyrics and also composed the films music. The five songs are sung by lead singers of popular Bangla Bands of Kolkata like Rupam Islam of Fossils,who won the National Award for Best Playback Singer (Male) last year,Siddhartha of Cactus,Subhojit of Lakkhichhara,Surojit of Bhoomi,Anindo of Chandrabindu and Anuseh of Bangla-Bangladesh. Anuseh,the lead singer of a Bangladeshi band is a youth icon and this is her first venture in a Bengali film made in Kolkata.

The two young romantic interests in Soumiks life are essayed by newcomer Rooplekha Mitra (Debjani) who plays his first crush and Bidita Bag (Jayanti) with whom he falls in love after his mother tactfully ousts Debjani from his life. Soumik Haldar has done the cinematography,Moloy Laha has edited the film,Tanmoy Chakraborty has done the art direction and costumes are by Ruma Sengupta. V.N. Kishor,Biswajit Sengupta and Tito have jointly designed the sound.

This is a fictional story but we can identify with the issues faced by Mamata,Soumik and Manas because these are incidents that either we have faced ourselves or we have heard from others. Some mothers have destroyed their sons lives completely while others have destroyed themselves. The story carries a suggested warning against suffocating any relationship with too much love and care till it crosses the boundaries of biological and natural affection. I have seen the film and am happy with the power Shiboprosad and Nandita have been able to infuse in it, summed up author Suchitra Bhattacharya.