Ek Tuku Chhoan Lage

Story & Music: Jeet

Cast: Amitabha Bhattacharya,Priya Karfa,Arnab Banerjee,Manashi Sinha,Mrinal Mukherjee,Santana Basu,Bodhisatta Majumdar,Kharaj Mukherjee and introducing Ragini

Ek Tuku Chhoan Lage is the story of two brothers unwittingly falling for the same girl without the girl,or the brothers knowing about it. You see,she was conveniently blind when she fell in love with the older one. Since she never ‘saw’ him,it was difficult for her to recognize him when he came back from the ‘dead’ as she was about to be engaged to the younger brother.

The film has a good beginning with a car crash that takes a toll of the lives of Sneha (Ragini)’s parents and of her eyesight. She goes into shock and depression and stops sculpting images and idols of clay,which she would do before the accident. A chance meeting with Raj Mukherjee (Amitava Bhattacharya) a military man,leads to love. But Raj is reported killed,whether at the front or somewhere else is not clear. Sneha is convinced that she brings ill-luck to everyone who comes close to her. She initially rejects the marriage proposal of an eye surgeon (Arnab Banerjee) but is persuaded by her adoptive uncle (Bodhisatta Majumdar) and the loyal maid to agree.

The eye surgeon’s childhood friend (Priya Karfa) is madly in love with him so when Sneha learns of the truth,she wanders around the city in a way that one begins to wonder about her sanity. The convoluted story leaves no stone unturned to try every trick of exaggerated melodrama for a happy ending. We discover that Raj did not die but was rescued by a tribal leader’s pretty daughter who nurses him back to health. But the script forgets about her though she fell in love with Raj and girl died trying to save Raj from her fiance’s attack. Tribals are used to add a different colour to the story. Once their purpose is served,the script cuts them out. The routine song-dance numbers are as dull as the film.

Arnab Banerjee and Amitava Bhattacharya are the two saving graces of this as-stale-as-yesterday’s-dal film. Ragini is terrible in her debut. The rest –– Priya Karfa,Manasi Sinha,Bodhisatva Majumdar,Santana Basu and Mrinal Mukherjee are so sweet and syrupy that you might get diabetic. Kharaj Mukherjee does a very good take on the late Keshto Mukherjee’s drunken act in Hindi films. The scene in which Sneha ties a blindfold to sculpt Raj’s head from her past memory of the man is novel. Ek Tuku Chhoan Lage has no villains,little violence and no item numbers. For this alone,it gets one star and the other is for the three actors who put in more than their best to inject some life to the film.