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Calapor-The ‘Art’ of Reformation stretched too far! Movie Review

Name: Calapor Movie Review
Item: Calapor
Rating: 2.25
Author: Lalitha Mallikeswaran

Calapor-The ‘Art’ of Reformation stretched too far! Movie Review Hindi

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Review for the film " Calapor "

Runtime: 2 Hours 10 Minutes

Certificate: UA

Released: 02-08-2013

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Similar To: Bhakshak, Murder Mubarak, Kadak Singh, Amar Singh Chamkila

Critic Review
User Review

2.25 / 5.0

3.47 / 5.0

CAST & CREW

Rituparna Sengupta

Harsh Chhaya

Priyanshu Chatterjee

Raghubir Yadav

Dinesh P Bhonsle

MORE CAST & CREW

Director:

Dinesh P Bhonsle

Movie Actor:

Priyanshu Chatterjee

Raghubir Yadav

Harsh Chhaya

Movie Actress:

Rituparna Sengupta

Click Here For Full Cast & Crew

The film is a social drama touching upon the slightly uncommon aspect of reforming past criminals in jail and trying to do it through the means of teaching them an art. Films on this laudable subject have been attempted in the past also, notably V Shantaram’s classic “Do Aankhe Barah Haath” back in 1957 and also, more recently, the award winning Bengali film, “Muktadhara”, almost on the same theme, and coincidentally having the same heroine as in “ Calapor Click to look into! >> Read More... ”.

Plot: The message that the film wants to convey is evident right from the opening shots. Drawing a common analogy, it raises the question: If crime is a disease shouldn’t there be a hospital like an environment in jails? The story on which the film is based attempts to elaborate on this thought, with art as the proposed healer. Thus, we meet the main characters - a jail superintendent played by Harsh Chhaya Harsh Chhaya is an Indian television and Bollywood >> Read More... , a reformist who wants to introduce ways and means of reforming his prisoners, pointing out that they were not bad people to start with, but circumstances made them commit the crimes for which they were in prison. While it is no doubt a laudable move, but it may be quite naive on his part to generalise this for all criminals.

Be that as it may, we meet classical dance teacher Jyotsna portrayed by Rituparna Sengupta Rituparna Sengupta is as Indian actress who has co >> Read More... , who had been requisitioned for performing this task of trying to reform the prison inmates through the form of art. Jyotsna and her assistant are there to teach a dance theatre programme called ‘Matruchhaya’, and the play is earmarked to be performed on an auspicious day – the Republic Day, and to add dignity to the show, a local political leader who encourages such reformist moves has also been invited. One by one the inmates are called upon to perform, and they all recollect whatever they had performed in their earlier lives and start dancing the way they like, to the beats of a song called Bindaas which highlighted various aspects of staying in jail.

It is at this point that Jyotsna recollects about her sordid past and her relations with one of the jail inmates who had thrown her out along with her delinquent son, unfolding a family drama within the jail. But she realizes that this is a second chance that she as a mother and wife cannot afford to lose out on. A subject of this type had immense potential to be developed into a gripping drama, but even with a supportable theme and storyline, it fails to be developed properly. However, what stands out is the extremely praiseworthy performance of Rituparna Sengupta, and she also gets a very suitable opportunity to show case her classical dancing abilities. What, however, lets her down is unimaginative photography and below par dubbing, which instead of highlighting her plus points presents her in a very uncomplimentary manner. The other performance that gets noticed is that of Priyanshu Chatterjee Priyanshu Chatterjee has had a successful stint as >> Read More... , but, unfortunately, a veteran like Raghubir Yadav Raghubir Yadav is an Indian movie, television and >> Read More... seems to have been wasted in a role where he cannot do much justice. For a film of this nature that takes the help of dance and music to further its theme, music should have been a major contributor to propel the quality of the film, but here too the film falters ad cannot live up to the mark.

Verdict: Having such a laudable theme it should have been a film to be highly recommended, but unfortunately, technical and directorial flaws does not help at all to bring it to a level of wider acceptance.