Antaheen: Eternal praise for an eternal film

A masterpiece is something that can transcend beyond the realm of subjective judgment , it can create such a strong link between itself and the observer that the observer hardly finds any free space for himself to make subjective judgment and if this definition of a master piece is valid then definitely the Bengali film Antaheen is a masterpiece .It is surely one of the best made films of the decade .Very rarely can one find a film like this that does not only have a terrific story,star cast, performance ,script, screen play but also such a magnificent cinematography ,songs,lyrics ,background scores,and music .In every department the film is simply awesome ,and when i say every department it does mean every department even the name is not an exception , the name "Antaheen" in English means endless and the film is really about the endless waiting of a man for true love, though not used frequently the word along with it's meaning is the soul of this 2 hour film . Shot in the beautiful locales of contemporary Kolkata the film is as contemporary as traditional, as classy as cheesy as realistic as dramatic , with out sounding so obsessive i will say that the flick simply dissolves all the parameters of compartmentalization .

The film fundamentally revolves around two net friends one a middle aged IPS officer played by Rahul bose the corner stone of indian cross over flicks and a young media journalist played by theater actress Radhika apte .Both the actors are in complete sync with their roles, while Rahul plays the role of a a bit haughty but well behaved cop radhika plays the role of a passionate TV journalist . Rahul is perfectly okay with playing the role that not only requires a great degree of gravity but also a constant outflow of human emotions beneath the blanket of this gravity . Radhika's character not only requires the the burning passion of a young media journalist but also the mellowness and capriciousness of a young lady who is just discovering her love .Along with these two actors the film has an array of very fine actors such as Sharmila tagore ,Mita visisht and Aparna sen .These two characters though chat daily in the night but they don't know the real identity of each other, circumstances make them meet with each other but hardly have any clue regarding each other's identity .Along with the story of these two the film also has a parallel love story of rahul's elder brother and sister in law who are though divorced but still so attached with each other that they are hesitant in giving the final adieu to each other and socio economic issues of land acquisition for a high profile construction project , but the good part is that in spite of dealing with three different story the film never looses its track, in fact in the end there happens to be a wonderful convergence of all the stories into an incomplete,painful but a perfect end .In spite of dealing with the burning issues of land acquisition the film never takes any stand , nor it tries to sound preachy . In fact as said earlier the film is just about pure emotions it has got nothing to do with making judgments.

Though from start to end the film is mesmerizing but the best is definitely the climax,though it will be in the favor of the viewer that any eagerness regarding the revelation of climax must be controlled by the author. Antaheen draws a very large amount of it's strength from the use of plenty of symbolic gestures .Every symbol has a meaning, many a times the meaning cannot be comprehended at the time of it's use but in the end it can be clarified provided a bit of thinking must be invested for exp:- the story of the phone calls of the "BHADRA LOK(gentle man)" received by sharmila tagore .Another forte of the film are the beautiful songs blended with apt situations and powerful lyrics .Cinematography is also simply awesome, though nothing so special these simple locations of kolkata have been shot with extensive beauty beautiful bridges, rains,silhouettes of water on crystal clean glasses ,greenery ,leaves soaked in rain water all had been shot with great beauty .Even the usual things such as CAFE COFFEE DAY CAFE, or a glass of wine ,or burning cigar each has it's own charm.

In the end it can be said that the film is simply a class, a complete package that has the capability to get it's viewer into altogether a new realm of experience .I watched the film yesterday, though the film has ended up the sounds are still very fresh and reverberating in me.I can still see the final scene where the melancholic Rahul bose is sitting in his car and he is just seeing the world world which has taken a 360 degree turn for him in just a small time, and from the background comes a heart breaking but electrifying song .