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| 10th July |
Cast: Chiranjit Mridul, Rituparna Sengupta, Apala, Abhrajit Bhattacharya, Anushka Nandi
Director: Ratul Gangopadhyay
Story/Writer: Ratul Gangopadhyay
Director: Ratul Gangopadhyay
Story/Writer: Ratul Gangopadhyay
It's a story of how Mridul's love for Arka help them
strong enough to fight their inner demons and society's apprehensions towards
same-sex relationship.
At a time when the whole country is in turmoil regarding the issues of LGBT rights and every creative medium is speaking up on behalf of them, if a film claims that it's dealing with love beyond gender specifications, it does generate a considerable amount of interest. And when names like Chiranjeet and Rituparna Sengupta are in the cast, it's not wrong to expect a sensitive handling of the subject. But, alas, after one watches 10th July, both the above-mentioned assumptions turn out to be wrong. The director (Ratul Ganguly) may have his heart and intentions in the right places, but, the on-screen presentation of the sensitive issue came out to be riddled with confusion.
The storyline can largely be blamed for the mess-up. It's convoluted and most of the times, completely illogical and bizarre. While Mridul's (Chiranjeet) character is shown to be gay and totally in love with Arka (Abhrajeet), Arka's sexual preferences and the consecutive decisions he takes, leave the audience baffled. How come a guy turns a homosexual, the moment he finds that his fiancee (with whom he gets intensely physical every time they meet) is a closet lesbian? Do we change our sexual orientation as easily in real life? Though there are an abundance of preachy dialogues in favour of 'eternal love' and 'love beyond the confines of physicality and gender', it seems like the director is stuck to the physical part of it. Intimate sequences (gay, lesbian and hetero) are shown with graphic detailing, so much so that they look sleazy on screen. It grosses one out so much that the underlined theme of anguish over unrequited love and sacrifice, get overshadowed. Moreover, the director has incorporated subplots like Mridul's sister's death, his decision to take care of her orphaned child and ultimately Rituparna's entry as the child's governess. These take the film as far from reality as possible.
Performance-wise Chiranjeet and Rituparna have done justice to their roles. But Abhrajeet as Arka and Rupa as his fiancee, Tiash, are not up to the mark. It could be that somewhere some viewer will be able to understand and connect with the director's thought process. However, it may seem difficult for those who are fighting the urge to flee from the theatre, every five minutes.
At a time when the whole country is in turmoil regarding the issues of LGBT rights and every creative medium is speaking up on behalf of them, if a film claims that it's dealing with love beyond gender specifications, it does generate a considerable amount of interest. And when names like Chiranjeet and Rituparna Sengupta are in the cast, it's not wrong to expect a sensitive handling of the subject. But, alas, after one watches 10th July, both the above-mentioned assumptions turn out to be wrong. The director (Ratul Ganguly) may have his heart and intentions in the right places, but, the on-screen presentation of the sensitive issue came out to be riddled with confusion.
The storyline can largely be blamed for the mess-up. It's convoluted and most of the times, completely illogical and bizarre. While Mridul's (Chiranjeet) character is shown to be gay and totally in love with Arka (Abhrajeet), Arka's sexual preferences and the consecutive decisions he takes, leave the audience baffled. How come a guy turns a homosexual, the moment he finds that his fiancee (with whom he gets intensely physical every time they meet) is a closet lesbian? Do we change our sexual orientation as easily in real life? Though there are an abundance of preachy dialogues in favour of 'eternal love' and 'love beyond the confines of physicality and gender', it seems like the director is stuck to the physical part of it. Intimate sequences (gay, lesbian and hetero) are shown with graphic detailing, so much so that they look sleazy on screen. It grosses one out so much that the underlined theme of anguish over unrequited love and sacrifice, get overshadowed. Moreover, the director has incorporated subplots like Mridul's sister's death, his decision to take care of her orphaned child and ultimately Rituparna's entry as the child's governess. These take the film as far from reality as possible.
Performance-wise Chiranjeet and Rituparna have done justice to their roles. But Abhrajeet as Arka and Rupa as his fiancee, Tiash, are not up to the mark. It could be that somewhere some viewer will be able to understand and connect with the director's thought process. However, it may seem difficult for those who are fighting the urge to flee from the theatre, every five minutes.
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