Shubho Bijoya short film review: Heart Rending!

SHUBHO BIJOYA (Short Film)

Producers: Aritra Das, Sarbani Mukherjee & Gaurav Daga

Director: Ram Kamal Mukherjee

Cast: Gurmeet Chowdhary, Debina Bonnerjee and Khushboo Karva

Streaming on: Biiggbang Amusement

Rating:

By Jyothi Venkatesh

When fashion photography wizard Shubho falls in love with supermodel Bijoya, both know that they are made for each other. Bijoya loves him like crazy and he just cannot see beyond Bijoya. But then, theirs is not a love story made in fairy land. Bijoya is diagnosed with skin cancer, a disease which she wants to hide. She knows her career will be over the moon and she will die soon. Bijoya’s biggest fear is to reveal the truth to her husband, who might not be able to take this shock.

Sadly, even before she is able to reveal her story, Shubho meets with a major accident while he is driving his car and loses his eyesight. This is followed by many dramatic sequences that lead to the climax of the movie. Will they be able to fall in love again with their individual limitations and win against all odds? This is a poetic tribute to O Henry’s most talked about short story Gift of Magi. Ironically, this short film brings the on screen couple of Indian television Gurmeet Choudhary and Debina Bonnerjee back after 13 years, after they had made their debuts with Anand Sagar’s Ramayan way back in 2008.

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In fact, this is their first feature film, as a couple. After the success of ‘Cakewalk’ with Esha Deol and ‘Season’s Greetings’ with Celina Jaitley and the Avinash Dwivedi starrer Rickshawala, this happens to be Ram Kamal Mukherjee’s fourth Hindi venture. As is his wont, Ram Kamal Mukherjee sets out to explore vividly the various facets and aspects of the emotion called love and unfurls the bitter sweet moments in the relationship between the couple on screen with a lot of clarity.

While Gurmeet Chowdhary surprises the viewers with his latent talent in the role of a suave young fashion photographer who finds himself one fine day to his chagrin as a blind man, his real life Debina Bonnerjee gets into the skin of her complex role of a beautiful fashion model who to her shock suddenly realizes one day that she is suffering from a deadly disease called Skin Cancer which may even prove fatal to her. How the blind photographer and his wife begin to cope up with what fate has in store for tem forms the crux of this sweet little love story which tends to weigh heavy in your heart as it starts unfurling. Khushboo Karva as the coffee shop owner friend of the couple is just about average in a role that does not really need her to show her prowess as an actress.

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While Modhura Palit is superb as the D.O.P, Dhrubo Paul entices the viewers with his music which has a lingering quality long after the short film is over. Bodhaditya Bannerjee scores with his ability to edit the film in such a way that the small plot does not stretch beyond its capacity and end up testing the patience of the viewers. My only compliment to journalist turned Ram Kamal Mukherjee is that it is high time he stopped making just short films and started making full-fledged feature films.