Hawa Bodol (2013)

A lot of fun.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

"Hawa Bodol" is a good entertaining comedy. Performances of Rudranil Ghosh, Parambrata Chatterjee, Kaushik Ganguly are praiseworthy, all of them are good actors and my favorites. The story-telling is excellent and I have been amused when I first saw the movie. However, I must say, the story is not new and this movie appears to be a remake of another recent movie of 2011 – "The Change-up", Directed by David Dobkin. The story of both the movies are very same. The writers of "The Change-up" are Jon Lucas and Scott Moore while the writer of "Hawa Bodol" is Anindya Bose. Obviously, it appears that Anindya Bose is not the original writer of the story of "Hawa Bodol". No where there is any mention of its original writer. Further, the meaning of the Bengali name "Hawa Bodol" is "change of atmosphere" but the appropriate name would have been "Howa Bodol" which means "change of entity".

We all somewhere envy whatever we see in the lives of others. We all at one point of time must have felt I wish I would have been him or her . What if that really happens one day like the ghostly blessings in Ray's "Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen"(familiar to bengalis as "bhooter raja dilo bor")? It may sound a bit absurd but what if you suddenly wake up and see you have become what you wanted to ? It can be called as letting all the inner wishes come true . What follows next is a roller-coaster ride where you scream for the two leads , laugh out loud , feel sorry for them and yet hold on to your seats till the end .The lead roles have been played by two of the finest actors present in Bengali film industry, Parambrata Chatterjee (as Satrajit), who is the director of the film too , and Rudranil Ghosh(as Rajarshi). And they deliver a performance which is to be remembered by one and all for long . They prove their true potentials and how! Even Raima Sen (who play Satrajit's wife Tanuka) and Neha Panda do pretty well in their small roles . Director Parambrata knows very well how to bring out the best out of his cast and its very evident in the film. The child actor Kabir too gets a special mention for his charming and innocent presence and expressions . Hats off Mr.Director for absolutely wonderful casting including yourself. They go out on a joyride and when they end up exchanging their lives they find themselves in deep trouble. The actors mimic each other's role so well and get themselves into such situations that the audience go through a fantastic comedy where there isn't a trace of forced laughter. Performance wise its one of the best recent Bengali comedies. Director Parambrata take a bow !But is it only laughter ?Well the answer is no . Through the journey both discover what is missing in their lives and how much is the grass on the other side green and is it actually green or the same . Rajarshi and Satrajit stagger in their exchanged lives because of the new shoes they have got their feet into making up a mess . But they soon add the charm badly needed in each other's life and both seem to realize what they had been missing out on . Satrajit learns to open up the windows in his life and Rajarshi learns to plan things in his life. The scene by the river at dusk and in the boat where they reflect upon the changes in their life is one of the best scenes. The cinematography is brilliant . That reminds me of two other beautifully touching scenes , the ones where Parambrata visits the hospital and Rajarshi's parents in Chandannagar . There isn't much dialog in his part but he delivers so poignantly , that its heart-wrenching. Add to that Mohan's voice with Indradeep Dasgupta's soothing tunes and its just perfect. "Mor bhabonare" is really one of the best picturised songs in recent times connecting Tagore to even smallest of happiness in our life .One may complain of too many slangs in the dialogues but come on isn't that how friends usually men talk to each other ? so lets be realistic. Superb dialogues make it a really enjoyable comedy. Only I felt it could have been ten minutes at least shorter .To sum up I would say it is a delightful gush of breeze .