While the world or at least Tollywood’s perception of it, is waiting for Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s follow up to the hugely successful Chander Pahar (2013), the director has apparently slipped up a filler to keep the audience sated until Dev is back with his Amazonian adventure which will surely amount to something more than stupid photographs with baby crocs!
On a serious note, the trailer of Khawto truly comes across as something of a ‘filler’ not only because of its release being timed between the two Chander Pahar instalments but largely because of the content and style. The film is apparently a psychological thriller involving a writer played by Prasenjit Chatterjee and his possible schizophrenic delusions or maybe something involving a doppelganger effect. And then there’s a lot of murder, mayhem and torment happening around him leading to some serious introspections and reflections about his own life and works. A random piece of dialogue or two heard in the trailer describes the protagonist as something of a womanizer which must be at least half true; there’s a glimpse of a steamy love making scene and the cast boasts a number of women including Raima Sen, Paoli Dam, Ushasie Chakraborty and Mishka Halim among others!
If the above sounds vague, it stands true for the trailer as well. In its desperate attempt to look and feel stylish and mysterious, the trailer allows the very communication simply go haywire. One of the most striking aspects is that more than half of the shots used in the trailer are manipulated in some ways or the other. Either they are slowed down or the colour tone is altered or they’ve simply put coloured strips across the images with strove like effects to enhance the sheer kinetics. Such lack of faith in one’s own image making is rather disheartening to see. The only interesting aspect about the trailer is the catchy and dynamic guitar riff, which serves as an effective background music.
Arup Ratan Samajdar
