Pariah (2024) Bengali Movie Review: Ambarish Bhattacharya impresses in a negative role
Director Tathagata Mukherjee's action thriller Pariah Vol 1 starring Vikram Chatterjee, Soumya Mukherjee, Angana Roy, Ambarish Bhattacharya, & Sreelekha Mitra in the lead roles, was released in theaters on February 9th, 2024.
The film opens with a scene where two people, their faces covered with handkerchiefs, are seen feeding street dogs and then taking them into a car. An old lady who runs Shanti's Hotel was feeding some street dogs and she found another dog named Bhulu missing there. Realtor Ramesh (Lonkath Dey) often comes to the hotel to intimidate the old lady so that he can take the property.
Lubdhak Chatterjee (Vikram Chatterjee), who works at a factory, keeps his identity secret from everyone. He comes to eat daily at Shanti's hotel where his bond with a little dog becomes stronger each day.
The local people were fed up with the dogs of that old lady and they complained to Sanghamitra (Sreelekha Mitra) who runs an NGO named Care and Cure and Kamalini (Angana Roy) who works at the NGO. The NGO is funded by the renowned Supreme Court lawyer M.N Sharma (Ambarish Bhattacharya). One day the old lady got murdered and her dogs were missing. Lubdhak arrived there but did not find the dog who was very friendly with him. Will Lubdhak be able to find out the missing dog?
The story writing and the execution by director Tathagata Mukherjee were the most impressive aspects of this film. The dialogues looked fine but the screenplay could have been better. The pace of the narrative during the first half-hour was a bit slow but thereafter it picked up the pace and will keep you engaged till the end. Also, the message to love dogs without harming them is clear in it.
Both Vikram Chatterjee and Soumya Mukherjee delivered their career-best performances. And I feel Tathagata Mukherjee deserves a lot of appreciation for presenting these two characters in such new and impressive avatars and utilizing their full potential.
If we talk about the character writing then Soumya Mukherjee's character Nanda was brilliantly written and the way he performed it with conviction made it thoroughly enjoyable. Vikram Chatterjee as Lubdhak Chatterjee is a treat to watch especially in the action sequences. The fight sequences have been designed by the director himself while action directors Rajesh Kannan and Mohan have choreographed the action scenes.
Ambarish Bhattacharya as the antagonist M.N Sharma looks impressive. This is not the kind of character he has played till date in his career but he portrayed it quite nicely. Angana Roy and Sreelekha Mitra also looked convincing even with their limited screen presence. The background score by Ranajoy Bhattacharjee complements the narrative. The cinematography by Uttaran De and the editing by Amir Mondal was decent.
The backstory of Lubdhak Chatterjee and Nanda was completely missing in Part 1, the director might have planned to reveal it in Pariah Part 2 but revealing at least a small part of their past would have made the story more captivating. Also, the emotional scenes do not work well. Loknath Dey looked a bit underutilized here considering his potential in portraying negative roles.
Overall, Pariah Vol 1 is a worth-watching Bengali action thriller with a good story, top-notch performances from Vikram Chatterjee, Soumya Mukherjee, & Ambarish Bhattacharya, a good background score and brilliant execution by Tathagata Mukherjee.
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