Premendu Bikash Chaki began his career as a cinematographer quite some time ago. He honed his skills under the baton of very successful filmmakers like Prabhat Roy, Anjan Dutt and Aparna Sen till he gathered the confidence to sit on the director’s chair. As director, he has proved his flair for light comedy mainly targeted at a family audience. His earlier directorial films like Honeymoon and Paka Dekha have already established Chaki as a director who can feel the funny bone of his audience very well.
His latest film Love Marriage, is a rip-roaring, rollicking comedy where the fun cuts across three generations of a single family who tread on each other’s toes unwittingly. Basically, the film addresses the generation gap between and among the 93-year-old matriarch (Sohag Sen), the mother of Mahim Sanyal (Ranjit Mallick) a retired widower whose son Dipu (Ankush Hazra) has a cushy corporate job. These three members, alongwith Mahim Babu’s brother-in-law live together in an apartment complex.
The entertainment value of Love Marriage is triggered right in the beginning with the old lady, suffering from phases of amnesia insisting that her dead husband has come back from heaven and is perched on the tree in the compound. She makes a noise about it and the neighbours too, are convinced. But Mahim Mullick, is not perturbed. The grandson who hates being addressed by his nickname, returns from work to meet a situation he is used to. This is how the major characters are established.
The major conflict that holds the entire narrative together is the father’s insistence on fixing an arranged marriage with Dipu to a girl of his choice while the son is already in love with Shaon (Oindrila), a colleague and is hell-bent on marrying her. Nothing new about the plot but it is Padmanava Dasgupta’s screenplay and dialogue along with Chaki’s direction that makes every situation arising from this conflict a hilarious one.
After some manipulated ‘drama’ of going to “see” eligible girls, through some misunderstanding, the conflict between father and son hits the roof because when they go to “see” a girl who turns out to be a cousin of Shaon.
Finally, when Mahim Sanyal is convinced to pay a visit to Shaon’s house, all hell breaks loose. From this point on, the story takes a completely different turn. Shaon’s mother (Aparajita Auddy) is shocked to discover an old admirer in Mahim Sanyal who calls her a traitor and marches out, very angry.
How the younger pair of Dipu and Shaon with the help of the maternal uncle try to rescue the sinking boat makes for more merriment and laughter for the rest of the film till the young couple are finally united in marriage while the respective parents bask in the happiness of their kids, Dipu and Shaon.
The 93-year-old matriarch of the Sanyal family and the warm familial bond between the different characters tick all the boxes of a feel-good family movie. The situational comedy in scenes where Shaon’s mother and Mahim Sanyal interact are well-executed. However, some of the matchmaking scenes, particularly one in which a possible bride is shown dancing, and a scene where an obese doctor is forced out of his car, are quite cringeworthy.
It was a delight to see Ranjit Mallick return to the screen after an interval. Sohag Sen is brilliant and many senior citizens will identify with her character in the film. Ankush and Oindrilla have matured a lot in their performances. The snoopy neighbours also do their bit. Aparajita Auddy is very good but needs to tone down her performance by a few decibels.
Savvy composed the music only after the lyrics were penned by Srijato and Dipangshu and the songs or even the background score do not intrude into the narrative but rather enrich it. The editing is fine and so is the art direction which is commendable because of the small flat most of the film was shot in. The entire shooting was done during the pandemic and considering this challenge, the cinematography is quite good.
Love Marriage is a thoroughly enjoyable film spelling out humour and healthy comedy in every frame. Congratulations to Chaki and his entire team for giving us a delightfully entertaining film after a long, long time.
Images courtesy: Premendu Bikash Chaki.
