Reviewed by Praveen Lulekar
Passion is innocent like dew; when the
sunlight of sensibility falls upon it, passion evaporates.
There are many angles to look at love, at
relationships. And if that love is part of a story, consequently there are many
facets to that story. Samhita – the script is a journey of a writer
exploring the many meanings of a story. It is a peep into the mind of a
story-maker and her world of imagination, best described by the Urdu word tassavur.
On cinematic level, it has gimmicks like the tassavur being played
out to you on screen and has all the indulgence (which might seem irrelevant on
occasions), the slow pace, static close-ups and the richness of an art house
affair.
Revati Sathe (Devika Daftardar) is a National Award
winning documentary film maker who is approached by a bed-ridden producer’s
wife Shirin (Jyoti Subhash) to make a film. The film is the producer’s dream as
the story has allusions to his life. Revati seeks help of the author of the
original story (Uttara Baokar) and finds out that she has a completely
different perspective of the story than that of Shirin. Shirin sees dedication
as the crux of the story of a King falling in love with a court singer. For the
author, it is a tale of oppression. Revati, who’s marriage is about to end
(Milind Soman as Ranvir, her husband), now starts to develop her own perception
in the process of writing the script. An interesting perspective is also thrown
by Hemangini (Rajeshwari Sachdev) – the actor to be cast as the court singer.
If you are a fan of fast narratives, the film won’t
work at all for you in the first half. The directors (Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar)
take their own time to establish background of both the stories. The story of
Revati works out well (the directors are showing life of a director after all)
but there are hiccups in the initial stages of the story being written as
script. Techniques like the actors as characters in Revati’s real life playing
those in her story might seem amateur, but remember this is Revati’s first
film. So Ranvir becomes the King, Shirin becomes Raina-bi – the court singer’s
guardian and Revati herself becomes the King’s unhappy wife. Hemangini is of
course the singer. This portrayal underlines the basic operating pattern of a
writer’s imagination.
Soman and Sachdev have the tough job of balancing
the initial act. They convey the passion well owing to their good looks. But it
takes beyond looks to convey the pain of a character that doesn’t love his wife
and finds solace in a singer’s voice. Soman seems awkward in this area. He is
rather more comfortable in the character of Ranvir. The scenes between Ranvir
and Revati are the best part of the film
apart from the songs. Scenes like both of them busy on their mobiles as they
stand in a lift convey their situation very subtly. The realism of modern day
marriages heightens when Ranvir says – ‘none of us is alcoholic, of
ill-character and we don’t ignore our daughter.’ Still, there divorce is
explicable, without any big fight.
The film belongs to three people apart from the
directors – the beautiful yet subtle Daftardar, the effortless Subhash and
singer Arati Ankalikar. With her expressive eyes and studied demeanor,
Daftardar not only brings Ravati to life but also single-handedly steers the
second story playing the queen. The beautiful allegory between characters in
reel and real helps her cause. Ankalikar does a similar job in the first half
with her voice. The songs just remove you from the world you know to a heavenly
trance (music – Shailendra Barve, lyrics – Sukthankar). Acting as a singer is
always a complicated job. An actor has to convey the expressions of the character
as well as maintain expressions of being connected to the eternal while
singing. Sachdev manages to convince.
Watch Samhita if you are sensitive enough to
absorb every frame, every word, every expression and wait for an impactful end.
This is acquired taste.
m4m says: A Must Watch
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