Made an effort to watch "Oti Uttam" in the theatre for the following reasons: 1) The trailer promised a unique premise and smart placement of footage from Uttam Kumar's films to tell a contemporary story, 2) Why miss the chance of watching Uttam Kumar in a 2024 film on the big screen? Turned out to be a bad idea.
Uttam Kumar's ghost lays down some ground rules via grandson Gourab Chatterjee's body to justify the film's poor VFX, limitations in the tech and the rushed editing, then appears in black-and-white to help his conjurer and ardent fan Krishnendu (Anindya Sengupta) woo his crush Sohini (Roshni Bhattacharya). But Sohini falls hard for Uttam Kumar instead (but obvio). "UK" saves the love-stricken girl by feigning a relationship with her, only to break her heart (that too with a little help from Supriya Devi's ghost) in order to drive her to seeking some rebound love from her "friend" Krishnendu. Really? That's what they came up with? Hadn't expected greatness but was hoping for something actually worth bringing our Mahanayak back from the dead - not a poorly spun retelling of "Kal Ho Naa Ho"!
The persona we know and adore as Uttam Kumar is too mountainous and too profoundly woven into our collective consciousness to be "used" like a court jester on a whim. From "Guru" switching guises innumerable times in the same scene to him addressing the same person differently to his painfully drab "AI voice" - nothing worked for me. Everything felt forced and unnecessary, as if to merely try and elicit some form of nostalgia. The short Kolkata tour, the luncheon scene, the Subhasis Mukherjee-Laboni Sarkar comedic duo and a couple decent songs were the only saving grace.
Uttam Kumar's ghost lays down some ground rules via grandson Gourab Chatterjee's body to justify the film's poor VFX, limitations in the tech and the rushed editing, then appears in black-and-white to help his conjurer and ardent fan Krishnendu (Anindya Sengupta) woo his crush Sohini (Roshni Bhattacharya). But Sohini falls hard for Uttam Kumar instead (but obvio). "UK" saves the love-stricken girl by feigning a relationship with her, only to break her heart (that too with a little help from Supriya Devi's ghost) in order to drive her to seeking some rebound love from her "friend" Krishnendu. Really? That's what they came up with? Hadn't expected greatness but was hoping for something actually worth bringing our Mahanayak back from the dead - not a poorly spun retelling of "Kal Ho Naa Ho"!
The persona we know and adore as Uttam Kumar is too mountainous and too profoundly woven into our collective consciousness to be "used" like a court jester on a whim. From "Guru" switching guises innumerable times in the same scene to him addressing the same person differently to his painfully drab "AI voice" - nothing worked for me. Everything felt forced and unnecessary, as if to merely try and elicit some form of nostalgia. The short Kolkata tour, the luncheon scene, the Subhasis Mukherjee-Laboni Sarkar comedic duo and a couple decent songs were the only saving grace.