User Reviews

It seems Bengali cinema is poised for good times with a number of filmmakers exploring fresh subjects and themes. MACHER JHOL directed by Pratim D Gupta falls in this category.

The film tries an attempt -to- return- to-roots of a successful chef (Ritwik Chakraborty) in France to Kolkata when his mother is seriously ill and hospitalized. The film has sufficient human drama and relationship subtext (father-son differences, left behind wife in Kolkata) to engage the viewer's interests. Some aspects seem cliché though (the birth of a son kept as a secret)... the protagonist is flawed too. He accuses his father of being selfish, while he himself deserted his wife and went abroad and never bothered to ask about her during his telephonic talk back home with his mother.

I particularly think that the ending was unconventional where the chef returns to his French girlfriend when the viewers were probably developing a sense that the protagonist would stay back with his wife and son ...besides Ritwik, the film features Mamata Shankar as the mother, Sumanta Mukherjee as the father, Paoli Dam as the wife in Kolkata and others...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Well, this is one of those movies which most people praised, and for all the right reasons but I didn't enjoy it as an audience. Maybe I am not not the target audience, not modern enough to digest the lead character being this emotionally detached from the women.in his life (except ofcourse his mother, reinforcing the common knowledge that the only woman Indian men respect is their Mother) and not ancient enough to understand why would the estranged wife still adorn a sindur in the name of the person who disposed her like an used condom. In one scene he explains why he left his wife - "arranged marriage at young age,introverts, couldn't strike a friendship in 3years" - later revealed, (was not a surprise element at all ) that his wife was pregnant when he left her, and like not only raised their child as a single mother but also took care of his family in his absence. Because let be and understanding is not a pre-requisite for sex in arranged marriages. I know, shit happens in real life, and in their defence the filmmakers would say they didn't glorify it. A man treats his wife of 3years like shit and goes on to lead a perfect life with a perfect gf in a dream country, comes back to be greeted with hugs and cuddles from.his mother and not one word of censure, man like that ends up with 3 beautiful ladies - a Sati for his wife, a Savithri for his gf and a Meerabai for his intern - that's glorification for me. Storywise - didn't his mother ever tell him to take his wife along? What is the purpose of the intern girl drooling over celebrity chef in this "crisply edited" story? And the burning question, which chef is so famous that everyone from roadside bhajjiwala to housewives want to take selfies with him?