The recent Bengali film TONIC touched most of the minds. Image Courtesy – YouTube
Nowadays, we are facing all the problems, hardships, sufferings, deprivations, and complaints of life within the critical situation of pandemics. In the midst of this situation, we can get unadulterated fun and full entertainment after watching the Bengali movie TONIC.
The story is projected like this –
A family of an aged person, Jaladhar Sen (Paran Bandyopadhyay) is projected – his wife (Shakuntala Barua), his son Partha (Sujan Mukhopadhyay), wife of his son (Koneenica Banerjee), and a sweet granddaughter. But, somehow suppressed sensitiveness is stuck in his mind.
Their own desires have been suppressed by extreme careful looks towards the parents by their son for the last 46 years. According to Jaladhar Babu, his life has been limited after his retirement between hot conversations with his wife, rebuke of his son, the problem of indigestion, and night blanket. He feels that he virtually lost all his freedom due to his extremely careful son.
Jaladhar experienced a marriage ceremony party of his friend in the midst of the river Ganges on a steamer. He wished that his 46th wedding anniversary party would be more gorgeous than his friend. He started dreaming in that way. At that time, his son declared that he would arrange his father’s wedding anniversary party on the roof-top. Jaladhar Babu was hurt in his self-respect with his son’s decision. He called a travel planner to arrange his wedding anniversary in a different way. The tour planner suggested him to celebrate it in Paris, and she assured him to assist with every arrangement. Jaladhar’s decision was prompted by a young travel guide, Tonic (Deepak Adhikari or Dev). The intelligent, agile, always-smiling Tonic, however, could not pass Auntie’s passport in the end.
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So, the story goes on smoothly with a planning tour in Paris, gradually a problem created with preparing passport, and finally comes the change in destination. The destination of the tour shifted from Paris to Darjeeling. Tonic, the guide of the travel company finally arranged everything for the wedding anniversary celebration with care. He took them to the hill station of Darjeeling without informing anyone at home.
The first episode of the film takes a little longer. In preparation for the wedding anniversary, the arrival and departure of the caterer (Biswanath Basu), the presence of Barababu (Rajatava Dutta) in the police investigation for passports have increased the attention. There were some ups and downs through a lot of sequences by which a spectator can enjoy the gradual development of a relationship between Tonic and the elderly couple after they leave home.
There is no comparison to Paran Bandyopadhyay – he is the real star of this story. Image Courtesy – Cinestaan
It is the ‘tonic’ that evokes the joy and excitement that has been lingering in the life of the old couple for so long. Tonic makes it possible for a man of above seventy to perform rafting, paragliding, and even the hardest rock climbing with his vocal tonic of excitement. The old man seems to get back the new joy of his lost life after so long. His wife is also very happy. Meanwhile, the police search for the missing parents as well as the ‘missing’ advertisement in the paper also came out under the supervision of the old couple’s son.
But in these 4-5 days, Tonic has almost taken the place of a child in the minds of the old couple. He arranged their wedding anniversary at a hotel in Darjeeling.
Needless to say, what will happen after the old father loses consciousness while dancing after regaining his previous youthful days? At last, a happy ending is decorated along with some dramas and super-dramas. The sweetness of the film is completed by consuming the tonic of joy.
Whether a character like Tonic is available in reality or not, who also has a sad past, tickling the audience sentiment with that is perfectly blended with the cinematic formula. But yes, it is possible to get a taste of ‘tonic’ once in a while to get purposeless unadulterated pleasure and spend time.
After a long time, people are back again in the cinema houses within COVID protocol and with 50% presence in seating arrangement. I saw such a Bengali movie whose director, producer, actor, music director are all Bengali people.
It was undoubtedly the best Christmas offer for the Bengali people in the last phase of 2021. Paran Bandyopadhyay and Dev showed magic on the screen. Just these two actors were amazing. Just the chemistry of these two throughout the movie, the excellent acting, and the charisma of these two actors were worth noting.
The screenplay is awesome – no scenes have been magnified unnecessarily, if you see the movie you will feel it. The camera work and location are very nice. The USP of this movie is to show the tourism of Darjeeling in a new way and with a beautiful sweet story. Very beautiful songs composed by Jeet Ganguly and sung by Anindya Chattopadhyay, Anupam Roy, and Nachiketa Chakraborty, have made the movie even better. There is no heroine in the movie, there is no unwanted love, there is no unwanted time wasted, there is only a story to be liked, there is only a story to fulfill a hobby.
Some of the stories are stuck in the mind. Even after watching them a thousand times, the mind remains unfulfilled. Tonic is such a movie that can make everyone laugh inside the hall, cry and enjoy an impeccable story. There is no comparison to Paran Bandyopadhyay – he is the real star of this story. The way he smiled at every scene, is beyond answer.
