Projapati review: Mithun Chakraborty and Dev present a heartwarming entertainer and question social convention

3.5/5

Story: Joy (Dev) is an established wedding planner in Kolkata. He lost his mother in his childhood. It is his father Gaur (Mithun Chakraborty) who brought him up with all the love in the world. Gaur wants his son to get married. Joy doesn’t want to marry because he fears his marriage may take him away from his father. One day, Gaur accidentally meets his childhood friend Kusum (Mamata Shankar). On one hand, he is tense about the prospect of his son’s marriage and on the other hand, he gets close to his childhood friends. How will he handle his life? 

Review: Projapati tells a neat story without any fuss. The best bit is how it shows the love and tussle between a father and his son. This film may remind us of the ’90s’ family dramas – like Lathi, and Shet Patharer Thala – that won millions of hearts at that time. The primary success of the film is that it touches your heart in the guise of a comedy. It makes you laugh and cry throughout the film.

Also, the film shows how our social convention compels us to label people. In the film, Gaurs falls in love with Kusum – his childhood friend. The film beautifully addresses the social hypocrisy regarding elderly people falling in love. It brings out the stereotypes and stigma and that adds charm to the film. In Shet Patharer Thala, Aparna Sen and Deepaankar De’s characters decide to part ways because of such a social predicament. However, Prajapati is way more contemporary and exudes positive vibes.   

It is an outright entertainer and it delivers what it promises. Some may also be able to relate to middle-class values – a treadmill turning into a cloth liner, sticking notes for parents on the refrigerator, and so on. All these sequences touch your heart because of its emotion. It sometimes feels like the maker brings it out straight from real life. 

And this is where the actors make it more relatable and credible. Dev and Mithun Both are outstanding. Dev looks gorgeous on screen and his comic timing, dialogues, and just the mere presence draw you into the film. Mithun has a couple of initial hiccups. And then he gets into the groove and how! He conveys emotion through his eyes and facial muscles. His walks, gestures, enactments, comic timing – every bit impresses you. He looks like a hero and he acts like a hero. When he says, “Amar ar Eka thakte bhalo lage na (I don’t like living alone anymore),” one may deal with moist eyes.  

Mamata Shankar is super too. The chemistry between Mithun and Mamata Shankar is delectable. And then there are Ambarish Bhattacharya (who plays Gaur’s son-in-law) and Koneenica Banerjee (Gaur’s daughter). Ambarish is undoubtedly one of the greatest character actors in Bengali cinema at the moment. Koneenica’s performance is brilliant. She is surely one of the least explored actresses in the Bengali film industry. The script doesn’t favour Shweta Bhattacharya and she is just an underexplored character. Meanwhile, Kaushani Mukherjee, Kharaj Mukherjee, and Bishwanath Basu are also nice. 

And then comes the music. The songs are not bad, however, Anupam Roy’s Tumi Amar Hero will be etched in our minds. There is a sequence when Dev and Mithun dance in this song. That sequence has stolen hearts as the auditorium cheered during this bit. 

The film rapidly goes downhill in the last 15 minutes. Long monologues, accidents, and melodrama ruin the last bit. Another bit is the film does no justice to Shweta’s character and her chemistry with Dev. It is because of the lack of time. Mithun-Dev-Mamata Shankar takes up a lot of time. And as a result, Dev and Shweta’s love story gets eclipsed. There are a number of loose ends – if Shweta leaves her job, etc. The relationship between Koneenica and her mother-in-law also is not evolved naturally. 

Verdict: Projapoti is an outright entertainer and it will not let you down in terms of entertainment. It makes you laugh and cry. Avijit Sen brews a father-son family story in the flame of social issues and yet does not go overboard or preachy. It is a most definite watch this Christmas.