Soumitra Chatterjee in his biopic stars as himself and that's the best thing to happen in it. Soumitra channels his vulnerable self throughout a narrative that doesn't try to delve deep into his personal life to reflect on a level that could have excavated a more personal touch to the narrative. The narrative though touches on iconic moments in his life which serves the nostalgia around the late actor quite well.
Parambrata has shown efficiency in churning out moments which has significantly affected the life of the man himself, like the moment when the news of Rabindranath Tagore's death brought his mother in tears and his family to a phase of shock and mourning. Likewise, the death of Satyajit Ray affects him in a way that he stops his theatre rehearsals and admits to co-artists that he can't do anything after incurring such a huge loss. The problem lies in the film, that it focuses on many things from his political affiliation, his pov on stardom which he enjoys but ignores, his relation with co-artists, to his dilemma between being an activist and a popular icon; but all of them seem very superficial rather than introspective. Like conventional biographical films, the film does make a neat portrayal of the man, but it doesn't idolize Soumitra as a person, rather it questions his several decisions in life, his career choices, and his apparent aloofness on political grounds though being a self-proclaimed political activist.
Jishu Sengupta plays the younger self of Soumitra fine, his performance embodies the man himself aesthetically. As per other performances go, Paoli Dam as Suchitra Sen, Q as Satyajit Ray, and Debsankar Halder as Shishir Bhaduri were sincere in their characters. Tridha Saha as Sharmila Tagore is a let-off but that doesn't affect the film. Prasenjit as Uttam Kumar was such a puzzling cast, but as the director himself said that Prasenjit was cast due to his status in the industry which was previously owned by Uttam Kumar.
As a fair amount of the film is shot in documentary style, in real locations, it feels like Soumitra is not playing himself but he is just himself in the film. He speaks, he emotes; all seems so genuinely real that you can't take your eyes and ears from the film whenever he is there.
Soumitra was a bridge to the old golden age of Bengali cinema, now it's a void there. As the film ends, you realize once more what we have lost, what is gone, and what will not come again.
The film is good to look at at a surface level, it's honest and authentic, and it's not a whitewash. It is a neat and clean film, it lacks depth but it's sincerely made and a heartwarming tribute to Soumitro's body of work.
