Story of a Bengali professor, a student leader and his protegee and their fight against an educational scam
You might know the ingredients of a particular dish, but a great chef always cooks it better. As with cooking, so with filmmaking. Not every romance turns out to be a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge; not every political thriller is a Rajneeti or a Sarkar. That's the case with A Political Murder (Part One). Director Agnidev Chatterjee doesn't miss a single element of a political thriller - there's a beautiful, courageous and morally strong protagonist, a rebellious and charismatic student leader, a 1000-crore education scam and a maze of grey characters. But the storyline is so convoluted and the sequence of events so confusing that the films loses focus after a point.
The film starts from Indrani's (Rituparna) point of view. She's the Bengali professor of a prominent college where student elections are covered by the media. We see her sister-in -law, Aditi (Priyanka), celebrating her winning the general secretary's post with her fellow comrades and the leader she hero-worships, Udayshekhar Indu (Rahul). As the professors join the celebrations and start dancing with the students (in which Kolkata college can you dream of seeing this?), Indrani is shot by an unknown assassin. The story goes into a flashback from there and we see Indrani's earlier feud with Indu and her protest against his dadagiri.
- However, the casting is the film's high point. Apart from Rituparna, Rahul and Priyanka portray their roles perfectly. The others are also appropriate. Kaushik Sen as Rituparna's middle-class sarkari-chakure husband is superb. His dynamics with Rituparna remind you strongly of Rituparno Ghosh's Dahan and Rituparna's struggle with her husband there. But weak dialogues and some tacky songs make this film an average watch.