Imagine you are sitting in front of your lost childhood sweatheart after a gap of few years and she is married. What does it feel like? Is there a lump in your throat everytime you try to speak a word. Now imagine that the first hurdle is overcome and you both are talking all sorts of things about your life, marriage and job but both of you can't express the pain you feel each day for each other. None of you try to explain the dark conditions of your lives to each other but both of you are going on talking about every other thing. This pain is realistic and aptly described in the art film ''Raincoat'' by Rituparna Ghosh.
The two hour movie just doesn't let you breathe properly in anticipation of the unfolding of the story. I never heard of parallel cinema of bollywood untill the death of Rituparna Ghosh when media gave him respect for being a comrade of the force behind art films of bollywood. It was then that I discovered the true world of cinema where reality is honestly portrayed without racy item songs or mindless promotional events. Unlike the big stars of commercial cinema the actors and directors of art films are not attention seekers and thatsy many of us are unaware of their existence. These films touch our mind and heart equally and make us think at least for a few minutes which is way more beneficial than laughing hours on adult comedy which has made a prominent place nowadays in commercial cinema.
The movie Raincoat is shot in record time of 17 days and the brilliant direction and acting won it the National Award too. Aishwarya Rai as Neeru is so beautifully portrayed that you could actually feel the character as if it was alive. Ajay Devgan also played one of his best roles according to me in this film as a passionate lover from a village Bhagalpur who visits kolkata to collect money from his past friends in order to come out of financial crisis. There he visits his childhood love Neeru's house for a short trip and the twists and turns keep us glued to the movie along with occasionally thinking deeply about the awesome story originally written by O. HENRY.
After two hours of this moving experience I thought why not ask my
friends if anybody had heard of this film. It turned out nobody among my
friends and not even people on quora have any idea of this movie except
some freaks. The movie did decent work in box office despite being a
low budget art film. I wonder if anymore such films would come up in
India given the conditions of neglect towards such films. Such realistic
films are instant Flop generally in the bolly market which only wants
khans and kapoors dancing with bikini clad dancers. If even a small
percentage of money that meaningless films earn nowadays could go to
these art films we could have hoped for more such movies.
If you haven't enjoyed it, Go to Youtube and keep napkins ready!!!! I bet you will remember this movie whole life.
