| Jaatishwar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Srijit Mukherji |
| Written by | Srijit Mukherji |
| Produced by | Reliance Entertainment and Rana Sarkar[1] |
| Starring | Prosenjit Chatterjee Jisshu Sengupta Swastika Mukherjee Abir Chatterjee Rahul Banerjee Ananya Chatterjee Kharaj Mukherjee Mamata Shankar Riya Sen Srijit Mukherji Biswajit Chakraborty Bharat Kaul |
| Cinematography | Soumik Haldar |
| Edited by | Bodhaditya Banerjee Pronoy Dasgupta |
| Music by | Kabir Suman |
Release date |
|
Running time | 150 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Bengali |
| Budget | ₹4.0 crore (US$500,000)[2] |
Jaatishwar is a 2014 Indian Bengali musical drama film directed by Srijit Mukherji, starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta and Swastika Mukherjee. The main focus of the plot revolves around the life and notable works of Anthony Firingee (Hensman Anthony), a 19th-century Bengali language folk poet of Portuguese origin, along with other supporting characters. The time frame of the storyline jumps between two different time periods—19th century and the present day (2013).[1] The music of Jaatiswar is composed by Kabir Suman.
The film has been recognized as the most awarded film in the 61st National Film Awards with 4 awards in the following categories -Best Music Direction, Best Male Playback Singer, Best Costume Design and Best Make-up Artist.
Plot[edit]
In the present timeline, Rohit Mehta (Jisshu Sengupta), a Gujarati born and brought up in Calcutta, falls in love with Mahamaya Bandopadhyay (Swastika Mukherjee) and tries to woo her. Since he can just barely utter a few Bengali words (and that too in the wrong places), Mahamaya throws him a hurdle to cross - if he can write a song with correct Bengali lyrics and sing it without any accent or mistake, she would think of a possible relationship. Rohit accepts the challenge and goes to Portugal to study colonial history.
Two years pass. Mahamaya is now a radio jockey at a popular radio station. Rohit is in Portugal but still very much in love with her. His Bengali is being refined by his friend and classmate Bodhi (Abir Chatterjee). Rohit chooses the music course and decides to do a dissertation on the 19th Century folk poet Hensman Anthony(Anthony Firingee). He goes to Calcutta and then to Farashdanga, Chandannagar, where Anthony lived and composed his songs. He goes to the local library to get some books where he meets the assistant librarian, a mysterious man named Kushal Hajra (Prosenjit Chatterjee), who claims to be the re-incarnation of Anthony himself. Kushal laments that the visions of his previous life are haunting him every day, and slowly taking over the memory of his present life. Rohit promises to take him to Calcutta for treatment, in return he demands the life history of Anthony.
The story then goes back to the 19th Century, where Anthony impresses the villagers with his musical talent. He saves a young Bengali widow, Soudamini, from performing sati and later marries her. But he yearns to learn the Bengali language and compose songs in that language. He learns it, reading Hindu scriptures and understanding the meaning of the folk compositions. In those days, kavigaans were very popular in Calcutta, where two kaviyaals or folk poets would face each other with their respective groups and compete with each other through songs and poems. Anthony was impressed by the kavigaans and decided to form a group on his own. He used to compose the songs himself, and on the first occasion met the woman kaviyaal, Joggeshwari (Ananya Chatterjee), whom he defeats. Slowly, as he began to progress in his career as a kaviyaal, he competed with noted kaviyaals of the time like Ram Basu (Sujan Mukherjee) and Thakur Singha (Biswajit Chakraborty).
Simultaneously, in the present timeline, Kushal is taken to a psychiatrist, where he is informed that to stop the visions, he must complete a work which he could not possibly do as Anthony. Kushal's visions get stronger and stronger. Rohit meanwhile has found a way to sing his latest Bengali composition in front of Mahamaya, whose radio company has decided to organize a competition among bands hailing both from West Bengal and Bangladesh, "Bandemonium". Bodhi, who meanwhile had come to Calcutta to meet Rohit, takes him to Sidhu (playing himself) to arrange musicians for Rohit's performance. Meanwhile, Mahamaya had also started developing feelings for Rohit.
