10 painfully realistic films to mend a broken heart

Happy endings can be nice and all, but even the most idealistic person knows they don't always last and the relationship-in-crisis sub-genre is a tricky one, especially when making a film that explores the complexities of human psyche. In recent years, Tollywood has explored contents about the problems modern couples face. Films like ‘Ahaa Re’, ‘Praktan’ or ‘X=Prem’ have explored the struggles in relationships from a completely different perspective. Telling the story of a struggling relationship in an original way is indeed quite a challenge. Let’s take a look at these recent Bengali films that help you process your sadness, exorcise your rage, or encourage you to dust yourself back up and move the hell on.

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The film, directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, reminds us how actions can speak louder than words. It also shows how drama and detailing can keep the audience glued to seats even if none of the actors mouth a single word. It’s the realness that strikes a chord. Both the characters, played by Ritwick and Basabdutta, go about life in such a mundane, unhurried kind of way that the film seems to be a documentary about a day in the life of a lower middle-class working couple, with the recession as the backdrop. The director also traces the couple’s life in minute detail, sketching out their work and personal routines using a sequence of strokes to create the complete picture.

Boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married and go the family way. Haven’t we all seen similar plots in umpteen movies? What makes Baba, Baby O... different here is that it tells the story of a single father who chooses to live life on his own terms. Over the years, there have been some really great movies that have showcased the challenges and struggles of a single mother. But this film celebrates fatherhood by following the everyday struggles of a man trying to navigate problems of his love life, family and career to the best of his abilities.

In the film Kothamrito, directed by Jiit Chakraborty, Kaushik Ganguly plays Sanatan and Aparajita Adhya plays his wife Sulekha. Being an ideal couple in their locality, they are the symbol of a perfect family. They are loved, adored and respected by all. Sanatan cannot speak, but the people close to him have learned to understand him over time and are often assisted by Sanatan’s pocket diary, which he calls Kothamrito. The relationship drama asserts that communication plays an important part in any relationship, but the plot also asks an important question: Should we pursue the ‘right way’ to make a relationship work, or is it more important to find ‘our way’?

Ranjan Ghosh directed Ahaa Re has ticked all the right boxes given an unconventional premise. A rich Bangladeshi Muslim (Bangladeshi actor Arifin Shuvoo), a middle-class Indian Hindu, and the medium of food, the fusion of Epaar Bangla and Opaar Bangla, to set the course of their love story. There are some noteworthy performances to savour as well. Rituparna Sengupta has delivered with considerable restraint right through. As the old patriarch bristling at being addressed as meshomoshai, who is keen to learn magic even at this ripe old age, Paran Bandyopadhyay is exceptional.

The Srijit Mukherji film revolves around a much-in-love couple — Khilaat (Anindya Sengupta), a software engineer, and Joyee (Shruti Das) — who find themselves in a weird situation after a car accident erases Khilaat’s memory of the past 10 years. After he regains consciousness, Khilaat feels uncomfortable as he can’t remember how and when he fell in love with Joyee. Joyee tries her best to bring his memory back by recounting stories of their college life, their first meeting and so on. But much to her disappointment, nothing works. Caught in some sort of an emotional crisis, the desperate couple seeks help from a doctor, who apparently can transplant memories. And so begins the hunt to find the memory of love…

In this Nandita-Shiboprosad directorial, Biswanath Mazumdar (Soumitra Chatterjee) shocks his son and daughter-in-law (Shankar and Indrani), three daughters (Rituparna, Aparajita and Monami) and their husbands (Sujoy, Kharaj and Anindya) by announcing to his decision to divorce his wife, Aarti, (Swatilekha Sengupta) after 49 years of marriage. What follows is an emotional re-discovery of the institution of marriage. The sounds and images created by a septuagenarian couple’s tryst with the myopia that plagues modern-day marriages will surely linger on after watching this relationship drama.

The Nandita Roy-Shiboprosad Mukherjee directed film is a simple tale of a married and a separated couple. It's also a journey within a journey that simplifies the complexities of most modern day relationships and the beauty lies in the clear-headed approach and the ideal climax. Each of the protagonists present a different aspect of married life, of ego, emotions and perspectives and each drive their points home.

Matters of the heart are difficult to understand. And love happens to be a complicated subject. The film takes off asking a pertinent question – “Is our heart just an organ that pumps blood or is it a storehouse of emotions as described by great writers and poets?” There are many ways to express love. While some fall in love passionately, fiercely and hopelessly, some are sensitive, understanding and affectionate. Given a choice, who will you choose to be with? That’s the question director Shieladitya Moulik tries to answer in his film.

Finally Bhalobasha depicts three stories that narrate the relationships between people of different age and gender, which is considered as a social taboo in our society. The movie very aesthetically shows how people in such relations go through the test of time by mentally juggling the concept of sin and their need of physical longing that finally transcends into true love. signature tune of an Anjan Dutt film – urbanites dealing with existential crisis, people coping with broken families and relationships can be seen in this film as well.

'Bijoya' is the sequel to Kaushik Ganguly's National award-winning film 'Bishorjon'. Padma is now married to Ganesh Mondal. An emergency situation brings Padma and Ganesh Mondal to Kolkata where she meets Nasir Ali once again. What will she do now? How does her husband, Ganesh Mondal deal with this?