‘Gaheen Hriday’: Interesting and lesser known facts which make the film a must-watch

It seems there is no stopping for Rituparna Sengupta - the reigning queen of Bengali cinema. She has explored not only myriad genres but characters and storylines too, in her career spanning over two decades. In Agnidev Chatterjee’s soon-to-be-released ‘Gaheen Hriday’, she will once again be seen in a challenging role. It’s a poignant story of complex nature of relationships and Ritu plays the female lead Sohini along with the male leads Debshankar Haldar and Kaushik Sen.


The romantic drama is releasing this Friday and here we take a look at some of the interesting and lesser known facts about the film.

If you think songs are a prerequisite for a successful film, there are few directors who believe in a good script and a powerful cast. Agnidev Chatterjee is one of them. That’s why ‘Gaheen Hriday’ has no songs. It’s the background score that has done the job aptly. The haunting background music helps the film to gradually dive deep into the darkest alleys of human relationship. From the very first day, Agnidev decided he won’t use any song as he wanted to execute the story differently. He rather used Rituparna, Debshankar Haldar and Kaushik Sen’s acting skills to raise the tempo alongside the background music.

Being a professional actress, Rituparna Sengupta has no such inhibitions about doing bold scenes if it’s part of the script. In ‘Gaheen Hriday’ too, the actress will be seen in an intimate scene with Kaushik Sen. Ritu says sexual interpretation will always be a part of a story that deals with the pillars of a relationship. It has to be accepted and in this film, due to the monochromatic nature, the deep introspective of human desire has been portrayed superbly. According to the director, despite being the female lead of ‘Gaheen Hriday’ Rituparna’s character Sohini has lots of grey shades and the intimate scene which has become the talk of the town, is just a part of her character.

Largely inspired by Late Suchitra Bhattacharya’s popular novel by the same title, ‘Gaheen Hriday’ sees the dilemma of Sohini (Rituparna Sengupta) who is caught in a love triangle between her husband Bhaskar (Debshankar Haldar) her lover Anupam (Kaushik Sen) from Seattle. But when Sohini is about to leave her husband to settle down with Anupam, the dreaded cancer throws her into a dilemma and makes her think again about what she actually desires. A devastated Sohini can’t tell her husband the truth that she wants to leave him. What happens next forms the crux of this emotionally tormented family drama.

Very few people know that the script of ‘Gaheen Hriday’ has been penned by Agnidev Chatterjee’s wife, television anchor Sudipa Chatterjee. The original story has been taken from late writer Late Suchitra Bhattacharya’s popular novel by the same title. Agnidev has admitted that Sudipa helped her a lot in taking a final decision on the characters and script of the film. The director has also claimed that nobody could have played the role of Sohini better than Rituparna Sengupta. Rumour has it that Sudipa also believes Sohini’s character is so close to her heart as she is a huge admirer of Suchitra Bhattacharya’s literary works.

The story of ‘Gaheen Hriday’ tells a lot about how to handle a crisis psychologically, especially when the family of a cancer patient struggles to accept the reality. Cancer has now become a curse to the society. The way Rituparna Sengupta’s character Sohini handles the crisis when her husband is diagnosed with cancer actually leaves a strong message to others. During these crisis periods, one realises the true value of his or her family.