REVIEW: Ek Nodir Galpo

Samir Chanda, one of the most talented production designers in Bollywood, makes his directorial debut with a feature film in Bengali called Ek Nodir Galpo (Tale of a river.)

Based on a story by Sunil Gangopadhyay, Ek Nodir Galpo begins as a father-daughter story and developes into this strange single-minded crusade by a village postmaster to get the village river named after his dead daughter, raped, killed and thrown into the river by a gang of ruffians.

Darakeshwar (Mithun Chakraborty) works as the postmaster in a small illage by the Keleghai river. He lives with his motherless daughter Anjana (Shweta Prasad) and they share a beautiful relationship that transcends death. Anu is the first girl in the village to graduate from school and go to college in the city. Her father waits for her every evening at the bus station. One evening, she fails to return. A day or two later, her body is fished out of the river. Refusing to accept the tragic reality of Anjana’s death, instead of cremating her, he chooses to give it burial in the river she loved so much. His belief is that if she is alive and regain consciousness.

Darakeshwar's mission is to rename the river Keleghai as Anjana in memory of his daughter who lost her life in the river. But then, no one has ever heard an appeal for a change in the name of a river. No one even knows how a river gets to be named in the first place, much less about having it renamed after a girl no one knows. So, how can a river’s name be changed? Darakeshwar moves from pillar to post, visits district offices, loses his job till boys throw stones at him taking him to be crazy.