Why this romantic web film became so popular

Quite a few films and series have been released last month, centering the Valentine’s Day. Out of them, Shihab Shaheen’s web film ‘Kacher Manush Dure Thuiya’ is a prominent one among the discussed contents. 

This film is being discussed the most on social media. What ammunition this film releasing on Chorki, holds in its arsenal that the audience has liked it so much?

From analysing the discussions on various Facebook groups, comments on Chorki’s Facebook page and YouTube channel along with discussion of local and foreign critics, some reasons can be found for the web film being discussed so extensively.

The plot is simple. The storyline has been allowed to flow in its own way without any effort to create an overdramatic narrative here, commented majority of the audience.

An audience named Arman felt that he found the film enjoyable for the story being closer to reality. Many could connect themselves with the emotions of this web film counting love, complaint, subdued pain, separation everything in.

The film features a three-minute scene without any dialogue. That too has created a scope for discussion. For example an audience named Rajkumar Rihad wrote, “Two different people, completely silent, probably with a load of complaint or subdued pain… the film stole the audience’s heart with a three-minute silent scene.”

Majority of the local contents are created in the setting of Dhaka city. But, this web film is set in Rajshahi. The use of local dialect and featuring the river banks nearly like a character has given the movie a whole different dimension.

Commenting on the film, scriptwriter and critic Mehedi Hasan Moon wrote on Facebook, “There are some contents that stun you when you see them. It seems like someone picked a part of the story from life and spread it across the screen. The character on the screen seems exactly like me or someone very familiar.”

“The film, ‘Kacher Manush Dure Thuiya’ is exactly like that. It’s a flawless film. Flawless in the sense that the film was successful in telling the story it wanted to tell,” he added.

Earlier, dialogues were one of the major problems with Bengali content. Over the past couple of years there has been a noticeable improvement in this aspect. Signs of that are evident in ‘Kacher Manush Dure Thuiya’ as well.

There are no standout heroic dialogues but the dialogues throughout the film are brilliantly measured. In fact many audiences were touched especially by the dialogues of the two main characters while they were falling in love and the time they were apart.

Apart from that the acting performances deserve special mentions. There’s nothing new left to say about Tasnia Farin’s acting. Be it a scene featuring romance or helplessness, she brought out her best on the screen playing the character of ‘Sharmin’.

However, the biggest surprise in the film is Pritom Hasan. Now it will be difficult to write only “singer” in his introduction.

His performance in the character of ‘Farhan’ was so effortless that while watching the film you just forget the fact that he’s a singer first.

Apart from these, the leading actress of the film Tasnia Farin revealed another reason behind the popularity of ‘Kacher Manush Dure Thuiya’.

She told Prothom Alo over the phone last Thursday, “The co-writer of the film is a woman. This played an extremely significant role.”

Explaining the fact Farin said, “I have worked on her writing before. I like the fact that women psychology comes up wonderfully in her writing. This is absent when it’s written from the male point of view.”

“So, I got a clear picture of my character on screen just from reading the script. I didn’t have to ask Shihab Bhai (director Shihab Shaheen) even once, why is ‘Sharmin’ doing this or thinking that. It was a really strong character,” she added.

Director Shihab Shaheen believes the audience could feel connected with the long distance relationship that has been portrayed here.

While speaking to Prothom Alo over the phone on Saturday afternoon, he said that he has received a huge reaction from audiences at home and abroad after the web film was released. Some talked about the film resembling their own life while some others sent voice messages being overwhelmed.

This director said, “People have seen their dreams coming true in the film. The message the film carried is that no matter how much distance is there in a relationship, a simple hug makes you forget everything. The audience was touched by this.”

“Because, there came a moment in almost everyone’s life, when the boy stood before the girl and they were about to be separated; they kept thinking everything will be fine, but weren’t able to even say anything... Seeing Sharmin and Farhan at that moment reminded the audience of themselves,” he added.

Shihab Shaheen also approved of Farin’s statement that the inclusion of a women co-writer has enriched the film even more.

Speaking about this, he said, “As a woman, she is always conscious of the representation of the female characters on screen. Whenever I had doubts about something, I felt confident when she gave her opinion.”

“I felt, when a woman has approved it herself, it must be fine. For example, Farhan calls Sharmin by name ‘Elachi Begum’ to tease her in the film. I might not have included it thinking about what the women would think! But when she added that, I did not object to that,” he added.