Kusumitar Goppo Film Review
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KUSUMITAR GOPPO MOVIE REVIEW
Kusumita leaves her life in a village behind to pursue big dreams in Kolkata. Will she succeed in the face of all odds?
Kusumitar Gappo is a story of relationships yoked into a sports film. But it’s so inconsistent that you may choke on popcorns, should you buy some. Based on the true story of a woman footballer, Kusumita Das, who comes to Kolkata with big dreams and the many challenges that she courts on and off the field, the story had the potential, but doesn’t get the ball rolling. So when an injured Kusumita is seen screaming for help on a hospital bed upon her return from Kerala where she represented Bengal and ended up injuring her ligament, you know why she is not even being given first aid — it has to be for drama, and more of it. Sports injury, financial crunch, dearth of insurance and media attention are some of the pertinent issues that are touched upon but they never blend into an organic whole in a narrative that’s otherwise borderline insufferable.
Ushashie Chakraborty as Kusumita is a complete miscast as she doesn’t meet the athletic standards that the role demands. She is neither convincing on the field nor believable as a rural belle. While the first half is about Kusumita’s aspirations and family bonding, the second half is about a journalist, Ratnakar (Soumitra Chatterjee), and what he does to bring a physically and emotionally broken Kusumita back on the field. In between, somewhere, footballer Shilton Paul tries his hand at acting and you wonder how better he is with the ball. In a film on football, the allusions to Khidda (Koni 1986) are vague and do no good to the narrative. The plot meanders into nothingness and what you finally get is a drab fest. Though some character actors like Manasi, Debesh and Dulal hold their own, Madhabi is a waste in the skin of a journalist’s wife who is wary of his erratic schedule and affection for Kusumita. Surojit Chatterjee and Sidhu’s music breathe some life into the film, but what defeats Kusumitar Gappo is that it never becomes the story of Maidan. The film’s biggest takeaway? The revelation that journalists never retire, even though players have a limited shelf life.
Kusumitar Gappo - Official Movie Trailer | Ushasie C, Shiltan P, Soumitra C, Kuntala G D, Dalia G