Parineeta

<p>The story takes place in 1962 in . As the credits roll, scenes from erstwhile are displayed along with the narrator’s ( ) introduction to the era. On the night of his arranged marriage to Gayatri Tantiya, (the daughter of one of his father Navinchandra Rai’s business connections), Shekhar has images of his childhood friend, Lalita, calling him by his name flashing through his mind. Meanwhile, downstairs, musical celebrations begin as Shekhar meets Vasundhara, a widow from his neighbourhood, who is thankful to her son-in-law, Girish ( ), for supporting their family after the death of her husband, Gurcharan. Lalita, who is present there, playfully confronts Shekhar as to why he is being indifferent to her. Shekhar, believing she is married to Girish, admonishes her for speaking so in spite of being married. An angry Shekhar comes back home to play a favourite tune from the past on his piano. The flashback shows a young Shekhar playing ’s tune on his piano while young Lalita and Koel are around. Lalita, with her parents having died in a car accident, lives with Gurcharan’s family. Koel is her cousin whereas Charu is her neighbour. As this scene flashes across Shekhar’s mind, he sings a song full of sadness and loss. As time flies, they grow up to become close friends. The rebellious and musically inclined Shekhar spends his days playing the music of or and composing his own songs with Lalita rather than becoming part of his shrewd father’s business. Part of this rebellion involves resistance to meeting Gayatri Tantiya, the beautiful but devious daughter of a wealthy industrialist, whom his father would like Shekhar to marry. Meanwhile, Girish, a steel tycoon from London, makes a dramatic entry into Charu’s house. Girish seems smitten by Lalita while Koel is by Girish. Shekhar is visibly jealous of Lalita’s close friendship with Girish. One day, a shocked Lalita, who is employed at the office of Navinchandra Rai, stumbles upon a project to refurbish and sell Gurcharan’s ancestral (palatial house) as hotel. On an earlier occasion, Gurcharan had borrowed money from Rai after leaving his as collateral to him. She understands that if the money is not repaid in a few months, Rai would take over the property. She immediately thinks of asking Shekhar for monetary help. Circumstances prevent this, and Girish, upon realising this, alleviates their problem by making Gurcharan his business partner. Gurcharan repays the debt and the turn of events prompts Shekhar to think why Lalita chose to ask Girish for money instead of him. On one auspicious night, Shekhar and Lalita exchange garlands and consummate their “marriage” unbeknownst to anyone else. While Shekhar is off to on a business trip, Rai violently thunders at Lalita about the loss of his hotel project, embarrassing and humiliating her. Rai gets a wall built between his and Gurcharan’s house symbolising the end of their association. Unable to digest this, Gurcharan suffers a heart attack while Shekhar’s mother, Rajeshwari, also falls ill. Upon Shekhar’s return, Rai informs him of the ill-health of Rajeshwari and Gurcharan and then viciously poisons his mind about Lalita and indicates that Lalita married Girish for his money. Shekhar is disgusted to hear of the marriage and in his anger he hits Lalita, while humiliating her like his father had done. Meanwhile, Girish assists Gurcharan’s family and takes them to London to allow for better care and treatment for Gurcharan’s heart. Gurcharan eventually dies anyway and upon the family’s return from London, Shekhar assumes that Girish and Lalita are married and agrees to marry Gayatri. The film returns to the night of Shekhar’s marriage when Girish hands him the ownership papers of Gurcharan’s . He shocks Shekhar by telling him that he married Koel because Lalita rejected his marriage proposal. Shekhar confronts Rai over the ownership papers and for poisoning his mind against Lalita, while revealing he is already “married” to her. He then symbolically breaks down the wall separating the two families and brings Lalita to his home as his bride, much to the delight of Rajeshwari. Before , was a well-known personality in the area of advertisements. With 17 years in mainstream advertising and 7 years of advertisement film-making and commercial cinema, he completed about 1000 and 15 music videos. , the producer, took notice of his music videos and contacted Sarkar to direct some of the music videos of the film (2000). After carving a niche in filming music videos, Sarkar gave the thought of filming to Chopra. There began the making of the film. About the film’s comparison with the novel, Chopra said in an interview that, as compared to its by Bimal Roy, the story was based in the year 1962. He said that it took them one and a half years to script the film, with them adding new characters and emphasizing under-represented characters from the novel. In a separate interview, Chopra admitted that he was actively involved with the screenplay because the film was an adaptation of the novel. When speaking about cinematic adaptation, Chopra gave due credit to Sarkar, and Natty Subramaniam (the film’s cinematographer), for providing the vintage visuals. once said that the film was initially attempted to be made in a contemporary way. When the film’s crew did not find the depiction appealing, the filming began with the 60s look. Chopra once cited an interesting anecdote about his belief in Sarkar’s film-making abilities. He said that he never personally signed the for the film’s expenditure. He transferred money into Sarkar’s bank account and the cheques were eventually signed by Sarkar and his spouse. Chopra said in an interview that and were not the first choices for the lead roles in . In fact, was being cast as Shekhar and as Girish. However Abhishek walked out of the project and Saif readily was accepted as a replacement. This fact was corroborated by Saif in an interview when he said that even though Sarkar had faith in his abilities, Chopra was not too keen on having him. The choice of Vidya Balan came with Sarkar’s prior work experience with her in three music videos. Chopra said that Vidya was screen-tested for six months and only then they were sure of her acting abilities. Saif once said that he was not convinced of Vidya’s abilities, since was to be her first film. He instead hoped to work with established actresses like or . However, after seeing Vidya portray the character of Lalita, he was thoroughly appreciative of her performance. Getting an opportunity to debut with big names from the industry along with a lovely character to portray made Vidya accept the role of Lalita. The choice of was because of his versatility, said Chopra in an interview. He also said that the affable nature of Sanjay was a plus during film making. was approached to portray the role of Gayatri but she refused due to her pregnancy. The role then went to who liked the script so well that she chose to play the role in spite of it being small. had a similar story with her want to work with the duo of Chopra and Sarkar. The cameo of the veteran actress, was purely out of her interest in the song, “Kaisi Paheli Zindgani”. Since Sarkar knew the city of very well, the film was primarily shot there. While most of the film was made in Kolkata, a small portion was shot in Darjeeling. To re-create the 60s era, lot of efforts were made by the producers. For instance, Chopra said that it cost them money and difficulty to procure the green coloured car which was driven by Shekhar in the film. Chopra confirmed the authenticity of the piano used in the song “Piyu Bole”, and of the toy train used in the song “Kasto Mazza”. About the look of the characters, Mirza said that the 60s look was well captured by the make-up artist, Vidyadar. The song “Kaisi Paheli Zindagani” was based on the tune to ‘s ” “. Critics had high expectations from ‘s music because of the award-winning music that was provided in some of Chopra’s previous films, such as (1994) and (2000). , music director composed hundreds of tunes before six of them got finalised after a year’s effort. After finalizing the soundtrack, Chopra was appreciative of the musician’s abilities when he said that Moitra has the potential to become another , a yesteryear music director. collected over Rs 170 million in India at the end of 2005. Its overseas success was notable as well with gross collections of Rs. 36 million in the United Kingdom, Rs. 35 million in North America, and Rs 15 million in the rest of the overseas. Before its release on 10 June 2005, one preview wondered how the film would fare at the box office. Citing comparisons with the , the preview suggested that debutant director, Sarkar’s inexperience in film-making, the probable inability of debutant actress, Balan to portray Lalita’s character appropriately, suitable 1960s depiction by contemporary actors and musician, Shantanu Moitra’s until-then unimpressive soundtracks, could be impediments to a successful adaptation. Post-release, the same critic said “Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ” ” – a remake of an old classic of the same name…(had) the love story (which) was received well by the younger generation and it went on to become the biggest hit of the year.” It was generally well-received by the critics, with one of them terming the film as “…a beautiful story, beautifully told. It approximates what most of us expect, and increasingly yearn for, in vain, our cinematic experience.” A reviewer from About.com said that it is “contemporary retelling of…(an) engaging and timeless tale rich with human emotion and universal drama”. The reviewer appreciates the film in most of the nuances of film making saying that this is “enhanced by a brilliant musical score, and accentuated by superb performances by Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Raima Sen, Diya Mirza and debutante Vidya Balan in the lead role of Lalita”. 3000 copies of the novella were sold within weeks of the film’s release, owing to the film’s good reception. Derek Elley from said “A character-driven meller that’s a treat for the eyes, with performances to match, ” ” is high-end Bollywood near its best”. He also says that, “though the climax is still emotionally powerful, it comes over as overcooked.” A mixed review from says “Pradeep Sarkar weaves the story like magic, especially in the first half … excelling in the detailing … the vintage look of the film (that stood out) with authentic costumes, props and the roads of Kolkata”. However, the review criticised the film’s climax terming it as amateur, thereby diluting the whole film’s impact. Another such review came from which begins by saying “A simple enough story, but Sarkar tells it well, with some great shots of Shekhar and Lalita together.” The review eventually says “Except for the end … where it is too much to bear.” The issue of piracy cropped up when a news article published in exposed the dark side of the film market. Hardly into weeks of the film’s release, CDs were being sold at as low as Rs. 40. Another blemish was that Soumitra Dasgupta, a writer and close associate of Sarkar alleged that the film’s story had a striking resemblance to his parallel work on the novella. In 2005, s cast got a walk when it was the “World Premiere Film” at the (IIFA) weekend in Amsterdam. Owing to this European premiere, Sarkar said that the film had a great opening in the American and English box-offices. The film was on the UK Top Ten films for four consecutive weeks. The film was chosen among 15 debut works for the 2006 . It received enthusiastic reception from the audience as it ran to packed houses to the Chopra’s surprise. Expecting an audience of about 100 Westerners, a critic visiting the festival was surprised to see the cinema hall full and people jostling for seats even on the steps. At the 24th Annual held in April 2006, was the only Indian mainstream cinema to feature among 135 films from 40 countries. In 2006, the film featured in the , 24th , , and the . At the , Sarkar won the . The first version of the DVD version of was released by on 30 October 2006. It has subtitle options in English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Italian, Malay, and French. An additional disc includes interviews with the actors and a behind the scenes look at the making of the film. It is available in , , 24 , and format. The film is also available on . The soundtrack to was released by Tips Music in 10 April 2005. It received positive reviews, with a reviewer stating, “praising the soundtrack of Parineeta leaves you at a loss for superlatives. In each song, the trend was great singing, great composition, and great lyrics”. It was later re-released by in 2018. composed the music and Lyrics were penned by .</p>