Once Upon a Time in Calcutta starts with a card “inspired by true events,” and as writer/director Aditya Vikram Sengupta described the film is a “glimpse into the murky waters of Calcutta, with colourful characters, all trying very hard to find a corner of their own without drowning.” He achieves this through capturing a tale of people and a city both stuck in the past and desperately trying to get the future as quickly as possible.
We enter with fire, a symbol of both endings and beginnings, death and rebirth. It is representative of the death of the young daughter of Ela (played by Sreelekha Mitra) and Sishir (played by Satrajit Sarkar), but also the start of their new lives in her absences (rebirth). So much is told in the first few minutes about their relationship and their characters without a word of dialogue ever being spoken. It quickly established both their connection (marriage) and lack of connection (that they aren’t in love/don’t share a room anymore) very efficiently but what stayed with me was the choice in how they displayed their grief. Ela literally crying into her drink and Sishir turning his attention to the dog. Both displays were the kind that lingered with me through the remainder of the film, and I recalled as Sishir turned to the dog for potential income and when Bhaskar (played by Arindam Ghosh) control the amount Ela drank.
This film often involved many moving parts, people and animals coming in and out of scenes, and the stage direction and cinematography used to capture that was stunning. Mr. Sengupta portrayed Calcutta and his characters in an unflinching manner, but that’s not to say it was unflattering. There was so much beauty on display, even in what was a decaying theatre. It was filmed with such care that despite its disrepair, the bones shone; the ghosts of the past.
Ghosts and the past are a big theme in the film, and they often get in the way of the future. Ela, after the death of her daughter, wants to start a new future, but unable to get a loan she has to reach out to her past, to Bubu (played by Bratya Basu), her half-brother who lives in the theatre like a ghost (or phantom). She then runs into Bhaskar, a ghost from her past. Bhaskar is in Calcutta to build a project to bring Calcutta into the future, but to do that, he first has to tear down a beloved figure of its past, fittingly represented by a dinosaur.
The speed of Calcutta trying to modernize is shown in various ways, but the one that stood out the most to me was when Raja (played by Shayak Roy) grabbed a quick bite during his job collecting money for what seemed like bonds or GIC, for the same company Ela worked for on their star chart call-in show, he leans against a fence and gets fresh blue paint on his arm as the guy just painted it, probably while he was getting his food.
There were so many stand out little character moments, from the man that hides his money/savings by making it look like a burger to everyone’s reaction when Pinky (played by Reetika Nondini Sheemu) takes her big bag on the bus, that heightened the film’s world while also providing much-needed beats of levity. Another source of levity came in from Ela’s sleazy boss, played with great comedic timing by Anirban Chakrabarti.
Near the end of the film, it looks like Pinky will make a decision similar to one Ela made many years ago. Actually, similar to two of her decisions, decisions that set the stage for many of the events that played out in the film (Ela doesn’t get all the credit, but she is our main window). However, when ultimately faced with the choice of staying in Calcutta or leaving to be with Raja, Pinky chooses to stay. Most films would have Pinky stay for her family, but though she lingers on them, she exits the house after giving their sleeping forms a secret goodbye. It’s when she’s at the window and sees her backpack, the bag that represents her work, her career, that she ultimately turns back. It was such a powerful choice because it gave her agency. She wasn’t staying for anyone else, she stayed for herself.
I wish there had been more time given to the resolution of the theatre storyline, aka the place of the ultimate ghosts. Now, that could be the theatre kid in me being biased, but I was glad it ended in the theatre as it gave you that connection to Ela’s past through her mother, and her possible future.