Hrid Majharey (হৃদ্ মাঝারে) () is a 2014 India-Bengali cult love tragedy film written and directed by debutant Bengali filmmaker Ranjan Ghosh. It was first presented as a tribute on Shakespeare's 450th birth anniversary in 2014.
The movie was showcased at a British Conference on the Bard held in London in April 2016 to mark 400 years of his death.
In 2015, the movie was screened at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Matinee idols Abir Chatterjee and Raima Sen debuted together in a romantic pairing for the very first time in this modern revisiting of William Shakespeare.
Theme
Math professor Abhijit and trainee Cardiologist Debjani's love story begins one rainy evening on a lonely Calcutta street. And it ends on yet another rainy evening in Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands. In between, lies a roller coaster journey dotted by love and jealousy, faith and delusion, destiny and free will.
The central theme is 'Character is Destiny'. What happens to us in our lives is determined by who we are. It talks about a 'Self-fulfilling Prophecy' wherein a prophecy is made to a person and he, in the process of doing everything to prevent it from happening, actually goes about fulfilling it. The film is also about the unattainability of our most cherished dreams. All that we dream of in our lives, most often remain out of our reach.
Plot
The film begins with a shot in which a very disheveled looking Abhijit (Abir Chatterjee) enters the room to find Debjani (Raima Sen) lying dead on the bed. The story goes back to a flashback and we get to see the reason behind such a fatal outcome. Abhijit is a professor of mathematics at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. He lives with his only sister Mallika who is a crime journalist by profession.
He has a chance meeting with a soothsayer (Sohag Sen) who warns Abhijit to stay away from love for his own good, but the warning is ignored by the professor. One rainy night he comes across a beautiful damsel in distress, Debjani. She is stranded, as her taxi has broken down. He gives Debjani, a trainee heart surgeon, a lift in his car and Cupid strikes. They date and fall in love. Abhijit, however, faces a problem at his job when an infatuated student proposes him. He rejects her, and in retaliation she does something to get back at the professor. He is initially arrested, and then ostracized by one and all. Faced with such grave issues at work, he goes to the Andamans along with Debjani in search of a new life.
There they meet Subhro (Indrasish Roy) who is Debjani's junior from their high school days. Subhro runs an non-governmental organisation at Port Blair and composes music as his pastime. Subhro and Debjani spend time together rejuvenating their old friendship. At times, Abhijit gets jealous of Subhro's unwavering attention on Debjani. Subhro dies in an accident and this leaves Abhijit in a confused state. He begins to question himself about the prophecy of the soothsayer. What actually happens next? Does Abhijit leave Debjani? And how does she die?
Cast
Abir Chatterjee as Abhijit Mukherjee
Raima Sen as Debjani
Indrasish Roy as Subhro Sarkar
Barun Chanda as Professor Sen
Sohag Sen as Ho Chin Hua
Arun Mukherjee as Pagla Dashu
Tamal Roychowdhury as Professor Basu
Madhuchhanda Ghosh as 'Reba Maashi'
Tanusree Goswami as Mallika Mukherjee
Prasun Chatterjee as Indra Halder
Aditya Sengupta as Amit Mishra
Sonali Sanyal as Shinjini Mitra
Breeti Sarkar as Niomi Dey
Scripting and pre-production
The first draft of the screenplay was written in 2008 and underwent numerous rewrites until it got a producer in 2012. This was an assignment in the Scriptwriting syllabus at Whistling Woods International Film Institute where Ghosh was a Screenwriting student from 2007 to 2009.
Pre-production spanned over four months from October 2012 until January 2013. Reece was carried out extensively in Kolkata and twice in the Andaman Islands to scout for apt yet budget-friendly locations.
Principal photography and post-production
The film was shot on the RED EPIC camera by ace cinematographer Sirsha Ray who had shot Bollywood movies Home Delivery and Aladin and Bengali films Clerk, Shabdo, Shesher Kabita and Apur Panchali, among others. The first day of the shoot was on 3 February 2013. The film was shot over a period of 23 days with 13 days shoot in Kolkata and the remaining 10 days in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.