Do we think enough about the filler conversations our mothers have with us? The questions usually follow a familiar template, beginning with “How was your day?” and ending with “What was for dinner?” If we set aside the romanticized ideas about moms that cinema projects, these exchanges can sound mundane, even annoying. And yet, in a relationship as pristine in theory as this one, it never feels polite enough to say this aloud.
In director Ananyabrata Chakravorty’s Kaisi Ye Paheli, we meet a mother, played with restraint by Sadhana Singh, who will go to any length to grow closer to her son, Uttam. The son, a police officer (an effective Sukant Goel), has his reasons for detesting her. So how does this detective-novel-loving mother, with a liking for all things Bengali, attempt to bury the very visible hatchet between them?
The answer is surprising. Her intuitive nature lands her a consulting role in a murder investigation in Kalimpong, the sleepy town they live in.
So, would you work alongside your mother? And Uttam?
Chakravorty’s film may not boast of a very believable plot, but that is not what it signs you up for. Minutes in, it establishes a whimsical, almost storybook texture that is largely unglossed yet self-aware, and that is perfectly acceptable. Kaisi Ye Paheli is also not a film to blow the roof off with its technical finesse, as it wears its Indie tag pretty much on its sleeve.
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Being a murder mystery, Kaisi Ye Paheli introduces the usual gallery of suspects. The victim’s friend, boyfriend, and mother are all put under scrutiny. Chakravorty’s screenplay sticks to genre conventions, but our sympathies strangely drift toward a cop named Gogoi (an endearing Rahul Nawach Mukhia). He is Uttam’s colleague and perhaps everything his mother wishes her son would be.
When Kaisi Ye Paheli abruptly arrives at its big reveal, it attempts to comment on the human psyche. The payoff is largely satisfying, though one misses a narrative bridge between the preceding events and the final disclosure.
What stays with you is the film’s minimalism and quietude. While the investigation itself alternates between engaging and flat, the film earns points for its human politics and gaze. In some ways, it becomes an antithesis to how relationships are portrayed in popular cinema.
VERDICT: ★★★ 1/2
For more reviews of Kaisi Ye Paheli by the Film Critics Guild, click here.
