Raj Chakraborty’s third directorial venture, Prem Amar, is based on a naïve hypothesis. It’s a hypothesis that was born when Tanuja decided to make a man out of the para mastaan (Soumitra Chatterjee) in Teen Bhuban Pare. It gathered force through many a Prosenjit-Chiranjeet starrers in the 1980s, until Mr Chakraborty decided to make it his own. according to the hypothesis , inside every para mastaan worth his Dum Dum biri, resides a man waiting to be reformed, similarly inside the newly-arrived para hottie (whom he shamelessly serenades with songs like Ke tumi nondini) lies a simpering, masochistic maiden, waiting to fall for her tormentor.

The hypothesis may appear to be naïve, but it’s not altogether unfounded. Ever heard of the Stockholm syndrome (a psychological response where the tormented shows sign of loyalty to the tormentor)?

So, when Raj Chakraborty tells us that a young engineering student is drawn to a lout whose sole occupation in life seems to be teasing every possible specimen of the female species in his locality, we hesitatingly buy it. When he insists that the girl hates certain things about the guy (he actually tries to steal a duppata of hers to...god only knows do what), but recognizes the good person in him, we kind grant him that too.

Maybe because his lout is armed with a disarming smile, or probably because Chakraborty very painstakingly develops a bond between the lead actors, we are grudging participators in Chakraborty’s meaning-making process.

... contd.