Director: Arjun Chakarborty

Cast: Sreelekha Mitra, Arindam Seal, Arjun Chakraborty, Abhishekh Chatterjee, Barun Chanda

Rating: ****

Running at: Inox (City Centre, Forum)

What do you have in a film with a wafer thin plot and some nice moments. Maybe an honest effort gone horribly wrong. If you could discount the badly worded subtitles, some really jarring background dancers, and some unnerving amount of flab unflaterringly clothed in garish dresses, Tolly Lights, at least tries do a Page 3 closer home.

The problem in actor Arjun Chakraborty’s directorial veture lies in the fact that there’s no single central narrative. Tolly Lights thrives on the individual stories of a couple of characters. And the film fails, as near the intermission the audience gets to see neither conflict nor conviction in the characters, who drive the movie, single-handedly at that.

The story revolves around Krishnakali (Sreelekha Mitra) who seems hooked on to greasepaint for no compelling reason at all. She leaves a middle class household and a toddler to be under the arclights. Apart from her, the other significant character is Abhimanyu (the director himself) who has spent a greater part of his life just pursuing his dream of filming his dream-script. And then, while we expect a rivetting emotional drama, if not an engrossing storyline, Tolly Lights wheels into a series of loosely connected events and sequences that seem heaped on each other.

The opening credits boast of an impressive line-up of special appearances, including Sunny Deol, who does little to salvage the plot or what is there of it. However, a walk down the memory lane with an endearing Gita Dey, remains as the single most memorable moment from the movie. The retro song seqeuence, shot entirely in black and white, reflects above par production values that seem to be missing from the movie otherwise.

There are times one wished, Sreelekha Mitra, appeared a little less pretentious and there was more of the director himself. At least, the latter seems more at ease while playing out visual metaphors for emotional conflict.