Oti Uttam Movie Review : Srijit Mukherji’s ode to the matinee idol is a light-hearted comedy

Perhaps Oti Uttam will turn out to be a polarising film, simply because of the name associated with it – Uttam Kumar. But to give credit where it’s due, it takes courage and some planning to create a canvas with clips from films at least 45 years old. So, can Oti Uttam help the audience rediscover the magic of the icon who passed away over four decades ago? It is in this spirit the story unfolds – of a young man, Krishnendu (Anindya Sengupta) obsessed with Uttam Kumar and doing his PhD on him. However, he gets rejected by the girl he likes (Roshni Bhattacharya), and turns towards his friend Gaurab Chatterjee, who is Uttam Kumar’s grandson (and as per the film, unmarried), and drags him into a planchette. The planchette succeeds and they manage to bring a disambiguate form of the matinee idol to their lives to help Krishnendu win over his ladylove. However, this comes with many consequences, and that forms the rest of the plot.
Although, in essence, the story of a wingman helping the hero in times of girl trouble is a trope Mukherji has used in many of his films (Jatishwar, Baishe Srabon), here the wingmen are the grandfather-grandson duo who bring in a touch of hilarity. There are instances where the audience has to suspend disbelief (a ghost eating a full-course meal and people watching as he does so), and the director does put a lot of clauses in the film that tries to manage the constant change in appearance and speech to compensate for the dialogues and visuals used. This is perhaps the film’s highlight – where the CGI work, shot selection and dialogues from various old films are woven into the story. Cinematography (Soumik Halder) and editing (Pronoy Dasgupta) are both decent because many of these films’ questionable video and audio quality. Mukherji also tries to extrapolate several significant dialogues from Uttam Kumar’s films into his narrative, especially from a couple of films he himself has adapted (Nayak, for instance). The music is not bad, with Bondhu Bhabi (Upal Sengupta), Chawl Meye (Saptak Sanai Das) and Saiyyan Beimaan (Monali Thakur/Papon) standing out.
Anindya as the young hopeful Krishnendu (named after Uttam Kumar’s character in Saptapadi) does well as the polar opposite – his frailty and common man frame is continually contrasted against the larger-than-life presence of the star. Gaurab is entertaining, while Roshni does a decent job as the initially disdainful but later starstruck Sohini. Laboni Sarkar, in a small role as Krishnendu’s mother, is impactful.
However, the second half is a fair bit stretched, as some questions go unanswered, and the ending is quite predictable. But the experiments Mukherji did in the film, utilising the chaotic filmography of Uttam Kumar and creating a cinematic cosmos out of it, is something that deserves a watch.