A Death in the Gunj: Different but slow
Cast: Vikrant Massey, Tillotama Shome, Gulshan Devaiah, Om Puri, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, Tanuja, Jim Sarbh Rated: 5/10 Death in the Gunj is more about life in the back-belly of Jharkhand-West Bengal than about a sinister murder which the title speaks of. Nevertheless, the film surprises you on many fronts, and pleasantly so sometimes. For a murder mystery which you think it is, it is much too old world and languid, merely sharing some happy, some tricky, some complicated, some simple moments of a Bengali family’s New Year eve get-together in a remote village house where the parents have chosen to retire despite the concern of their big city children. Those moments are no doubt real, happening and carefully constructed to bite into the realism of a typical modern Bengali family. There is an extra-marital affair thrown in between a brash Ranvir Shourey and a beautiful western beauty in Kalki Koechlin. There is a dejected cousin, a run-of-the-mill couple with a pr...