The director equates this “unconventional” love story between two men to the one between Radha and Krishna. They’re both Krishna. And they’re both Radha.
Spoilers ahead…
Kaushik Ganguly’s Nagarkirtan centres on two people, two states of mind. First, there’s Parimal (Riddhi Sen), a young man who feels he belongs to the opposite gender. He runs away from home — from a father who sneers that he walks and talks “like a woman” — and takes shelter in a colony of transpeople in Kolkata. He begins to wear a wig of long hair. He wears a bindi. He wears female clothes, including a bra. He claps his hands at traffic signals and asks for money. The film’s other central character works the roads, too. His name is Madhu (Ritwick Chakraborty). He’s a fast-food delivery guy and a part-time flautist, and he falls for Parimal. He knows Parimal is a boy/man, and he doesn’t seem to have self-identified as gay or bi. And yet, there it is, this attraction, because… kuch kuch hota hai. That’s the song (that film’s title song) Madhu plays on his flute when Parimal is around. Kuch kuch hota hai: something happens to me when you come near.
Read the rest of this article here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/bengali-features/bengali-movies-nagarkirtan-on-hoichoi-with-riddhi-sen-and-ritwick-chakraborty-a-tender-sensual-beautifully-acted-drama-about-unconventional-love-baradwaj-rangan-kaushik-ganguly/
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Baradwaj Rangan 
ravenus1
July 23, 2020
Beautiful review. I wish these movies were available as platform agnostic rentals (where you could pay higher per-movie cost than a subscription but didn’t have to subscribe). I hate the idea of having to subscribe to a platform, downloading the app, and struggling to cast it, just to watch that ONE movie which is (as yet) unavailable elsewhere.
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brangan
July 23, 2020
ravenus1: I just look at it as an unavoidable expense. Hoichoi costs 500 bucks for a year. Even if I watch 5 films (minimum), that’s five films I would not have been able to watch otherwise.
I was grumbling too when I subscribed, but then I saw the bunch of films, which included Rituparno’s early films with subtitles, like UNISHE APRIL. I watched CHOKHER BALI again after god knows how long, and it was a superb print — the film holds up beautifully, and holy mother of god, the craft! I felt this alone was worth it.
But yes, the multiple-apps thing is it’s a pain 🙂
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Macaulay Perapulla
July 23, 2020
Damnn!! I thought you got all free accounts like press passes to watch as you are the CRITIC!!
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Jai
July 23, 2020
Achingly beautiful review, BR. Had goosebumps while reading it. Hope to watch this soon.
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Anu Warrier
July 23, 2020
Loved the review, BR. I do wish these films would be platform-agnostic. 😦 No way I’m going to be able to watch this unless it appears on Netflix or Prime.
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Rahul
July 27, 2020
Riddhi Sen got the national award but for me the defining performance was Ritwick’s. He becomes the conscience of the film. The attraction he feels is so organic. He lives in the moment. Madhu does not overthink , does not care about labels, or the stigma attached to them. He just knows he is attracted to Parimal. The way Ritwick has nailed this character is just spectacular.
In my opinion , two of the most talented leading men working in Indian cinema today are from Bengal – Ritwick and Anirban Bhattacharya (who is not in this film).
Ritwick has 5 movies on Amazon Prime. I watched Buro Sadhu (Bangla for Old Monk) recently and its a terrific film. Reminded me of Manoj Bajpeyi’s Gali Guleiyan – the similarity being that both are about characters who are slowly losing their grip on sanity.
Another terrific Ritwick movie is Jyeshthoputro, where he has a few scenes of intense sibling rivalry with the superstar of Bangla cinema, Prosenjit. At least one long scene is reminiscent of the classic “mere paas maa hai” scene of Deewar.
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brangan
July 27, 2020
Rahul: Yes, yes, that’s exactly what I thought was fantastic about the man. He allows himself to be led by the fact that he loves Parimal, and does not give in to labels (at least inside four walls; though he does seem to want a certain ‘look’ of Parimal). Ritwick is just phenomenal.
Wrote about JYESHTHOPUTRO here:
https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2019/12/15/jyeshthoputro-now-streaming-on-zee5-is-a-classy-melodrama-with-prosenjit-chatterjee-and-ritwick-chakraborty/
PS: What did you make of the closing scene (closing image, really?) in NAGARKIRTAN?
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Rahul
July 28, 2020
Re the last scene, my thoughts may get a bit incoherent, but I will give it a shot. Madhu loves Pari, but this is one of the many love stories in which love does not conquer all. He can’t stand it when Pari is not looking like a woman. Transition is as much a need of him as it is of Pari. In the scene where Pari’s hair-do falls off, she does not take refuge in Madhu’s arms. She knows that she is not going to be a biological woman in the near future, and may never be. When Madhu was not with her she had more or less accepted her in-between life, but now her frustration at how she looks , or can look without dressing up, is even more acute.
Her death is doubly tragic for Madhu because not only is she snatched away from him, but also he realizes that he could not love , or even tolerate that part of her which looks like a man dressed up as a woman but yearns to be loved\empathized with like every one of us. So Madhu decides to experience and live that trauma first hand.
Thanks for linking the JYESHTHOPUTRO review. I had missed it.
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brangan
July 28, 2020
Rahul, that’s lovely. Thanks.
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mindbloggerman
August 16, 2020
Caught the movie a couple of days back. Spoilers ahead…
@Rahul: I did not really agree with your first comment but damn, your second comment is spot on with every word.
About your first comment, right from the scene where Madhu disapproves of Puti’s hair, I was expecting Madhu to break away since the hair / appearance is clearly important to him. I was expecting it any time and the scene where the hair comes off during the kirtan seemed to be the breaking point. But we keep getting scenes where he repeatedly affirms his love and stands his ground- contrary to what you felt, these scenes were the ones that surprised me, because he is clearly torn between two worlds and while he remains committed, it did not seem as organic as I thought it should have. Maybe a bit of backstory for him too would have helped. Or maybe I anchored on to his disapproval early on and saw it through that lens.
About your second comment: “Transition is as much a need of him as it is of Pari.”. WOW.
The final scene seems like it was written to give us a somewhat proper closure but nevertheless was powerful with Madhu sporting the fake hair that he so shunned.. I was not sure if he had a revenge of some sort in his mind with the way he entered- it looked that way but did not gel well with the character.. I saw it the way you did- just felt he did not have to make a dramatic entry to tell us that..
@BR: I did not watch the trailer for this one and went in expecting a much lighter love story based on your review headline. How wrong was I.. 😦
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Rahul
August 23, 2020
mindbloggerman , thank you.
Regarding this > ” contrary to what you felt, these scenes were the ones that surprised me, because he is clearly torn between two worlds and while he remains committed, it did not seem as organic as I thought it should have”
To me , this conflict seemed very organic, or quite natural ,This is not just down to Ritwick’s terrific acting , but the way the film is written. It was quite believable that Madhu is attracted to and repelled by Pari at the same time .I did not need any backstory. But then , for me it is hard to explain why it felt so. If you feel otherwise, it’s equally valid I think.
By the way Sohini Chattopadhyay wrote a terrific piece on this film –
http://sohinichattopadhyay.com/2020/08/nagarkirtan-unusual-loves-and-marginal-gig-economy-lives/
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