At one time during the golden era of the Tollywood film industry, Bhanu Banerjee, the erstwhile comedy king, provided light relief from the more serious situations and tickled the funny bones of senior members of the audience in those days. His very presence, his body language and funny facial expressions sent ripples of laughter. To blend old wine in new bottles, new-age director Dr Krishnendu Chatterjee, keeping Bhanu in mind, has crafted his latest venture: Jamalaye Jibonto Bhanu, which moves between illusion and ground realities, saw the premiere of the film screened on Thursday, 14 November, in Kolkata.

Probably, the earlier black-and-white film with Bhanu in the main lead in Jamalaye Jibonto Manush may have triggered the filmmaker’s inspiration to pen the story, screenplay and witty dialogues, bringing it alive on screen. The rather showy, razzle-dazzle new version backed by digital technology appears to have stolen a march over the earlier version by way of more sophisticated mounting. Of course, Chatterjee manages to give the new version a different twist in the story line, especially devised to entertain the younger generation among members of the audience.

In the earlier film, audiences then also viewed the untimely death of Bhanu that makes the late actor move from ground realities to the illusion of gaining heaven. In the latest transcreation, the director introduces a new character who faces the same premature death in a car accident and encounters Bhanu in the other world. This is the eminent scientist Samyomoy Banerjee, who invents a time machine in his residential laboratory to travel back in time into the past. Does this have echoes of H.G. Wells’s Time Machine? Semblances of borrowed ideas are subtly transformed in the story idea without making anyone the wiser.

So the scientist, before introducing his new invention to the public, meets with a sudden accident somewhat like Bhanu in the earlier film, shuttling between heaven, hell, purgatory and back to earth. There the inventor meets the comic actor Bhanu, played by Saswata Chatterjee, who suspects something fishy about the scientist’s unnatural death and is right in his assumption. Bhanu promises scientist Samyomoy that he will make arrangements for his return to earth. What happens next unveils the journey between past and present times. Bhanu introduces Samyomoy to the celestial world characters, who check their portfolios of old records of the dead and deceased and, realising their mistake, the scientist is finally reinstated as the spirit who enters the dead body of the inventor at the crematorium grounds.

The storm sequence at the burning ghat reminded this scribe of Sanyasi Raja, who returns to life after being purified by the rain waters. Jamalaye Jibonto Bhanu is a lively slapstick comedy with its underlying cynicism of earth and heaven, well mounted with gorgeous sets unveiling a costume drama with its opulent colour palette that was eye-catching. Saswata Chatterjee’s Bhanu stole the show with his vivid portrayal of cloning the mannerisms of the late actor, coupled with the body language, the Bangal (East Bengal) accent spouted in his dialogue delivery, and acquitted himself creditably with a complex role.

The farcical pace with its element of black comedy is well maintained throughout the footage. Ambarish Bhattacharye as the inventor–scientist merely complemented the comic antics of Saswara Chatterjee as Bhanu. Other members of the cast in the roles of celestial figures in heaven, such as Paran Bandyopadhyay, Saheb Chatterjee, and Subhasish Mukherjee, were more than adequate. Those members of the audience who would want to let down their hair and unwind in a willing suspension of disbelief must view the film once. The more serious views not given to comedy may raise their eyebrows and take it with a pinch of salt.

The writer is an independent contributor