Bhrantibilas

It had been qutie some time that I again watched the Bengali classic based on the story written by Shri Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors". Though a very old movie but this classic piece of art can be relished again and again without getting bored. The main caste includes Uttam Kumar and Bhanu, each doing a double role and Sabitri and Sandhya Roy.
The story is about a family having twin sons both to the master and to the servant. In their childhood, the twins were detached from each other during a great flood where the boat containing the master with one of his sons and one of the servant's son was seperated from the other carrying the mother with her other son and the other son of the servant. Each of the sons became well established in life and one of them got married. His brother became a businessman. But both were unaware of the other's existence till fate brought them together in the same place. It was the businessman whose job brought him and his servant to the town where their brothers lived. Thereafter it commenced a hilarious series of misunderstandings where both sets of brothers got crazy in the muddled mix-up and the rest got annoyed in their apparent misbehaviours. In fact their nicknames being the same (Chira in the case of both the brothers Chiranjit and Chiranjib and Kinkar in case of the twin servants Bhaktikinkar and Shaktikinkar) added more laughter to the innocent comedy. These continued through the major part of the movie and ended in a happy note where the brothers were again united.
The movie illustrates the comic genius of Sabitri and Bhanu, who play their parts to perfection. Tarun Kumar is again marvelous in an important side role and Uttam Kumar is outstanding in his role as the twin brother with opposite characters.
The story, though an adaptation, but not for once does it settings seem outlandish due to its elegant 'Bengalification'. The detailing have been outstanding and the sequences were just perfect. This age old classic once again proves the proverb 'old is gold'.