Kanchenjunga Express is a 2012 Bengali film directed by Arnab Ghosh.[2] It was Ghosh's début. Kanchenjunga Express is a woman-centric film that unfolds in a train with a lot of suspense. The music is scored by Souvik Gupta[1] and has songs by Rupam Islam, Usha Uthup and Kunal Ganjawala. Story: Ranjana (Jaya Seal Ghosh) and Surya (Sabyasachi Chakraborty) meet while travelling to Siliguri in the Kanchenjunga Express. As they start to know each other, Surya discovers that there is more to Ranjana than meets the eye. Review: Kanchenjunga Express can be summarized in just one line — it's a thriller that fails to thrill! Director Arnab Ghosh chooses a really ambitious plot for his debut film — a woman (Mumtaz as Nandini) accused of killing her two husbands and a lover, and a cop in her pursuit. What could have been a really gripping tale of love, despair, revenge and woman empowerment (phrase-credit goes to a certain RG), turns to be a dud with a predictable storyline, boring script and poor performances. The director's decision to cast Sabyasachi Chakraborty as the cop and Rajatava Dutta as Nandini's abusive husband might have worked in favour of the film. Rajatava as usual steals every scene he is in. His short role is the only thing that is marginally watchable in this film. Sabyasachi generally plays cop-cum-sleuth roles very well. Here too he tries his best, but the romantic overtone of his character takes the necessary edge off. However, casting Jaya Seal Ghosh as one of the protagonists is a bad decision on the director's part. Someone who can't speak Bengali in a proper way can't make the audience watch and appreciate her acting. You will be distracted by her inaccurate pronunciations too often to concentrate on her performance. Mumtaz Sorcar has done a decent enough job, in the sense that she doesn't look awkward as a schoolgirl and carries off the role of a corporate woman with the same ease. But, someone must have said that her smile is winsome, so she tries to insert a smiling face in almost every scene, whether needed or not. That is a bit disturbing. Soumitra Chatterjee has a cameo, in which he belts out a huge monologue that effective put the audience to sleep. And the less is said about the actors who play Raj and Vikram the better. All in all, instead of being the jack of all trades, the director should have hired someone to write the story and the script. We sincerely hope he remembers that before he makes another film.

• published: 20 Feb 2015
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