Walzen Media Works’ A Holy Conspiracy (Bengali-English-Hindi; UA) is a courtroom drama. Kunal Baske (Sraman Chatterji) teaches in a Christian high school. He is thrown out of the school and even sent to jail for not teaching religion before imparting lessons of Darwin’s theory of evolution to his students. The pastor, Heramba Chandra Mal (Partha Pratim Majumdar), and school principal, Gopal Soren (Pradip Kumar Ray), appoint celebrated lawyer Reverend Basanta Kumar Chatterjee (Soumitra Chatterji) to argue their case. Anton De Souza (Naseeruddin Shah) is the defence lawyer. In spite of all odds against him, Anton De Souza proves the accused (Kunal Baske) innocent in the court which finally acquits him.
Saibal Mitra has written a nice story and screenplay, which underline the importance of ensuring that education is imparted without alignment to any religion. The subject is very bold and has been written fearlessly. The drama is, of course, extremely class-appealing. The technical arguments in court, especially, will not find favour with the masses but they will be liked by the classes. The arguments in the courtroom are weighty. Dialogues, written by Jagannath Guha, Manish Vyas, Gokul Hansda and Saibal Mitra, are powerful. But having plenty of dialogues spoken in Bengali greatly restricts the drama’s appeal.
Soumitra Chatterji does a splendid job as Reverend Basanta Kumar Chatterjee. Naseeruddin Shah lives the role of Anton De Souza. Partha Pratim Majumdar is quite good as Pastor Heramba Chandra Mal. Anasua Majumdar lends lovely support as Bijoya. Kaushik Sen is natural as journalist Haranath. Biplab Dasgupta is terrific as advocate Madhab. Subhrajit Dutta has his moments as Bibhas Mitra. Sraman Chattopadhyay is effective as Kunal Baske. Amrita Chattopadhyay gives a realistic performance as Kunal’s fiancée, Reshmi. Jagannath Guha is lovely as Justice Choudhury. Pradip Kumar Ray leaves a mark as principal Gopal Soren. Faiz Khan, Swarup Mandi, Anindyo Bandyopadhyay, Samantak Dutta, Rabi Sur, Uday Shankar Pal, Nurul Gama and the others provide good support.
Saibal Mitra’s direction is very sensitive. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar’s music is appealing. Lyrics are meaningful. Asok Dasgupta’s cinematography is lovely. Gautam Basu’s art direction is appropriate. Sumit Ghosh’s editing is crisp.
On the whole, A Holy Conspiracy is a well-made bold film but it will appeal to a very thin section of the class audience. Its poor promotion, limited-appeal subject and predominance of Bengali dialogues will all come in the way of its business.
Released on 29-7-’22 at PVR Lower Parel (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay by Walzen Media Works. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.