In Ekphali Rodh, the national awardee for Anshumaner Chhobi now extends from the reference of the brutal rape-murder of a 28-year-old in New York in broad public view with none coming to the rescue till her screams went numb and her body became lifeless and the criminal ran away from the scene.
This was long before Nirbhaya when the film was shot. "But there was always a topicaity and a universality to it," the thinking-cerebral film maker, also having made Aby Sen on the contrasting lifestyles and values of two different time zones, said.
Atanu is loath to call it a dark film but nevertheless it probes human psyche and is their a typical urban inertia behind the whole thing.
Shabdo and Bakita Byaktigato actor Ritwik Chakroborty essays the role of chronicler while thespian Dhritiman Chatterjee is the social scientist, a far cry from the role of an elderly sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi in Sajaruru Kanta.