Sujoy Ghosh’s latest thriller Ahalya gives a modern twist to Ramayana

While on duty, cop Indra Sen chances upon this “magical” stone at artist Gautam Sadhu’s house. The young officer’s conscience readily dismisses—and rightly so– anything that is supernatural.

But this is how the story starts.

Sen is looking for a missing guy. His investigation leads him to Sadhu’s place where he is seemingly smitten by the aging artist’s dashing wife Ahalya. Ahalya too dropped some signs for him. But this is not your conventional Ahalya who pays the price for wooing another man.

Sujoy Ghosh’s re-telling of Ahalya—the most beautiful woman in the world who was cursed for promiscuity— is a must watch. The short film featuring Radhika Apte (Ahalya), Soumitra Chatterjee (Gautam Sadhu) and Tota Roy Chowdhury (Indra Sen) was recently released on YouTube. The actors have brilliantly pulled it off.

It is a thriller that will make you keep guessing till the climax. But addressing an issue like “infidelity”, this serves more than what a thriller does.

According to Hindu epic Ramayana, Indra, the Lord of Gods, was so charmed by Ahalya that he tricked her and pursued her. When Ahalya’s husband Gautama Maharishi found about it, he was so enraged that he cursed Ahalya and turned her into a stone.

But Ghosh’s take on infidelity is a departure from the established views. In Ghosh’s imagination, the woman doesn’t turn into a stone. The one that suffers is the man who eyes another’s woman.

So, now, each time a doll falls down you know what does that mean!

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