Escape from the ‘Kuhelika’

Ever heard the Bengali word, Kuhelika? It is pretty obvious that a large number of Bengali people have experienced hearing this word at least once in their life but do not know the exact meaning. Well, the word Kuhelika stands for dark, deep mist. Sounds quite close to mystery or mysterious, right?

The mist here is symbolic. It is the mist that resides underneath the civilised face of modern people, the mist that changes people, from good to evil, from angel to demon. And all the characters in this web fiction are escaping, escaping from the mist, their own individual Kuhelika. 

The film starts with some apparently irrelevant stories happening in different timelines. In brief, there are two couples: middle-aged, married, named Irfan and Nandini (Shafayat Mansur and Nazia Haque Orsha), and visibly young, Arif and Annesha (Yash Rohan and Safa Kabir). Both couples have contrastive relationships; in the case of the older couple, the husband is unbelievably abusive toward his wife. On the contrary, the younger couple seems to have a healthy relationship. 

However, as the story advances, some other characters enter. There come these 'posh' friends of Arif, Tanvir and Hasib (Abu Hurayra Tanvir and Rakib Hossain Evon, respectively), who are very much interested in his girlfriend. Naveed (Sharif Siraj), Orsha's drug-addicted brother, also requests Orsha to keep his daughter while he is going through the rehabilitation process. 

And at this point, the film starts getting complex. Irfan gets more abusive, both to Nandini as well as Naveed's kid, Riya. So, Nandini decides to leave him and moves on with Naveed. On the other hand, Tanvir and Hasib blackmail Arif so that he lets Tanvir sleep with his girlfriend during a tour in return for Tanvir's financial favour. 

This is where the two stories meet when Arif and Annesha come to Nandini and Naveed's current residence for mechanical help for their car. And the rest is actually subject to spoilers.

Before their encounter happened, Annesha accidentally murdered Tanvir while he was trying to rape her. Then according to Arif's plan, they hid the dead body inside their car. 

On the other hand, Nandini also accidentally murders Irfan when he comes to her just to abuse her again. With the help of Naveed, she also hides the dead body in the store room.

Arif, scared that Naveed would discover Tanvir's dead body, attempts to murder Sharif, but can only make him unconscious for some time. 

Sharif, after getting back consciousness, murders Hasib because he discovered the dead body of Shafayat. 

Lastly, Annesha murders Arif, who kind of sold him to Tanvir. She does this to clean the mess that has already happened.

So, all these crimes happen. And what is behind it? Everyone's urge to escape from their individual Kuhelika. 

Arif had financial problems and thus was blackmailed by his two friends. Annesha somehow killed a human being and thus wanted to escape the consequences. Same goes for Nandini and Naveed. All of them wanted to escape, for a better life, for a better future. 

However, there are some noticeable loopholes. The characters were introduced too randomly, and the development was too fast to understand the vibes of the characters. Though, it was a good attempt to show the objectification and discrimination of women in our society, despite whichever generation they belong to. 

All the actors and actresses were good, especially Yash Rohan and Nazia Haque Orsha. Shafayat Mansur Rana, despite being a director originally, did his best as an actor here. As a national award-winning cinematographer, Sumon Sarker has delivered the best frames expected.

This web-fiction is currently streaming on Binge.

Shuvodipbiswasturja1999@gmail.com