A chance to shun one’s own intelligence

Three girls have gone missing from the same university in the span of three months, soon followed by a fourth disappeared person. Manju (Khairul) suspects Humayun (Ziaul Roshan) might have a hand in all these, while his romantic-interest Laboni (Sunerah Binte Kamal) could be in line to become the new addition to the growing list of victims. Can Manju save Laboni from the grasp of Humayun, or, is there more to the story, yet to be unveiled in light of a bright fortnight?

As such, Vicky Zahed’s latest flick, ‘Shuklopokkho’, now streaming on OTT platform Chorki, has a very intriguing plot to start with. The young director has already earned a name for himself by redefining the thriller, supernatural, and suspense genres on screen, and so it is quite natural for one to expect the most unexpected in the new web-film that initially has wrinkles of all three above mentioned elements.

But has the twist-master Zahed been able to come up with yet another praiseworthy end product? That might be a very tricky question to be answered.

There is no denying the fact that both the start and the finish of ‘Shuklopokkho’ is quite remarkable, as a significant section of the audience will most definitely have the “Oh, finally I got it” feeling towards the end of the movie, if not given a spoiler beforehand. That indicates the success of a tale that has the sole aim of shocking the viewers with a twistful send-off. And if one has previously watched Zahed’s ‘Punorjonmo’ series and loved it, the ending here will donate them a double delight as well.

But that is just about the entire positive points of this film. The problem lies in the very beginning in regards to the title, and the director fails to provide us with a convincing explanation as to why it is being called ‘Shuklopokkho’. Some confused souls might even wonder if the maker is correct in calling whatever shown in the movie a ‘Shuklopokkho’.

However, that confusion could easily be overlooked, provided you glimpse the acting portion of the movie. How could one describe it? A festival of poor performances, perhaps. Almost everyone in the movie delivers amateurish acting to an extent that one cannot help pondering if it is 2022, or we have gone back to the dark days of early-to-mid-2010’s.

Except for Sharif Siraj, who played the role of a police officer in this movie with utmost sincerity, no other actor could leave a lasting impression.

Basar was good at times, but equally bad at times. Also he deserves to be cast in better-written roles.  

Roshan, after his previous work ‘Karnish’ with the same director, once again puts on a performance that has nothing to do with the craft known as acting, and only has the tendency of showing off his heroic charisma. Maybe the director also demanded this from Roshan, so the blame entirely could not be put upon him.

Sunerah, on the other hand, looks pretty in still photographs, but not in moving pictures, largely because here she needs to display her prowess in acting, which she simply cannot afford yet.

Abullah Al Sentu did good, but missed out on getting some more screen time to shine brighter as well as get his character further polished.

Faruque Ahmed is the ultimate waste of the movie. Ruining the image of our beloved ‘Moti Mia’ with a character treated as bad as it possibly could be, and then naming his nephew as Humayun? Not a great move at all, Vicky Zahed!

The director also has to give a second thought on how he should go about his storytelling with more subtlety and understatement.

If he wants to show that Humayun has OCD, it can be shown in hundreds of ways. Making his uncle eat mangoes in a “graphic manner” should not be one of them. It is a scene that will disgust not only Humayun, but 99 out of 100 people, even those who are not aware that a term like “dining table etiquette” exists.

Again, it is evident from the very first glance that Manju is extremely envious of Humayun. So it is completely unnecessary to make him look at Humayun with great distaste every single time, that too with an unnaturally long stare in-between conversation with someone else.

The dialogues and screenplay (credited to Nazim Ud Daula alongside the director) carry small hints throughout the movie concerning where the story is headed. The spectators, who are smart enough to decode them, will have an upper hand than the rest of the pack.

Still, praise should be reserved for the director, as it made the movie somewhat an interactive affair.   

All things considered, ‘Shuklopokkho’ had all the potential in the world to be a much better suspense thriller combined with some seemingly supernatural stuff. Had the writing and making been up to the mark, it could have definitely become more than what it is now — a fun, one-time watch to shun one’s own intelligence.