REVIEW OF DESHA – THE LEADER

Rating: 1.5/5 Stars (One and half stars)

Star cast: Shipan Mit (as Desha), Mahiya Mahi, Tariq Anam Khan, Manjurul Karim, Tiger Robi, Shimul Khan

Story and Direction: Saikat Nasir

Screenplay: Abdullah Zahir Babu

Editing: Tawhid Hossain Chowdhury

Cinematography: Sahil Rony and Saiful Shaheen

Production and Distribution: Jaaz Multimedia

Pluses: Concept, fresh story, Action, Tariq Anam Khan.

Minuses: Screenplay, Cinematography, Background Score, Loop fall of Dubbing, Lack of Detailing.

Recommendation: The story of this movie is the main attraction and point of recommendation. It portrait the dark side of politics and hunger of power. Can be watched for Tariq Anam and the movie plot.

To me, Desha is a human drama, a complex game that people indulge in to achieve power and how this greed envelopes them and transforms them into ruthless and conniving humans. I admit, the script and cinematography failed to sink in, but with the plot you get sucked into a world that’s dark, dangerous and demonish. The attire may be white, but the deeds are grey or black.

Story/Plot of Desha – The Leader:

Desha – The Leader, a political thriller based on story about a political reality show that turns severe. A television Reality Show “Who will be our Next Leader” produced by Channel 99 to find an honest and ideal leader who will take the country forward. To select the next leader people all over the country can vote through SMS and based on this a leader will be chosen as next leader of the country. Among the four nominees Hasan Hyder (Tariq Anam Khan) wins the show by margin of audience votes and emerges as the New Leader of Peoples’ Choice. As part of the show, the elected leader will stay on the person’s house for two days, who will vote for the maximum times by SMS.  In consequence, Tariq Anam Khan visited the village of Selim (Shipon Mit), the lucky voter, who voted Hasan Hayder and gets the opportunity to meet the new Leader of Peoples’ Choice. While visiting the village, at the last day Hasan comes under terrorist attack that claims the life hundreds of village people including one of the news presenters from Channel 99 with bombing and fire exploration. During the attach Selim, not only challenges his own life but also sacrifice his father and mother to save Hasan Hayder’s life. Because of his impressive emergence leadership, Hasan Hayder was happy enough to give Selim an honorary title “Desha” and involve him in his party as the key person.

After the interval, the plot of the movie evolves as a visualization of political game and hunger for power. With the progress of the story audience find a master plan behind all that happened before. To minimize the risk of exposure, the entire terrorist group involved in previous attack was killed. Few more murder makes the situation more impulsive and complex. When Sristy (Mahi), find some evidence of the involvement of power practicing people, the story start turning to new move….

Direction, Editing and Screenplay of Desha – The Leader:

Desha – The Leader is Saikat Nasir’s debut film. This time, his political thriller unfolds as the quintessential conflict from the real political world. With a different plot there was possibility to make the movie as an epic one but lack of directorial knowledge and expertise, everything goes in vain.  Saikat Nasir’s direction suffers from lack of detailing which make this a dull one but narration would appeal more to the audience if few characters could evolve with more scope. By almost neglecting light moments, heart-rending emotions and romance, the activities of other political parties, investigating officer, showing more impact of media, he has restricted the film’s appeal.  All together, the direction is far below than just average.

The effective transformation of a story into motion picture solely depends on screenplay. The quality of a film depends on how the visionary choose the way of storytelling. So far Desha is concern; screenplay and cinematography kill the opportunity of a good story. Lack of research and study on scripting and cinematography, the screenplay remains the worst phase in this case. Editing was average may suffer from lack of footage support. The action scenes and few other shots was remarkable of course but was not watertight enough to carry on the movie till end.

Star Performances of Desha – The Leader:

It requires courage to assemble a mammoth, ensemble cast, pick a story that does justice to each character and give the film the feel of an epic. But unfortunately, Shipon fails to leverage the opportunity and remains completely unsuccessful to do justice to the character. Shipon’s appearance and acting was the most damaging part of the movie

Mahi is effective in the role of program anchor and news presenter. She does her part well; she leaves a mark in the non-glamorous role too.

Tariq Anam Khan has his moments. He plays his character with finesse and showed once again how complete actor is he! The way he handled transformation of his character is remarkably excellent. He carries out the movie in his shoulder, I must say….

A focus on more detailing of few characters may give scope others to leave noticeable impact on the film.

Desha – The Leader in a Nutshell: 

It’s a bloody battle for political power! Cannot offer a weighty screenplay, dialogue but, that still doesn’t mean we don’t have a decent watch in hand with Desha. The set-up is certainly complex and intriguing. And there are a couple of sly and conniving twists, no doubt. But, the depth is still missing. It’s almost as if introducing the characters and their connections was an end by itself and not merely the beginning nor the means to get there. I am going for 1.5 stars for Desha – The Leader (an extra 0.5 may add for Tariq Anam Khan!).