Doitto Review: A Peek at the Dark Side

Humans, more often than not, have been victims of fear and greed. While the major contributions of greed in our civilization deal with committing crimes and theft, fear has given rise to a big pandora’s box of monsters. Our weakness against fear has made us come up with ways to mentally fight against the same. And thus, we gave rise to superstitions and started worshipping Gods to help us overcome the fear – our positive solace in the uncertainty of life. But, we forget another thing that fear brought out – Demons. If there is good, there has to be a bad side as well. Nature balances out the two to maintain harmony. But in that process of balancing them out, we experience synchronized chaos.

So, why am I talking about all this, you might ask. The paragraph above has a lot to do with Tathagata Ghosh’s latest short film “Doitto” – literally translating to “The Demon”. Doitto, throughout its 27 minute runtime, is a constant struggle between the good and the bad, much like a beautifully orchestrated harmony; ultimately exposing our often neglected, darker side.

Starting off with a man frantically searching for his child at night, we see a surprising cameo by the director himself as Sub-Inspector briefing Detective Bose, played by Shataf Figar. There has been a series of missing children, and to the detective’s surprise, another one is added to the list. Detective Bose, with no backup, decides to visit the location with his former associate Rico(played by Aryan Roy), who currently works at the Narcotics department. As the journey starts, we get a glimpse of their inner struggle between their personal and professional lives. Once they reach the destination, the baby’s father, played by Soumya Majumdar, plays an integral part in what unfolds to be a rollercoaster ride for the two officers – being manipulated on the professional field and old scars from their personal life coming in the way. But will they solve the case? That’s for you to see!

Starting off with the cast – each one blended into their characters very naturally. Having watched a couple of movies by Tathagata, I would say this is definitely his best work as a director. As his cinematography has evolved and matured, Tuhin doing a brilliant job there. The soundscape and the whole ambiance of the film was great, a commendable work by Aneesh Basu. A gripping 27 minute watch, Doitto also pays very close attention to detail. Small things like dirty nails of a person who lives on the railway station, panning the sound of a vehicle as per the direction of the same on-screen – small things like these add to the user experience in a long way. I also liked the way camera angles were executed, with a heavy influence of the Rule of Thirds/Golden Ratio visible in many shots. Overall, very well executed.

Wishing team Doitto all the best for their future, hoping to see this film go places.

Cast:

Shataf Figar
Aryan Roy
Soumya Majumdar
Bimal Giri
Payel Rakshit

Crew:
Writer, Director, Producer: Tathagata Ghosh
Cinematography: Tuhin
Editing: Rajdeep Mukherjee
Sound Design and Film Mix: Aneesh Basu
DI Colorist: Sunny Ray
Graphics and Publicity Design: Debojyoti Das