Tale of a woman torn between duty and love

Agnidev Chatterjee’s Gaheen Hriday is a black & white film that revolves around Sohini (Rituparna Sengupta), who wants to walk out of her joyless marriage and marry her husband, Bhaskar’s (Debshankar Haldar) childhood friend, Anupam (Kaushik Sen). Anupam is separated from his wife and plans to settle down with Sohini. Both are in a dilemma as to who and how will break the news to Bhaskar. Sohini makes up her mind to do it, but is unable to do so, as Bhaskar is diagnosed with brain tumour.During the treatment, Sohini and Anupam start growing apart. “Will Sohini and Anupam come close again? What will happen to Bhaskar? Does Sohini really love Anupam? The film answers these questions,” the director said.
The film has a few steamy scenes between Sohini and Anupam, shown during her visits to the latter’s house for some ‘we’ time. Talking about the sexual aspects of Suchitra Bhattacharya’s novel and its depiction in his film, Agnidev said, “It’s easier to write about sex than depict it on screen. There’s a very thin line between art and porn and as a director, I feel you have to create a balance. In the novel, Sohini’s physical craving drives her towards Anupam. But later, duties and responsibilities overshadow her desires. The same has been shown in the film. But as the steamy scenes are integral to the story, we shot them aesthetically.”
When asked how easy was it to shoot these scenes, the director said, “It was as easy as shooting a regular scene, as they knew I wouldn’t put in a sex scene just for the heck of it.”
Rituparna told us that she trusts Agnidev blindly. “Agni and I go back a long way and I know he won’t do anything in a film just for the heck of it. The physicality of Sohini and Anupam’s relationship was there in the novel too. The physical encounters between them were much needed in the film,” she said.