Professor Nandy (Joy Sengupta) has discovered evidence of a gadget
scientist Aghor Sen (Soumitra Chatterjee) developed 150 years ago that can
put people to sleep - literally speaking, not metaphorically for a change
-, which could have benifitted the world ... but it could also have been
used as a weapon - and evil underworld queen Begum (Mita Vasisht) knows
that, so she has the professor kidnapped and demands the gadget from him.
Thing is, Nandy doesn't have the gadget or even plans for it, all he has
is a riddle he seems to be unable to solve ... so queen Begum gives him
two weeks time, but has him under constant surveillance by General Tekka
... In a seemingly unrelated story, Kartik (Sourav Bandopadhay), a kid
from the slums, totally unexpectedly inherits a house and a fortune to go
with it, and when he and his uncle (Kharaj Mukhopadhyay) move there, they
find it inhabitated by a group of actors. But rather than throwing them
out, uncle decides to join the fun and ensures for himself the lead role
in their new play. Enter Nandy, who has found out that a secret entrance
to Aghor Sen's lab is situated somewhere on the premises of Kartik's
house. Soon, he befriends the boy, and by and by he lets him in on his
misson from queen Begum. Eventually, the spirit of Aghor Sen appears to
him and tells him of an alien friend, Vic (Biplab Chatterjee), who has
fallen asleep 150 years ago and who's about to wake up and might want to
get his hands on the gadget too. Of course, Aghor Sen is totally right,
but somehow Vic ends up with the theatre group and is going to play a key
role in their next play ... Eventually, Nandy and Kartik find the secret
lab and the gadget, when they are attacked by queen Bengum and her men.
When Nandy tries to defend himself using the gadget though, it just
doesn't go off - so thank god Vic arrives with a raygun just in time to
erradicate all the baddies. Only then does Nandy get a hang of the gadget
and put Vic to sleep, before the thing breaks. The spirit of Aghor Sen
reappears and tells Nandy to leave the gadget broken because humankind is
just not ready for it and fly Vic back to his home planet, while Kartik, a
bit of a tech wizard, is given reign over Aghor Sen's secret lab and
further inventions ... The key premise of this film is as silly
as it is great: a sleeping gun from 150 years and an underworld queen
wanting to get her hands on it. Add to this mix the inventor of the
sleeping gun who has an alien buddy and an Apache (!) assistant, throw in
a few song and dance routines and a theatre group just for colour, and
everything should be great, right? Unfortunately, wrong! Apart from its
basic premise, Patalghar is an amazingly boring film, and as most
films with kid protagonists, it's rather cheesy as well. Apart from that,
it's also pretty childish ... now of course I realize the film was made
primarily for the kiddie crowd, but Patalghar is taking things just
a bit too far at times. In all, a disappointment. By the way, this
film was produced in the West Bengal province of India and shot in Bengal
language.
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