Calcutta Mail - 2003

Story

'Calcutta Mail' is directed by National Award winning director Sudhir Mishra. It tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary man. The film opens intriguingly as one man, Avinash (Anil Kapoor), arrives at the Howrah station in Kolkota and sets out in desperate search for someone. Avinash finds a place to stay in an old chawl, where he meets Bulbul (Rani Mukherjee), a bubbly young girl with and hard-luck story of her own. Bulbul is immediately drawn to the intense and enigmatic Avinash. Lakhan Yadav (Sayaji Shinde), an uncouth Bihari goonda bent on acquiring sophistication, is enraged to learn that Avinash has reached Kolkota. He promptly hires goons to eliminate Avinash and anybody else who tries to save him. With Avinash searching for Lakhan Yadav, and with Lakhan out to eliminate Avinash, the stage is set for an intriguing criss-cross drama.

The visually rich ambience of Kolkota forms the backdrop of Avinash?s search as he almost reaches the person who could lead him to Lakhan, only to find that person being gunned down in front of him. A desperate Avinash now has no way of finding Lakhan Yadav till a portly pimp, Ghatak ( Saurabh Shukla) offers to help.

Meanwhile Bulbul realises that she is attracted to Avinash. In a beautifully shot dramatic scene, she confesses her amorous feelings to him, but he turns around to tell her that he isn?t interested in her frivolous feelings and that all he is looking for is his kidnapped son.

In an interesting twist, Ghatak causes Lakhan and Avinash to come face to face. Lakhan stabs Avinash and leaves him for dead. Bulbul tends to the injured and delirious Avinash, who recounts how he met Sanjana (Manisha Koirala), the only child of Sujan Singh (Satish Kaushik), a businessman-politician, fell in love with her, married her, and had a son, who had been kidnapped by Lakhan Yadav.