Asukhwala (The Pain Hawker)

One Liner

A medicine shop owner makes tryst with his medicines to fend fear, social unacceptance and other maladies off.

Long synopsis

Rudra Mondal has a medical shop. Various medicines all over the day and the shop itself haunt him of uncountable diseases. Many types of customers visit the shop. Someone spends thousands of money only for whim, while someone cannot undergo treatment for some fatal disease due to lack of money. Some of the customers come round , some wither away. All the time, the clock ticks randomly between birth and death. 

In their personal lives, Rudra and his wife Mishty are undergoing treatment of possible infertility. Mishty's health detoriates day by day. 

The medicines conquer his consciousness slowly. One day, they get Rudra. They begin to speak with him. One of them gets whimpy, sentimental for something ; the other stops working out of its own will. A pain ointment falls in love with a lady, another medicine becomes tired of repeating the same task without a break. Their pain, love, lust, hesitation spring up to the surface. They sometimes even vociferously protest against something that they do not like.

 Reality and imagination get intertwined. It becomes hard to discriminate between them. The personification of the medicines continue on a rapid speed.

Sometimes Rudra has to stand in their favour sometimes he disagrees with them. They gossip and party like friends, and sometimes they are seen to have a rough argument on something. Rudra's life becomes hapless, forlorn due to his own physical defect. A dysfunctional family and Mishty's ailment add to that. 

 The 'play-yard' forest of his childhood is sold to a factory. Amit, the owner of the tea-shack beside his medicine shop,  contacts cancer. Rudra feels helpless. He wants to help. But, he does not know how.

 Among all these, suddenly, one day, a customer who bought medicine from him dies and Rudra becomes the target for everyone. The pressure of the circumstances compels him to close down the shop. Interrogating the medicine under question, Rudra comes to know that the customer has died because the medicine wanted to settle scores with Rudra. He feels responsible for the death.

 The world of the medicines, Mishty's ailment and other incidents make him puzzled. One night, he enters the shop in the darkness as if he is a thief. It seems that he wants to come to a settlement with all the medicines, at last. The gate closes down slowly from the inside. There is a torch in Rudra's hand. Specks of light patch the darkenss inside the shop. The pain hawker literally steps on a path to the inifnity...

    

Official Trailer

IMDb Information

Film: “ASUKHWALA - THE PAIN HAWKER”

Director: Palash Dey

Language: Bengali

Duration: 1hr 26min 49sec

Color | Cinemascope

Cast & Crew List

Cast

Sayan Ghosh

Sneha Chattopadhyay,

Amit Saha

Subhajit Bakshi

Papiya Say

Shyamal Kumar Dey

Diganta Saha

Titas Bandopadhyay

Piu Mondal

Sukanta Guharoy

Tapan Roy

Pranab Debnath

Palash Saha

Sabita Ghosh

Anindita Dutta

Mousumi Das

Somra Orang

Ria Paul

Utpal Pal

 

Crew

DOP

Amar Dutta

 

Editor

Sanglap Bhowmik

 

Music

Mayukh-Mainak

 

Art

Palash Dey

 

Costume

Papiya Dey

 

Make-Up

Parmita Pal

 

Executive Producer

Suvra Chakraborty

 

Production Manager

Prosun Ghosh

 

Colorist

Abhisek Khamrui

 

VFX

RGB Lab