Loosely based on the life of Humayum Ahmed, “No Bed of Roses” screened in a number of festivals around the world, winning two awards in Moscow, and eventually becoming the official submission of Bangladesh for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, despite the fact that it was initially banned in the country (the ban is now lifted).
The main story revolves around a scandal, involving famous director-writer Javed, who leaves his wife for his young protagonist, Nitu, who also happens to be his daughter's schoolmate. The fact that the two girls, Nitu and Saberi, have been rivals in school adds even more tension between him and his family, and his life soon is completely shuttered. His wife divorces him, Saberi and his younger son will not speak to him, and his popularity is soon substituted by a public outcry, both towards him and his new wife. Even when some few moments of relative calmness and happiness are achieved, they do not last for long.
Farooki implements a very interesting narrative, which follows a path quite far away from the melodrama and the “gossipy” nature of the main theme, by focusing on Javed and his relationship with his daughter, and particularly the rather different ways the two deal with their pain, which, in fact, derives from very different places. Saberi thinks her father ignored her feelings completely and that he is being manipulated by her rival, who only wants to be with him to spite her. Thus she alienates herself completely from him, although not before she lets him know of his opinion about his actions in the most direct way, in one of the strongest scenes in the movie. Javed's pain has more self-centered reasons, since he seems to think that his children would appreciate the fact that he was a good father to them for all their lives, and that they would understand his choice. His self-centeredness also becomes obvious when he is completely surprised by the way the public treats his relation, since he did not think that anyone would judge him for his actions. Thus, he acts oblivious and stupefied, while his efforts to rationalize his choices to his ex-wife and his reluctance and kind of lateness to make amends with his daughter deem his attempts half-measures, to say the least. Nitu also suffers with him as their relationship and her career hangs by a thread, but her pain is not exactly the main focus of the film, as is the case with his wife's.
With the focus being on Javed and Saveri, their acting is of utmost importance for the movie, and is easy to say that both the late Irrfan Khan and Nusrat Imrose Tisha give excellent performances, retaining a sense of measure that is one of the main elements that forbid the narrative from succumbing to sentimentalism. Furthermore, the calmness they exhibit on the outside while allowing the viewer to realize that they are suffering on the inside, is a true pleasure to witness, while, additionally, makes the scenes they lash out much more impactful. Their chemistry is great, something that should be attributed to Farooki for his presentation of the scenes they are together. Lastly, Tisha's performance in the finale is the one that finally provides a catharsis for both characters and the viewer, in another quite powerful moment.
The avoidance of sentimentalism also derives from Sheikh Rajibul Islam's cinematography, who implements mostly long shots, which “stir” the viewer towards objectively watching the protagonist (or even picking on their actions occasionally) instead of becoming a part of the action himself. Furthermore, he also presents a number of artful and very beautiful shots, with the panoramic ones in particular being quite memorable.
The film may not succumb to the melodramatic but it is still a distinct drama, with Pavel Areen's music implementing a very fitting melancholy throughout the narrative, with a number of carefully placed tracks.
The various flashbacks that show the characters in the past are a bit confusing in the beginning, but Farooki inserted dates on screen to specify the era each sequence takes place in, while, as the story progresses, his approach in that regard becomes more clear and quite enjoyable. Momin Biswas's editing implements a relatively slow pace that suits the art-house style nicely (Javed even comments at some point that his life is like an art-house movie), although the succession of many different scenes throughout the film gives a sense of speed to the narrative.
“No Bed of Roses” is not an easy movie, since the slow pace, the unusual procession of the story, and the lack of melodrama and sex scenes are all elements not usually associated with narratives that deal with adultery, at least to the western eye. However, this is where the value in Farooki's effort lies, since he manages to communicate his comments on the subject and family in general, through an approach that is artful as it is unique.
