Mountaineering expeditions have been the subject of many films over the years, mostly in Hollywood. Debaditya Bandyopadhyay’s Mission Everest is perhaps the first Bengali film about an expedition to Mount Everest.

Some people are fascinated with the idea of climbing Everest even at great risk to their lives. Many go on expeditions every year. Some reach the summit, some return midway, and many lives have been lost in this pursuit. What fuels this passion that propels people on a path laden with hardships and life-threatening terrains? Mission Everest, directed by Debaditya Bandyopadhyay, seeks to answer this question.

Chandreyee Ghosh plays the lead character, Suchanda Hazra, in Mission Everest.

Suchandra is a homemaker who has tried to summit Everest twice in the past. Hopeful of fulfilling her dream in her third attempt, she has come on the expedition leaving her husband and children at home.

Suchandra is inspired by mountaineer Sunita Hazra. Mission Everest is based on her life, but it is not a biopic. Sunita Hazra came back from a near-death experience during a 2016 expedition to Everest. She returned with the help of Leslie Binns, a British mountaineer. Leslie came forward to save Sunita instead of completing her own mission. That harrowing experience is the inspiration for this film.

Mission Everest begins with mountaineers from all over the world gathering at the Everest base camp with the dream of conquering the summit. One such enthusiastic group of mountaineers is led by Rajeev (Deep Shankar Dey), a seasoned mountaineer whose father had once participated in the Everest expedition. The group of seven mountaineers includes youngsters as well as veterans. It has people from all sections of the society — from a phuchka seller to a young woman who has raised money for the expedition by selling her ancestral house.

The plot deals with the various obstacles the group of seven faces on their journey. The film is a treat for adventure lovers as it shows the strenuous task of climbing a mountain in great detail. However, the film's screenplay fails to build on the foundation. Making a film on this subject, overcoming budget constraints and adverse weather conditions, must have been an arduous task. The director certainly deserves praise for pulling off this feat.

Chandreyee Ghosh is a scene-stealer in the role of Suchanda. She effortlessly fits into the shoes of a middle-class Bengali homemaker with the dream of scaling Everest and captures Suchanda’s zeal and perseverance. Chaiti Ghoshal as a journalist and Shantilal Mukhopadhyay as a veteran mountaineer put in commendable performances.

Deep Shankar Dey, Megha Chowdhury, Gautam Mukhopadhyay, Amlan Majumder, Tirthankar Roy, Kaushik Kar and Sanjay Das also impress in their respective roles in the mountaineering group.