Dev Entertainment Ventures, the makers of the upcoming film Binodini — Ekti Natir Upakhyan, dropped its teaser recently. Featuring Rukmini Maitra in the titular role, the teaser unveiled the journey of the first theatre legend of the Bengali stage.

The snippets of scenes that comprise the nearly two-minute teaser, besides focusing on her personal life and acting career, offer important clues to the eponymous character’s personality, thus heightening the interest of the viewer. Billed as ‘the untold story of Bengal’s theatre icon’, the film promises to uncover interesting facets of her life and personality hitherto unknown to those interested in the history of Bengali theatre. Binodini’s dedication to theatre and to her craft is clearly evident in the teaser, as is her love for stardom and popularity. Her passion for the stage is also expressed in a scene where she is heard declaring that she worships theatre like people worship divinity.

The teaser also indicates that despite her beauty, talent and popularity, she is unhappy in love and is the victim of exploitation and betrayal by men. A stunning presence on screen, Rukmini emotes her excitement for the stage as skillfully as she portrays the pathos of her character. Striking in period costumes and jewellery, it is clear that she has also been able to deliver a spectrum of emotions through her performance — her happiness at the adulation of spectators, her understated romantic scenes, her confident, poised dialogue delivery, her expression of pain and heartbreak, and many others suggest that she has skilfully brought to life the incredible saga of Binodini Dasi, an ordinary woman whose ‘dreams defied odds and challenged destiny’.

As observed by fans already, Rukmini was dressed to resemble Sri Chaitanya in Binodini’s first look teaser poster, a role Binodini Dasi had most famously portrayed on stage. The setting of the story is also clearly outlined in the teaser. The sets, along with the costumes and diction of Binodini and other characters, follow the styles of the latter half of the 19th century, which was also an era of Bengal’s Renaissance. The teaser also features legendary theatre actor and playwright Girish Chandra Ghosh (Kaushik Ganguly), with whom Binodini founded Star Theatre and from whom she learned and honed her acting skills.

Directed by Ram Kamal Mukherjee, the film has a release date — January 23.