Bhallu Sardar is a 2012 film directed by Debdut Ghosh. It has a likeable quality about it, with a family setting of two brothers, both of whom are married and live under the same roof. The family is depicted to be from aristocracy. The elder brother (Biswajit Chakraborty) is the head of the family but is shown to be busy with his work in the theatre. The younger (Debdut Ghosh) is married (to Monami Ghosh) against his wishes and has embraced a life of abstinence from worldly pursuit. This creates a rift in the conjugal life. Bhallu is a young boy, the son of the elder brother and the central protagonist of the film. He dreams of becoming a Robinhood after watching a film. How the young boy helps in bringing happiness to the joint family forms the crux of the film. This work of a debutant director shows promise and has some funny moments.
It’s heartening that Bengali filmmakers have shown a zeal towards making celebral detective films / thrillers and this has always remained as a strong current in that industry in contrast to Bollywood that only occasionally comes up with a fine film on that genre. The reason can be adduced to the fact that most of the renowned writers of Bengal, be it Samaresh Basu, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Premandra Mitra, Suchitra Bhattacharyya, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sasthipada Chattopadhyay or Niharranjan Gupta, besides the ever-enduring Sharadindu Bandopadhyay and Satyajit Ray and many others have regularly penned detective works that tease your intelligence and keep you glued to the pages to unravel the mystery. No wonder the filmmakers are inspired by such writers and their creation.
The 2020 made ‘Antardhan’ directed by Arindam Bhattacharyya is a reasonably engaging thriller that keeps you engaged till the end of the storyline of a missing girl from a hill station, Kasauli, in North India. The film has an interesting twist at the end, something that the viewer would be unable to detect until the mystery gets unraveled even though the clues are infused at intermittent intervals during the progression of the story. Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Tanusree Chakraborty, Rajatava Dutta, Mamata Shankar, Harsh Chaya, Neel Mukherjee are the principal cast. Rating: 3.8 out of 5
Midway in the film there’s a scene in KHANCHA (Bengali for Cage) where Rituparno Sengupta looks out of her window from her apartment in a multistoried building. She discovers that her stalker and womanizer boss (Arijit Dutta) is calling out to her from his stately car from the ground below. This particular sequence and moment in the film draws a parallel between her life, an urban corporate woman, and the subaltern woman (Parno Mitra) whom she has been sheltering in her house from a trio of rogues who are part of a gang of woman traffickers. This moment in the 2013 made film is a telling commentary about the true plight of women in our modern society irrespective of the rural and urban divide. In 2023 we are now discussing and ensuring passage of the Women Reservation Bill in our parliament, an attestation that the fairer sex have remained behind in a patriarchal society.
Interestingly, I find that some Bengali filmmakers are making films of a kind of genre that may be loosely categorized as ‘social thrillers.’ They are made in a thriller format, but they aren’t so. They are more of an exploration of societal issues and a commentary on them. Think of Mrinal Sen’s Ek Din Pratidin & Ek Din Achanak, and this film by Raja Sen, and you would probably agree with such a labelling about these films.
Very subtly through the character of the corporate working woman, the director has brilliantly captured the struggles and biases the modern woman has to face and live up with on a daily basis. She may break down often looking for help and comfort when confronted with fear inducing incidents as shown in the film. What many may not notice is the brilliant contrast shown in an unstated way – that the woman who has been wronged by society which has snatched away her daughter from her and cast aspersions on her morals has the courage to come to the rescue of a distressed woman who is a stranger to her. In a world where fellow feeling is generally on the ebb, how far should an individual go for their moral duty for a perfect stranger when it involves a threat towards their life? Wouldn’t it be easier and safer to turn a blind eye towards the evil that breeds in our society?
I was pleasantly surprised by this film. When I looked up the web for reviews on this film, I found that the critic of TOI has given it a poor rating of 2.5/5. Yes, the film based on a story by Prafulla Roy is not without its weaknesses. For instance, who provided the three rogues with a police uniform when they stormed the house of the corporate lady? . There’s also a romantic subtext in this film on women trafficking and molestation. Ritwik Chakrabarty as a reporter lending support to Rituparna is brilliant as usual. Overall, an absorbing and meaningful film that deserves a watch.
Having watched ‘Nirbaak’ (Speechless) recently, a 2015 Bengali film directed by Srijit Mukherjee, I am in a bit of dilemma. Should I rate it as a good film, or a bad one? The initial thought that crossed my mind after the viewing of the film, which the director has dedicated to the master of surrealism- Salvador Dali, was that the film didn’t make much sense to me. All the beautiful imagery and novel techniques employed in the depiction of Kolkata hitherto unseen could not force me to develop a liking for the film. Maybe the question you would pour forth is “why?”. Well, for the kind of implausibility of the storyline – a women courted by three men, and hold your breath, a tree!!! Well, you can’t really blame the tree for developing those amorous feelings when the lady is Susmita Sen, eh?
I have always had a soft corner for experimental films that break the conventional style, and Srijit masterfully breaks all cinematic idioms in this work and came up with a film that stretches your power of imagination and takes you on a journey rather unfamiliar on the Indian cinemascape. The film deserves a watch for the bold attempt to tell a different kind of romantic story using some brilliant cinematic moments. Anjan Dutt, Jishu Sengupta, and Ritwik Chakrabarty are the three male leads in the film, in which a dog too features in a prominent role.
The film ‘Nobel Chor’ has an interesting fictionalized take on contemporary social issues based on a real life incident. The incident is the theft of the medal awarded to India’s sole Nobel Prize winner for literature, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. While unquestionably the basic premise of the film is weak, it nonetheless becomes an effective vehicle for a strong societal commentary. In retrospect, one feels that a surreal treatment of the film could have worked better, much like the Bhanu Bandopadhyay film of yesteryear ‘Asite Asiona’.
The probability of an innocent country bumpkin like Bhanu (played by Mithun with brilliance) finding a stolen Nobel medal in his field is as likely as finding God in our mortal existence. The prevalent rural urban values have been etched beautifully through a motley of character and the manner in which they hold in reverance Bengal’s biggest icon, Rabindranath Tagore. Soumitro Chattopadhyay, Rupa Ganguly, Saswato Chattopadhyay, Arindam Sil, Harsh Chaya and Sudipta Chakrabarty perform credibly in their cameos.The 2011 film was directed by Suman Ghosh.
Having an illustrious father can often mar the real appreciation one deserves. Probably people are always comparing the person with the icon. This can explain the fact that Sandip Ray, a director in his own right, never really got his due in terms of critical appreciation. I am not too sure but I think his Feluda films did good business at the box-office. But there is more to this director, and his films like Uttoran, Nishijapon and Monchora is a testament to that. And his subjects, besides the detective genre, too have been varied, from science fiction to romantic drama, ghost stories, humanistic tales (Phatikchand) to incisive social commentary (Uttoran) on the prevalent situation.
‘Monchora’ (Heart Burglar) is a 2016 film based on a story by Saradindu Bandopadhyay. It is a sweet romantic drama laced with mystery with an underlying message not to be judgemental about people, because an individual is a product of his circumstances and his resultant conduct bears a correlation to it. Bengali cinema regularly gives us gems like ‘Monchora’ keeping our faith alive that cinema from Bengal is still vibrant. The actors act superbly, and Abir Chaterjee as a petty thief who has a change of heart as the film progresses, excels in his role. Raima Sen is immensely likeable, and Paran Bandopadhyay and Saswato Chattopadhyay are brilliant as usual. June Maliah in a negative role is competent.
Probably the most acclaimed Indian filmmaker internationally after Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen & Adoor Gopalakrishnan is Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Beginning his career with hard-hitting social and political films in the late seventies, he changed track in his middle phase and delved into a kind of deeply personal cinema, influenced by his favorite directors that includes Bunnel, Tarkovsky and Angelopolous. The Bengali film ‘Urojahaj’ (The flight, 2018) falls into the later category, and this particular film is his swansong before he passed away last year. In his last several works, ever since CHARACHAR, he has been fixated on blending his cinema with a mix of dreams, fantasy, surrealism, other worldly characters and social realism. The endeavor has resulted in a kind of cinema that has never been attempted ever in Indian cinema. While some pundits are dismissive of these works, yet the distinctive style of the director shines through in all of them. UROJAHAJ deals with the longing of a simple car mechanic to fly to different places in an aircraft along with his family. He lives in a rural district of West Bengal. One day, quite by chance, he discovers the remains of a World War 2 fighter plane, near his village. In his ignorance, he dreams of reviving the old aircraft, and give wings to his dream of flying. The film traces how even the simple dreams of the have-nots can turn into his nightmare in modern society…Just an 80 minute film that should appeal to most discerning filmbuffs. It is about dreams, aspiration and politics of the state that claim ownership on the resources that ought to be available to every citizen.
I have watched a few films directed by Arindam Sil and have found him to be a competent filmmaker. From his first directorial ABORTO to the sleuth caper EGOLER CHOKH to the likeable family drama DURGA SOHAY his films cover a gamut of issues and genres and his unadorned narrative style never fails to hit the bull’s eye with the audience.
I recently watched HAR HAR BYOMKESH also directed by him. The film has been shot in Kolkata and Varanasi, reminding us of Satyajit Ray’s JOY BABA FELUNATH filmed in the city of the confluence of two rivers,and a particular shot in the AS film is a direct lift from the Ray work, possibly as an ode to the master. The masterful writer Saradindu Bandopadhyay hardly disappoints with any detective story, my personal favorite being his ‘Chorabali’ and ‘ Sajarur Kata.’ This one too has death, suspense, romance, foibles of the human character and the film version weaves these elements into the proceedings along with film ingredients such as music and others to give the viewers an absorbing fare. Abir Chaterjee, Ritwik Chakraborty, Sohini Sarkar, Adil Hussain, Nusrat Jahan, Rachel White and others feature in the cast.
Bengali filmmakers have regularly given us a rich fare of detective films thanks to writers like Saradindu, Satyajit, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Ganguly, Samaresh Basu, Niharranjan Gupta and others and their creation.
It is after several months that yesterday I saw a Bengali film -Meghnad Badh Rahasya directed by Anik Dutta on Netflix. This is a 2017 film by Anik and the third film of his that I watched after Bhooter Bobhisyot and Ascharjo Pradip. The film is billed as a thriller, though in essence the core of the film lies elsewhere. The inspiration besides the central text of Naxalgia and the suffering that it entailed and it’s gradual obsolescence in modern times could also have been one of the missing trilogy films of Mrinal Sen like Ek Din Achanak.
From the films of AD that I have watched I feel that he holds a lot of promise. The deft handling of characters and relationships in different formats(humor laden in BB and AP, and realistic in MBR) with an often political backdrop lends credence to his craft. Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Gargi Roy Choudhary and Abir Chaterjee feature in the cast of this film about a sci-fi writer and his second wife and how their past walks into the present of the two protagonists (combo of politics and romance) and a gradual progression on the lines of a thriller. However, for those that like their curiosity quenched, they are likely to have a feeling of deja vu if they have watched films like Antonioni’s La Avventura or Mrinal Sen’s Ek Din Achanak. The title of the film is an allusion to the betrayal similar to a kind poet Micheal Madhusudhan Dutt showcased in his epic poem Meghnad Badh Kavya, a retelling of the Ramayana
Bengali cinema keep offering works with novel themes with amazing regularity. PEACE HAVEN (2015) by Suman Ghosh is a welcome addition to that growing list of notable films. The spectre of death and associated rituals haunt all of us, more so the elderly. Earlier in the Raja Sen directed ATWIYOSAJAN a few years back we saw an elderly man taking initiatives to perform his shraddo(last rites) even while he is still alive. In PEACE HAVEN, an eighty minutes film, made in a style the director describes as ‘hallucinatory realism’, a blend of the realistic with the surreal, a group of three elderly gentleman hits upon a plan to make preparation for preservation of their bodies after their death for a few days to enable their foreign settled son to return to India and perform the last rites. The trio witnessed the passing away of their friend and the inability of the US settled son of the deceased to reach India on time for the final rituals. According to Hindus, the last rites of a deceased should be performed by the son (else it is considered inauspicious)
One can detect echo of Buddhadeb Dasgupta works on this film. The film is also a sad commentary on a generation that lived a principled life and in their old age have to lead an existence sans their children and their grand-children.
Talking about cinema 