Bhallu Sardar (Bengali, 2012)

 

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.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Monpura (Bangladesh, 2009)

I wanted to discover the cinema of our neighboring country for quite a while now, and decided to start off with Bangladesh, because of the affinity for the language. In the last few months, I have watched three films from that country- BHUVAN MAJHI which featured our own Parambrata Chattopadhyay, SUTOPAR THIKANA which featured the actress from Bangladesh- Aparna Ghosh, and MONPURA which has the well-known actor Chanchal Chowdhury in it. These three films have piqued my interest in cinema of that country. SUTOPAR THIKANA was a fine exposition of the trivials of being a woman and it’s a modern tale of life in Bangladesh and bears a thematic similarity with Ritwik Ghatak’s MEGHE DHAKA TARA. MONPURA was a 2009 film that has been remade in Indian Bengali language as ACHIN PAKHI by Anjan Das.

The film MONPURA has been directed by Giasuddin Selim. It follows a simple narrative style and has an undeniable charm about it. There’s romance and murder, loyalty and betrayal, hope and doom amidst the pleasing backdrop of a river island. There’s an endearing quality in the character of Sonai (played by Chanchal Chowdhury) and his romance with Pori (Farhana Mili) tug at the heartstrings. I was keen to see a film featuring Chanchal ever since I heard of him being chosen for the role of Mrinal Sen in a biopic on the legend by Srijit Mukherjee. I am impressed by the performance of Chanchal in this film and wish him the best for his forthcoming biopic role.

As a parting shot, though I have enjoyed MONPURA immensely, I would have liked it to end on a different note.

Rating: 4.2 out of 5