Meghnad Badh Rahasya (Bengali, 2017)

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

Rating: 4 out of 5

BADSHAHI ANGTI (2014)

BADSAHIE ANGTI is a fairly engaging thriller directed by Sandip Ray. A mystery thriller in the Feluda series created by Satyajit Ray, this story is based on a plot involving a ‘royalty ring’ weaving in historical fiction, murder, pilferage and threats against the backdrop of royal Lucknow. It is interesting to observe how several competent actors have donned the mantle of the detective through the years – Soumitro Chattopadhyay, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Abir Chattopadhyay (who plays Feluda in this film).

This is an early Feluda story and so ‘Jatayu’ aka Lal Mohan Ganguly is yet to arrive on the scene. The rest of the cast contributes to making the film a watchable fare – Dipankar De, Biswajit Chakraborty, Paran Bandopadhyay, Bharat Kaul, Rajatava Dutta and others.

An observation I made from the Feluda films I have watched is that women hardly figures in the scheme of things whereas in the other films of Satyajit Ray they have strong roles.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

 

Je Jon Thake Majhkhane (2006)

This film explores interesting issues like loyalty in relationships, dedication towards duty vs. family, the differences of outlook in class divide (rich-poor), pangs of loneliness and its consequences, the complexities of choices one has to make in life. One could detect shades of Ajay Kar’s SAAT PAKE BADHA but the originality of the film is certainly unmistakable. I liked the way the film ended when one was expecting that all would be settled towards the end. The main cast includes Sabyasachi Chakraborty as the protagonist doctor, Debasree Roy as an ex-painter cum housewife, Chitra Sen and others.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Thana theke aaschi (1965)

 

THANA THEKE AASCHI was directed by Hiren Nag. The film featured Uttam Kumar, Madhabi Mukherjee, Kamal Mitra, Chaya Devi, Anjana Bhowmick, Dilip Mukherjee and others.

The film employed an innovate technique of extracting confession from several characters of a family who move around in society as respectable citizens but have skeletons in their closet. In fact, the patriarch was shown contesting the elections…

The confessions tumble out when a sub-inspector Tinkori Halder (Uttam Kumar) visits the house of Kamal Mitra to interrogate suspects over a suicide committed by a lady (Madhabi Mukherjee) who was known to the family…

At its core, the film is similar to Ritwik Ghatak’s MEGHE DHAKA TARA. In both these films the female protagonist is central to the narrative and is depicted to having been exploited in their lives at a scale that is beyond the level of endurance.

The film has prompted a remake with the same name a few years back. In that film made competently Sabyasachi Chakraborty played the role of Uttam Kumar. Others in the cast in the remake included Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Paoli Dam and others.

Rating: 3 out of 5

 

 

ATMIYO SWAJAN (1999)

ATMIYOSWAJAN marks a high in the career of director Raja Sen. The film deals with the inability of idealistic parents (Soumitro Chattopadhyay & Supriya Choudhury) to cope with shifting values of the next generation seen through the unfolding of events in the lives of their children. Except for the idealistic eldest son (Dipankar Dey) the other two sons (youngest played by Sabyasachi Chakraborty) & two daughters (Rituparna Sengupta and Shakuntala Barua) with their spouses (Chaiti Ghoshal, Tapas Pal) have been the elderly duo’s (parents) reason to worry about.
The various chain of events build up the angst to such a level that they contemplate undergoing ‘Euthanesia’ (Soumitro tells his friend that in 1983 the well-known writer Arthur Koestler underwent Euthanesia ) and thereafter suicide by consuming an overdose of sleeping pills.
The director (or is it the writer?) opines that women are better at handling stress in the face of crisis, and barring a tragedy the film ends on a positive note ….
Like Ray’s SHAKHA PROSAKHA the film focuses on corruption and an all round decay. The strong cast delivers terrific performances. Especially Sabyasachi Chakraborty as the hard-drinking son (Ami kono din bhabi ni je ei bhabe tomar ghar e dukhbo – he tells his father upon entering his room in an inebriated state) is brilliant.
Rating: 3.9 out of 5

Ditiyo Basanto

In some respects this Abhijit Dasgupta directed film echo Jahnu Barua’s debut Assamese film APOOROOPA (1982) which featured Biju Phukan and Suhasini Mulay. In both these films a former lover re-enters into the life of the heroine at an unhappy phase in her life. In Barua’s film the lovers escape from their surroundings to go off to a distant place; in this Bengali film the lovers refrain from taking such a step.

Rituparno Sengupta plays the heroine who loses her husband (Sabyasachi Chakraborty) suddenly. A couple of years later, she meets her former lover (Shilajit) and sparks rekindle. The film is based on a story by Manjulika Dasgupta and shot almost entirely on a hill station. Lyrical at times, but melancholic throughout.

Rating: 3 out of 5

 

 

SHET PATHARER THALA (1992)

 

SWET PATHARER THALA (SPT) is based on a story by Bani Basu and directed by Prabhat Ray. The film centers around a widow (Aparna Sen) and the hardship she faces in an orthodox Hindu family. She becomes an object of derision when she wears non-white saree (to please her small child used to seeing his Mother in colorful saris) both at home and when she goes out to work. In some sequences when the family members of her deceased husband (Sabyasachi Chakraborty) exploit the widow, one is reminded of Ghatak’s MEGHE DHAKA TARA. The supporting cast includes Indrani Halder, Dilip Roy, Deepenkar Dey, Bhaskar Bannerjee, Haradhan Bannerjee, Shakuntala Barua, Lily Chakraborty and others. This is the debut film of Rituparno Sengupta.

The painter as a protagonist has found favour in several Bengali films, from Pramathesh Barua’s MUKTI in the 1930s, to Anjan Das’s SHAJBATIR ROOPKATHARA to Prabhat Roy’s SPT.

Rating: 3.3 out of 5

 

The Namesake

 

It is a big thumbs-up when three non-Bengalis (Mira Nair, Irrfan Khan & Tabu) gets into the nuances of Bengali culture and make a convincing film. Based on a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, the film NAMESAKE highlights the immigrant experience of a Bengali family in America. The film
is rightly paced capturing the transitions and the developments in a credible way. The filming is superlative with an International crew grabbing the essence and the landmarks (like Howrah Bridge) of the city without blemish. The quiet romance between Tabu and Irrfan is endearing. The sequence where Tabu alone in the house gets to know about the passing
away of her husband and breaks down in their garden demonstrates her acting prowess.

In a similar way, Karl Penn, who plays the son, does well in dramatic sequences when he breaks down on the pillow where his father had slept last. There are several wonderful cameos as well by actors from the Kolkata film industry – Sabyasachi Chakraborty as the father & Kharaj Mukhopadhyay as a servant of the family in the ancestral home of Tabu. The tendencies of immigrants to live within their communities, the blossoming of romance between a second generation immigrant (the son Karl Penn)with a white woman with its complexities have been neatly juxtaposed into the narrative.

Rating: 4.1 out of 5

Ek Je Aache Kanya (2001)

Ek Je Chilo Kanya heralded a new wave in Bengali cinema – a kind of cinema that is contemprorary and handles an urban vexed issue with great finesse. What is remarkable in the film is a great performance from debutant Konkana Sen Sharma as a psychotic temptress who becomes a nightmare for a tenant (Sabyasachi Chakraborty) and his lover (Debasree Roy) who work in an advertising agency. Sabyasachi and Debasree also perform credibly.

Without revealing the storyline, I would recommended the film for viewing. On a sad note, the director Subrata Sen who showed such great promise with this film didn’t quite live up to the expectation with his subsequent works (Swapner Feriwala, Nir Nirjane) and seems to have disappeared from the film-making scene.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Bhooter Bhobisot (2012)

Incredulous and quirky, yet a rather entertaining movie – this is debutant director Anik Dutta at his hilarious best. A satirical tale woven around spooks, who are gradually finding themselves without proper shelter in the increasingly concrete jungle that Kolkata has become in modern times owing to the onslaught of unscrupulous builders. A budding filmmaker (Parambrata Chatterjee) comes to shoot an eerie film in a huge feudal mansion, and be-friends one of the residents (Sabyasachi Chakraborty) who narrates a film script he had written weaving the history of the mansion and its inmates.

In terms of influences, Bhooter Bhobisat bears several influences. The use of limmericks (rhyming as in Ray’s HIRAK RAJAR DESHE), references to use of handheld camera (Mrinal Sen’s CALCUTTA 71), the unadulterated comedy as seen in the films of Bhanu, Johar, Robi Ghosh & Chinmoy Roy films. The film camouflages several topical issues: the consequences of urbanization, and even pokes fun at our Anglicization – our obsession with things from the west thorugh the character of George Baker, the young musician.

The film was shot in the Sreerampur Rajbari. Besides the mentioned actors, the cast also includes Paran Bandopadhyay, George Baker, Swastika Mukherjee, Meer and others.

Rating: 4 out of 5