Review of Bengali movie Khaad

If it is a Kaushik ganguly directed movie then there is no doubt that you are going to see totally fresh and unconventional story.With his latest venture "Khaad" director Kaushik Ganguly have made no exception. Once again he has proved that only he can think and choose a really different story without thinking about its commercial perspective. Thanks to the production house Venkatesh Films and Surinder films too for encouraging such talented story teller to tell his story without making any compromise for commercialization.

The story is about 15 passengers who were travelling together by a bus by some hill area of North Bengal while they met with an accident and their bus dropped into a pit (Khaad). As a result all of them got trapped in the pit in the middle of a jungle where they are not even sure how to get out from there. Before this accident these passengers rarely know each other but this crisis situation brings them together as a team as they have to live together to survive and to find an way to get an exit from the jungle. The rest of the story shows how they survive the day and the night in the middle of a jungle far away from the civilization. Their bonding begins with sharing each others identity and food and later the situation turns in such a way that they share the deepest secrets of their life as confession. Finally at the climax their is surprising twist but it may not go well with each audience.

Probably this is the first time that someone has tried such a story and this credit must be given to the story writer. Another challenge with this story was to write a perfect and engaging screenplay and director Kaushik Ganguly has succeeded in that too. The screenplay never tries to give too much information about the characters background or how they will overcome with the crisis rather it has tried to capture the moments in between. the moments where bond with each other in the time of crisis. There is light moments as well as emotional moments too as a result in spite of having the same location same 16 character in their same wardrobe the film never looks monotonous. Another complex part of the screenplay was to give ample scope to all 16 characters and the script has been written fairly enough to give every character something to leave an impression. The characters have different socio-economic background which reflects in their clothes, their dialogues, their body language and in their interaction with each other too.

As a director Kaushik Ganguly has once again proved his brilliance. His narrative style is very much engaging. He knows how to get the perfect job from his actors as well from his technical team. A director like him can assure that Bengali movies can be made without taking help from South Indian DVDs or old Bengali literature. 

Among the actors it can be said it has more than a dozen of actors playing different characters and every actor has been given fair chance to leave their mark. Still among them who have impressed more are Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Kaushik Ganguly, Gargi Roychoudhury, Rudranil Ghosh, Lily Chakraborty and Mimi Chakraborty.
Kaushik Ganguly has once again proved that he is capable to deliver his excellence both behind the camera as well as in front of camera as an actor. His emotional scene in the confession sequence is heart touching. Gargi Roychoudhury has underplayed her character of an well known Tollywood actress very well. She never goes over the top but still expressed a lot with her silence. Lily Chakraborty has her moments as Kaushik's cancer patient mother who know she is dying but still tries to hide her pain to make her son happy.happy. Rudranil Ghosh has played such role of a poor deprived person earlier too and this time also he has done full justice with his character. Mimi Chakraborty has provided the much needed comic relief as the foul mouthed newly wed bride. Her abusive dialogues may have given the film an Adult certificate but it will surely bring laughter to the audiences faces. Pallavi Chatterjee has made a good comeback. But among the actors the true Revelation is  director turned actor Kamaleshwar Mukherjee. He has done a bit roles earlier too but this is his first full fledged acting debut and he has done a fantastic job as the trekking expert with a secret. One actress who could have done a better job provided the potential of her character is Tanushree. She has a strong character and a well written scene where she outburst out of her mental stress, but Tanushree has disappointed in that scene.

The technical team is also in a very good form here. Soumik Halder has captured the hills and jungles very realistically. The sequences shot in the night  with the light source as the burning flames nearby , are superb.Same can be said for Anirban and Dipak's sound design which has helped to create the atmosphere more authentic. The background score has been used very good way to give emotional sequence the much needed high. Bodhadittya Bandopadhyay's editing is crisp , specially the way the background of the characters has been showed in short and crisp way.

The music by Indradeep Dasgupta is yet another high point of this film. There is only two songs which has been used in the movie and both the song have been written very well by Srijato and Indradeep himself. And both the songs have such soulful melody that it lasts with you for a long time. Special mention should be given for the use of these two songs in the script where there is hardly any scope for songs.

Overall it is a story which has the potential to connect with the audiences. Although the climax is a bit shocking and the pace of the story is a bit slow but the brilliant acting by the ensemble cast and the emotional sequences will always keep you glued to your seats till the end.

A quick update on the happenings in Bollywood in Quarter 3 of 2014

Quarter 3 of 2014 is over so its time to look back at the happenings of Q3 of 2014 in our Hindi film industry.

Business of Bollywood in July:

The month of July began with Vidya Balan starrer "Bobby Jasoos". Both the critics andaudiences had expectations from this movie because of the presence of Vidya Balan and her many disguises in this movie but it disappointed everyone with its weak story. As a result it failed to deliver at the ticket window.The first big hit of July was "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania". It was romantic comedy from Dharma productions and just like the other two hits from Karan Johar this year, this film also got a good response for its fresh new approach, hit music and lovely on screen chemistry between the lead pair Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt.

After two weeks came one of the most awaited films of this year "Kick". This Salman Khan starer came onthe auspicious occasion of Eid and became a blockbuster like Salman Khan's other Eidreleases. It had all ingredients needed for a Salman Khan blockbuster movie and as a result it got huge opening and a bumper response later too.It became the biggest grosser of this year so far. Also it became Salman Khan's first entry (and only entry so far) in the 200 crore club wit a box office collection of around 233 crore.

Business of Bollywood in August:

In the beginning of August "Kick" fever was already there so no movie could survive in first two weeks even Akshay Kumar starer "Entertainment" got an average response but could not be a big hit.But in the third week hit machine director Rohit Shetty returned with his favorite actor Ajay devgan with "Singham Retrurns". It was released on the holiday of Independence Day. It got the biggest opening for any Ajay Devgan movie and very soon enters in 100 crore club. Also with its final collection of around 139 crore it became the biggest hit of Ajay Devagan's career.
One week later a small budget women oriented film came from Yashraj film's featuring the chopra bahu Rani Mukerjee in the leading role. It was "mardaani". It had not been released or promoted in a larger scale

but for its hard hitting bold subject and the brilliant acting by the whole cast of course lead by Rani herself caught cine-goers attention. Due to good reviews and word of mouth publicity this film finally becomes a hit with around 36 crore box office collection which was very big for such a small movie.
In the last month serial kisser Emraan Hashmi tried to back on his comfort zone with "Raja Natwarlal" but this time he failed to make a comeback.

Business of Bollywood in September:

The month of September started with a big hype with Priyanka Chopra starer biopic "Mary Kom". Priyanka Chopra's acting surely caught everyone's attention but overall the movie got mixed response from critics as well as from audiences and as a result in spite of getting a good start its box office collection remained limited between 60-65 crores.
In the second week came two surprise hits one was "Creature 3D" featuring Bipasha Basu in the lead. This movie was not a favorite with critics neither with the audiences but due to its good standard visual effects and its limited budget this film became an above average successful film. Another surprise hit was "Finding Fanny". It was a really unconventional film which was made in English though there

was Hindi dubbed versions too. It was a small budget film with a non commercial subject but due to the presence of hugely popular stars Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor it got good enough response at the box office and became hit. Its collection was almost 35 crores.
There were two other small films which released together on the third week, these  were "Daawat-E-Ishq" from Yashraj Films and "Khoobsurat" an official remake of 70's Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic made with the same name. Both the films failed at box office.

So overall it shows Q3 was better than Q2 as per the box office collections. Q3 has one 200 crore films 1 100 crore and 4 more hits which made a collection between 35-70 crores.

Top Performances of Q3 2014
Actors-

• Ajay Devgan - Singham Returns
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Kick
• Randeep Hooda - Kick
• Tahir Raj Bhasin - Mardaani
• Naseeruddin Shah - Finding Fanny
• Pankaj Kapoor - Finding Fanny

Actresses-

• Vidya Balan - Bobby Jasoos
• Rani Mukerjee - Mardaani
• Priyanka Chopra - Mary Kom
• Dimple Kapadia - Finding Fanny
• Deepika Padukone - Finding Fanny

Top Songs of Q3 2014

• Saturday Saturday - Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
• Aaj Phir Tum Pe - Hate Story 2
• Jumme Ki Raat/Hangover - Kick
• Johny Johny - Entertainment
• Ziddi - Mary Kom

Review of Bengali movie "Chatushkone"

Master story teller Srijit Mukherji is back with yet another unconventional and engaging story in the form of "Chatushkone". With his every film he keeps experimenting and he has continued that trend with this film too. It is only Srijit Mukherjee who can think to cast four directors as a lead instead of mainstream actors ( though at last moment he has to cast two actors due to some casting issues). This is a journey of four different person and their self discovery with a brilliant twist at the end.

It is the story of four directors who are from different backgrounds; Dipto (Chiranjit Chakraborty) a well known actor of mainstream cinema and a director too of commercial Bengali movies, Shakyo (Gautam Ghosh) a well known cinematographer turned director who use to make movies mostly for festival circuits, Trina (Aparna Sen) an actor turned director who was a glamorous heroine at one time and now a successful director and Joybrato (Parambrata Chatterjee) an actor who is also interested to be a director and has directed few movies but is more successful as an actor than director. Very interestingly the characters has too much similar career graph with the real life actors who has played the characters on screen and it works in favor of the movie. But the similarity ends with the career-graph only their reel life relationship is quite different than real life.

One fine day all these four directors gets an opportunity from a rich producer to make a film together where there will be four different stories directed by the four of them. The producer is ready to spend any amount of money but he has only two conditions all the four stories should have a common theme that is death and all the four directors have to go to an isolated island (Henry's Island) to meet the producer personally to narrate their stories. After some initial inhibition they agreed to work on this project together and started their journey. On their way in the journey the story unfolds more details about each of the individual , their relationship with each other and their background too. At the climax there is a big twist which is very tough to guess from earlier and this adds the much needed boost to the story at the end.

It is of course a suspense thriller but unlike a typical thriller it is not fast paced rather it goes on smoothly so that the audience can have enough time to know more about the characters so that they can be well prepared for the climax. The screenplay has been written very well which keeps the audiences engaged throughout the film. Although in the beginning it may look little confusing to some people as two parallel stories were continuing in past and present but till the end everything gets cleared so at the end no question remains unanswered. Another credit should be given to the story writer Srijit Mukherji  as he has written four separate independent stories apart from the main story. These stories have been used as the film conceptualized by the directors in the film. The way the films within the film has been inserted in the screenplay that is also commendable. It never looks forced and also it never looks that the short stories are impacting the main story because the short stories itself are very much engaging.  The dialogues also goes very well with the

situations and characters. There are some reference to the actor's real life which adds some humor too , like the way Parambrata's character Joy keeps making fun of the films which Parambrata has directed so far in real life, or when Dipto played by Chiranjeet is describing his story his wife's character has been shown using Kirron Kher's picture which reminds us of "Bariwaali".Also there is the so much famous dialogue of Chiranjeet "Bou harale bou paoa jay kintu Maa harale Maa paoa jay na".

As a director there is nothing new to say about Srijit Mukherji, with every new film he is continuing to be better. Here too his detailing for every technical aspects is praise worthy, not only in the main story but also in the short stories which comes as a film into the film. As the story is about directors so he has got enough chance too to show how he himself gets prepared for the perfect presentation, for example when every director in the movie are discussing about their short films they also discuss about the production design , the camerawork , the characterization. Apart from the modern day story there is a flashback too set in the retro era of 70s that also has been handled very well by the director.

There are four main lead actors and all of them are brilliant. Aparna Sen acts very much real

like her own real life personality.She is good in the character of a director as well as a middle aged married woman who still cares for the guy who was her love interest at one point of her life. Gautam Ghosh is also very natural. He has underplayed his character of a director as well as a common friend between two separated lovers.Both Aparna Sen and Gautam Ghosh have got chance to act something different from their real life in the short stories directed by their characters. They are too good in that too. Chiranjeet is mainly a commercial film star and his only claim to fame as an actor was "Bariwaali" so far, so there was lots of doubt about his casting , but after watching the film everyone will understand how well he has done as the arrogant director Dipto as well as the helpless smoking addict Bedashruti in his short story. He has acted beyond expectation in both the characters. Parambrata Chatterjee also outshines along with the senior actors. He has provided some light moments in the middle of the serious acting done by the senior actors. The way he has played spoof on his directorial films is quite funny. Although in the beginning his portrayal of the under confident junior director seems quite similar with his portrayal of the character of Haru from his last release "Hercules". But at the climax he will definitely get accolades from everyone.

Among the supporting cast there is a bunch of seasoned actors who have appeared in one

scene appearances or in an extended cameo. Among them the person who is undoubtedly the best is Kaushik Ganguly. Even in his one (if we neglect his blink and miss appearance in the beginning) scene appearance, he has proved his talent. Among the others Payel Sarkar, the successful actress from mainstream commercial cinema has done quite better job than her earlier performances as an actresses of Black and White era. Her make up is too good. Only she could have been little less louder in the scene where she is fighting with her boyfriend over some ego clashes. Indrashis and Rahul are good with their expressions and makes their presence felt even with very less dialogues.  Barun Chanda has once again proved his acting skills in the character of Malay(Trina's husband). 
The other actors who have shined in the cameos are Koneenica Banerjee, Arpita Chatterjee, Sumit Samddar, Shantilal Mukherjee, Anindya Chatterjee, Neel Mukherjee, Deboleena Dutt.

The technical team has also supported a lot to represent the director's vision to the big screen and make it a audio visual treat. Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee's camerawork is

exceptionally well. The way he has played with different shades and colors to show the different stories is awesome.He has used a variety of colors from black & white to blue to red to sepia. The DOP has shot every single shot in such a way that he has brought life to even the background and the objects, whether it is a burnt cigarette butt thrown on the road or four candles lighting on a table. The other brilliant technician in the crew is the editor Rabiranjan Moitra. He has blended all four sub tracks so well in the main story , it is truly commendable, hats off to him.The background music by Indradip Dashgupta is very effective to portray the emotions of the character in a better way. The production design and sound design is also brilliant, not only in the main story but also in the four short films. Special mention should be given for the way Bedashruti's room has been decorated and thanks to the director for explaining the production design process in the segment using the character of Dipto as the narrator.

The music is always a plus point in Srijit Mukherjee's film and probably he used to lock all the best tracks of his friend and composer Anupam Roy to use in his movies. There is not too much scope to fit songs in the narration so there is only four song in the film even in that last two songs are there in last 10 minutes. All the songs are good but the two songs which will remain with you for a long time is "Boba Tunnel" and "Basanto Ese Gechhe".

Over all "Chatushkone" is yet another brilliant film from Srijit Mukherjee. The best gift for this Puja to the Bengali film audiences as well as the Bengali film industry. Go and enjoy the film and you will get to see four interesting short films too as Puja bonus .

Review of Bengali Film Buno Haansh

Almost seven years ago a new director came to Bengali movie industry who had a fresh vision to make films and with refreshing approach of storytelling he easily connected himself with his target audiences. He was Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and the movie was "Anuranan". later in last 7 years he made two more movies "Antaheen" and "Aparajita Tumi". With these three films he has made a convention about him that he is a filmmaker who can make movies based on love and longing of urban people and it appeal to a particular section of audiences, but with his latest venture "Buno Haansh" he has jumped into a totally new world. The world of lower middle class people of Kolkata, their need , their poverty, their greed. In this world there is love , but love may have to take a backseat for the struggle of survival.

The story is based on the novel written by Samaresh Majumdar with the same name. Like every other novel adaptation here too the filmmaker has taken lots of creative liberties and has made some changes to fit it as a screenplay of a running time of around 140 minutes. The basic story is very much cliche where a good hearted poor guy Amal (Dev) gets into world of crime(smuggling here) just to make more money to satisfy the basic needs of him and the people around him. As he proceeded more in this world he found himself totally trapped in the dangerous world from where its almost impossible to return to his normal life.  

Although the story has nothing new to offer still it will keep the audiences interest intact because of the screenplay which has lots of twist and turns and the interesting characters who are very much realistic. The way the screenplay has been written that you will feel yourself involved with the journey of Amal. For example the scene where he is travelling to abroad for the first time you can feel his nervousness, or the major twist before interval will make you worried that what will happen to Amal now. The climax is also very much thrilling but it has an open ending which may or may not appeal to the audiences. 

As a director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury has taken a new challenge to tell a story which is

totally out of his own comfort zone and he has succeeded in it with full marks. It is his skills which has made it not just a crime thriller rather it has a strong element of human emotions like love, passion, greed , betrayal, fear and survival against all odds. Only his loyal fans can miss romance a bit. There is a soft romanctic track between Amal and his friend Sohag but it is just a subplot here. As a director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's  perfection for detailing is visible in almost every frame from choosing perfect locations to the every detail of his each character like their costumes , their make up , their body language and dialogues.He has tried to increase the commercial appeal which is not bad but just like the lead character of the story Amal, he has also not sold his soul just to make more money and easy money. For example there was a good enough situation (and not so good enough item girl Raima Sen) for an item song in a dance bar which could have increase the movies commercial appeal but the director has restricted this greed and has given it a real touch by using a late 90's Hindi Item song that too for few seconds in middle of conversations.

Last year with "Chander Pahar" ,commercial film's superstar Dev had made his entry to world of parallel cinema or meaningful cinema. It was a good attempt on his behalf and he had got a mixed response for it. But with "Buno Haansh" he has come a long way, his acting has matured a lot here. Still it can be said that he is not the best actor available in Bengali cinema today to portray this character. But it can be definitely said that he is the best choice for this role among the actors who can pull the audiences to the theaters and bring back producer's money. The subject of the movie has a larger appeal and provided a commercial star it can earn a good money too. In that point of view Dev was the only choice for this role. His face has an inherent innocence which has worked for the character of Amal. Also it is showing that the acting workshop he has done before the shooting has worked a lot. His body language, his dialogue delivery has improved a lot. While watching the film you will never thought he is super star of loud South Indian remakes rather he is looking every bit of Amal a innocent guy who wants to cherish his dreams and for that he can choose wrong way too but by heart he has never changed.

It is true that the main focus is on the character of Amal, but there is a bunch of supporting characters who are there with Amal in his journey. And the credit must be given to the casting director for choosing appropriate actors for the supporting roles. 

Tanushree has done some non commercial movies earlier too but probably it is the movie which has given her the opportunity to act in a bigger and more meaningful role. Her character Rijula is very mysterious , sometimes it looks positive on next moment it has some grey shades. She has played the modern day woman who can proudly confess that she can go to any extent to make money for a better life. Tanushree has looked confident in this complex character. She will surely get noticed for her performance.

On the contrary to the character of Rijula there is the character of Sohag, played by Shrabanti. Sohag is the friend of Amal who secretly loves him too but do not want to express it as she is struggling to survive from a deadly disease. She is not demanding about money or a better life rather she only needs the company of Amal for the rest of her life. In this role Shrabanti has looked very good. In a non make up look she has looked similar to her character in "Gaynar Baksho" but the similarity is only in the appearance, here her acting has improved more. Though the screen time of her character is less but still she manages to leave an impact. Her chemistry looked good with Dev, specially in the song "Esechhe Raat".

Other two ladies who are just awesome are Sohag Sen and Sudipta Chakraborty.Sohan Sen has played the character of Amal's mother. Her performance is very much realistic and she has underplayed the character with absolute perfection. She has never made the character as a cliche mother's character like a nagging mother or a teary eyed mother. Rather her performance is controlled and restrained. In the climax scene where she is talking with Amal over phone, her restlessness, her tension can be easily felt in her voice , in her expressions even without a single drop of tear in her eyes.

On the other hand Sudipta Chakraborty will surely grab everyone's attention as Manju , sister in law of Amal. She has once again proved her acting caliber and also proved that how the filmmakers are yet to utilize her talent giving roles as per her capacity. She has very few scenes but she has managed to surprise the viewers with her power-packed performance. She has looked so real as a housewife of a middle class family.

Gargi Roy Chowdhury is a also impressive as the sex racket owner Adrijaa. Moon Moon Sen is not convincing enough in the role of the underworld head Madam , but being an irregular face to recent Bengali films she has brought a  freshness to the character.

Not only the women, the male actors has also provided solid support in the supporting roles.

Anindya Banerjee is effective as Robin who brings Amal to the world of crime. Shankar Chakraborty has also done a different character from his regular image as Badshah Bhai an agent of the smuggling business. Arindam Shil has his moments as Haque another agent in smuggling business. Shantilal Mukherjee is superb as a local goon who works for Haque. 

Without the brilliance of the technical team  perhaps it would not be easy to adapt the novel

to a movie. The credit should go to the production designer Kaushik Das and Subrata Barik for choosing such realistic locations and creating such authentic sets in different geographical locations from  Kolkata to Dhaka to Bangkok to Pune and Mumbai. All these different locations has been captured superbly by the cinematographer Harendra Singh. He has shoot the underbelly of Kolkata to the fast moving life of Bangkok with an authentic feel. It is his camera's magic that the locations has also acted as characters. The sound design by National award winner Biswadeep Chatterjee is wonderful. You can feel the different sounds of different geographical locations. The editing

has been done by the extremely talented Arghya Kamal Mitra and he has succeeded again to make it sharp. The only thing which was not required was the over use of the different footage of Dhaka and Bangkok city to establish the change of location. Although the Bengali audiences would never mind to see the visuals of Dhaka as everyone's has some connection to other side of Bengal.Thankfully he has not used any single montage of Mumbai City as we have seen it too many times in different movies. The dialogues are also very effective and suits the different social and geographical position of characters from Bangal to normal Bengali to Hindi. The same can be said about the make up and costumes department who has designed the realistic look for every character according their social and geographical background.

The another highlight of the movie is the soulful music by Shantanu Moitra. The successful Musical team of director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury Music Composer Shantanu Moitra and Lyricist Chandril & Anindya(From Chandrabindoo) are back once again with some really melodious tracks. This time the team has a new entry in the form of lyricist Srijato who has penned very meaningful lyrics. All the songs are good but the best one is of course "Zindagi Kabhi Bhi Thamti Nahi". This song has been used as a theme song throughout the film and it has summarized the story very well. Apart from that the other songs which have been used very well in the movie are "Hariye Theekana Khonje Ghar", "Eseschhe Raat" and "Bela Boye Jay".

The loyal fans of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury can think it is not his type of movie which can touch the hearts but it is not true. It is more fast paced and have some blood gun and violence but the signature style of the filmmaker is still there. Still the focus is on the characters and they are from the real world so they will obviously connect with viewers. The director has not compromised his creativity for the sake of commercialization. At the same time Dev's loyal fans will also not be disappointed at all as the story is gripping and the performance by Dev is also superb. This time he has rocked even without dancing in foreign locations and delivering punchlines. So there is something for every cine-goer in this movie, so give it a chance and you will definitely like it.

Highlights of Bengali Movies in the first half of 2014

As we are already in the third quarter of the year 2014 it is the best time to look back and see how was the journey of Bengali movies in the first half of 2014. Like always this year too we have seen hardcore commercial movies which are mostly the remake of South Indian films continued to rule the box office specially at the small centers. At the same time some non commercial meaningful cinemas also have been made which continued to rule the heart of the urban audiences and sometime the box office too.

Lets do a monthly basis analysis:

January

Jaatishwar

This was the first movie which Srijit Mukherjee had directed outside Venkatesh Films. As a result the marketing was little low in comparison to Srijit's earlier movies so its opening was not that huge at the box office. but its collection grows later with the word of mouth publicity.After watching the film people realizes that this is Srijit Mukherjee's best film till date. The performances by Prosenjeet Chatterjee and Jishu Sengupta was superb. Also there was a brilliant supporting cast. Another highlight of the film was the soulful music by Kabir Suman. Later the film got 4 national awards too which also worked in favor of the film. 
Apart from the actors on screen this movie had a super talented team behind the camera too including Director Srijit Mukherjee, Cinematographer Soumik Halder, Make up artiste Vikram Gaikwad etc.

Bangali Babu English Mem

This year this was the first commercial potbolier from Venkatesh Film production house. It was a remake of Punjabi superhit film "Jatt & Juliet" and probably it was the first Bengali remake of a Punjabi film. This film was not a big commercial hit neither was a winner for the critics. The only highlight of the film was the perfectly timed chemistry between the lead pair Soham and Mimi Chakraborty. Also Bishwajeet and Laboni Sarkar had done a good supporting role. The music of the film was also successful.


The Royal Bengal Tiger
With this movie Bollywood director Neeraj Pandey made his debut as Bengali film producer. It was also co-produced by superstar Jeet. But he was not the leading

man here rather he had acted in a supporting role only. The leading man was Abir Chatterjee, probably Jeet took this decision because the unconventional characterization of the main hero of the film would not suit with his on screen image. This was really a different subject for Bengali movies which deal about schizophrenia. But its not necessary that everything which is different will be welcomed. The audiences did not give a good response to the film and it bombed badly at the box office. But it have to be said that this was Abir Chatterjee's one of the best performances on screen. Very rarely he gets the chance to portray such character. Jeet was also good in something different. Another good thing about the movie was Shradhha Dasm who is a Bengali but normally does south indian films. She made her debut in Bengali films with this one. She did a good job and showed that now there is a good alternate option for the same Raima Sen for the non-commercial films.

February

Chhaya Manush

It was a good attempt to make an unconventional super natural thriller but unfortunately it was not engaging enough to make its way to the audiences heart. Although it had four talented actors like Parambrata Chatterjee, Paoli Dam, Raima Sen and Kaushik Ganguly but most of them were wasted. The only actor who shine here was Kaushik Ganguly. He had played the negative role brilliantly. Also the beautiful locations of Darjeeling was captured very well by cinematographer Shirsha Ray.





Obhishapto Nighty

On the occasion of Valentines Day ,Venkatesh films presented a sex comedy which had some supernatural element too in the form of a nighty, a cursed nighty. Just like the name of the film the subject was also funny. The mix of horror and comedy was obviously inspired by the success of "Bhooter Bhabisyat" but the comedy here was not of that standard. Director Birsa Dasgupta had tried to attempt a new thing for Bengali films which was sex comedy but the main problem with the film's script was that it was not consistent , there were lots sub tracks involving lots of characters as a result after good first half the film lost its focus and got confused. Still the film was enjoyable in parts because of some superb comic acting by Mir, Sumit Samaddar,Locket Chatterjee, Laboni Sarkar, Supriyo Dutta and Paran Bandopadhyay. There is rarely any opportunity for good music in a sex comedy but still the songs composed by Indradeep Dashgupta were wonderful.

Jodi Love Dile Na Prane

It was last release of February starring the fresh pair of two talented actors Abir Chatterjee and Ananya Chatterjee. This movie was directed by Abhijit Guha and Sudeshna Roy. It was an unconventional love story which did not work much at the box office but the performances of the lead cast was appreciated very much.Also Neel Mukherjee and Gaurav Chakraborty were good enough in supporting cast. Once again it was proved that Abir Chatterjee can not deliver a box office hit as a leading man.


 March

In March There was not a single release which make any mark in the audiences heart or at the box office.

April

Chirodini Tumi Je Amar 2

This Venkatesh films production was directed by Soumik Chatterjee. It was a tragic love story featuring a group of talented new comers.The story had an emotional connect with the audiences and it was executed very well by the actors like Arjun Chakraborty, Urmila Mahanto, Bihu Mukherjee, Riddhi Sen and Ena Saha. As a result it became successful at the box office and made a good enough money considering it was a film of new comers. The soulful music by jeet Ganguly was a add on.

Take One

With this film Mainak Bhaumik came with yet another bold subject with his favorite Swastika Mukherjee as the lead. This movie was loosely based on the real life story of the lead actress Swastika Mukherjee. She played an alcoholic actress with broken relationships. Also her real life daughter Anwesha  made her debut as her on screen daughter. Both mom and daughter did a powerful acting. But another highlight of the film was the nude scenes of Swastika Mukherjee whic creates a lot of controversies at the same time made it a big hit at the small centers too.

Apur Panchali

Master storyteller Kaushik Ganguly came with yet another unconventional story. The story was about the life of Subir Banerjee,the child actor of "Paather Panchali". The screenplay was very good and it blended the story of the reel and real life of Apu very well. There were some fantastic acting by Parambrata Chatterjee, Ardhendu Banerjee, Parno Mitra and Gaurav Chakraborty. The music by Indradip  Dasgupta was also a big hit. The cinematography was also very nice which gave an authentic feel.The film got lots of appreciation from critics and at festivals as well as it got good response at the box office too.



May

Window Connection

This movie did not get too much pre release hype as it was not made by any big production house. But after watching this psychological thriller people loved it. The performances of Aryann Bhowmick and Tanushree was also loved by the audiences.


Ami Sudhu Chheyechhi Tomay

This was the first and only production from Eskay movies this year.This Eskay films production has Ankush and Subhashree as the leading pair. It was obviously a south Indian remake with lots of masala elements put together. This.This romantic movie got a good response at the box office. The superhit music, specially the melodious title track was also responsible for its success.







Bari Tar Bangla

There was too much hype with this Rangan Chakraborty directed film, mostly because of the leading man Saswata Chatterjee. But after watching the film people disappointed very much as the script was a bunch of comic jingles put together. Overall the story was very weak but the comic dialogues and brilliant performance by Saswata Chatterjee and Sumit Samaddar was the highlight of the film. The film got a good opening at the box office but later its collections dropped. Still it managed a good collection because of the strong opening week.

Arundhati

It was a big budget south Indian remake from Venkatesh films and Surinder films. There was too much hype before its release because of the powerful special effects , the large scale production values, superb on screen characterization of Koyel Mallick and Indrneil Sengupta. But when people watched the film they realized the main thing was missing, a strong story which can connect with the audiences. Though the visual effects were really good also the leading cast has done a superb job ,but due to big budget of the film it flopped very badly in spite of a good opening.


Game

This Jeet starer remake of South Indian superhit "Thupakki" was  a game changer at the box office. The successful team of "Boss" came back with this film and it got good advantage for their last success. It got a huge opening and later also its collection continued for some week.The performance by Jeet was appreciated very much.the Jeet Subhashree chemistry was also clicked once again. The music by Jeet Ganguly was a hit. Though it did not become as much successful as "Boss" but still it did well at box office.





June

Ramdhanu

Director duo Shiboprosad and Nandita came with yet another movie based on the story of Suchitra Bhattacharya. This time it was a story about the problems parents have to face to admit their kids in a reputed school. Just like their earlier films this time also it had no big stars rather the story was the main hero. the story had a good mix of comedy and emotion which worked very well with the audiences. The acting by Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Gargi Roychoudhury was brilliant. This movie take a slow start at the box office but finally wins the race by winning audiences as well as critics's hearts.

Chaar

If its a Sandip Ray film people are always waiting for something good. This time Sandip Ray made a collection of four short films based on four short stories by some famous authors. Not all the stories were good in similar way. Each one has its strength and weakness but the first story featuring Paran Bandopadhyay , Saswata Chatterjee and Shreelekha Mitra was the best one. The movie did not have a good fate at box office, but the performances by some of the cast members were very good. The only thing could have been said when Sandip Ray had to choose only four stories he could have been more selective.


Bonku Babu

This was yet another movie which proved now a days Saswata Chatterjee agrees to do any film without thinking much about the story provided he is getting the lead role. Here too he played the lead role of a 60 year old person who was the head of a joint family. This comedy was just an average attempt to make people laugh. The only highlight was the make up of Saswata Chatterjee which was done to make him look like an old man. Though after watching the film it was tough to understand why the makers offered a middle aged person to play an old man's role where the role could have been done by any old actor too. Maybe they wanted to en-cash the popularity of Saswata Chatterjee and they succeeded in that to some extent.


Over all it can be said there were very few big blockbusters in terms of box office collections. Hope the second half will bring good luck for Bengali movies.

Review of Kick

From last 3-4 years a new brand of cinema has been introduced that is called brand Salman Khan movies. The main features of this type of cinemas are this movies are  remake of a successful south Indian film, there will be high voltage action sequences, there will  be chartbuster songs, the story will not follow any kind of logic, there will be enough punchlines which will generate seetis and tallis, most of them will release on the festive season of Eid, most of them will be produced by any friend or relative of Salman Khan, and above all Salman Khan will be the biggest USP of these films  and in almost every scene there will be an attempt to utilize the popularity of brand Salman Khan. "Kick" belongs to the same category of movies but still it can appeal to the non-Salman fans too because of the presence of two brilliant actors Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Before the release of the film lots of things had been said about the story of the film that it is inspired by Salman's real life but in reality the only similarity is just like real life in the movie

too Salman is attached with a charity fund apart from that there is no similarity.This is the story of Devi Lal Singh who is genius who can multitask on lots of complicated works together, who had lots of educational degrees but can not work on a single job because he does not get the kick in that. One fine day he meets Shaina( Jacqueline Fernandez) who is a psychiatrist and falls in love with her but soon they realizes that their preferences in life are different so they broke up. Then all of a sudden Devi Lal Singh becomes a super cool thief Devil who robs money from rich to serve the poor and he found his much awaited kick in this job. From this point starts the main story which is the cat and mouse chase between a super cool thief Devil and a street smart cop Himanshu Tyagi (Randeep Hooda). This thief and cop encounter has so much similarity with Dhoom series movies that you may think that you are actually watching Dhoom 4. Just like the Dhoom movies here too the thief and cop comes face to face so many times but the cop is unaware of the identity of the thief, here too the thief throws open challenges to the cop before doing his robberies and here too there is an emotional cause attached with the thief as a result the cop develops sympathy for the thief towards the climax. But the difference is the cop Himanshu Tyagi (Randeep Hooda) is much more intelligent and smart than Jay Dixit of Dhoom series and this works for the benefit of the movie.

Four persons name have been credited as the screenplay writer probably they have written different episodes of the film as the movie is clearly divided in four episodes. First one about

Devi and Shaina's love story, second one about Devil and Himanshu's clash, third one featuring the main villain Shiv Gajra (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) in Poland and the final one about the revelation of Devils secret and the final clash between Devil and Himanshu. Among them the first episode is the worst one as the love story processed in a very slow pace and there is not enough engaging moments too. The third section is the best probably because of the entry of the brilliant Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Shiv Gajra. The screenplay is inconsistent but there are lots of moments for Salman fans. There are some scenes which will definitely deserve claps from audiences like: when Devi goes to meet Shaina's father Brijesh Mehra (Saurabh Shukla); when Devil crosses a railway track in front of a super fast train; the scene just before the interval where Devi alias Devil comes back to the life of Shaina and Himanshu; the scene where Devi dances to the tune of "Saat Samundar Paar"; the final scene between Devi and Himanshu in the climax etc.
The dialogues written by Rajat Arora are just okay but it could have been better considering the past track record of the movies of Salman Khan as well as the dialogues written by Rajat Arora in the past. The only dialogue which is excellent is the final one which describes the the character of Devi Lal Singh "Main dil mein aata hoon, samajh mein nahin", This line works very well because not only it describe the character of Devi rather it describes the characteristics of Brand Salman movies too.

As a director Sajid Nadiwadwala has made a promising debut. He has handled the large scale

of the movie very well with good quality production values probably being the producer himself has helped him to make the movie on the required large scale. Though most of the movie is dominated by brand power of Salman Khan but his good directional skills are visible. His choice of actors and locations is very much appropriate as per the story.  He has used the computer graphics works very well in the film not only in the action sequences but also in other scenes too in a very innovative way like the use of a series of animations to describe the growing years of Devi Lal Singh or the use of a moving video clip of Himanshu's interview in a newspaper article to describe the interview written on the newspaper.The only thing he has missed out is a grand entry sequence of the hero Salman Khan. The entry sequence here is good but it could have been better also the love story between Devi and Shaina could have been shortened by few minutes.

The interesting thing about Salman Khan's acting is that whatever role he plays he always looks and acts like Salman Khan and he never tries to do anything else as he knows that his fans also love to see him as Salman Khan , the superstar not as the character. Probably his director also knows that so he has used an irrelevant reference of the immensely popular character Chulbul Pandey from Dabangg, which was also played by Salman Khan. So it is useless to comment about his acting abilities. But yes he has looked stylish and much fitter to perform the action sequences. He has performed with the coolness and style required for his on screen character. Also he has danced really well in the song "Jumme Ki Raat".

Jacqueline Fernandez has been a part of superhit movies earlier too and the experience of "Kick" will be no different for her. As an actress here too she has nothing much to do. But she has managed to look glamorous and sexy even with the thick glasses. Her solo dance sequence in the song "Jumme Ki Raat" is superb and it surely deserves seetis and clapping.
Also she has has a good chemistry with her onscreen partner Salman Khan.

Randeep Hooda has done full justice to his character of Himanshu a tough cop. His look, his attitude, his dialogue delivery everything is too good. In fact in such a non logical unrealistic movie his character looks very much realistic and well researched. He has done good job in the lighter moments too like the scenes where he bonds with Devi in a drunk situation or the scenes where he tries to express his feelings for Shaina.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui has made his debut in hardcore commercial movies with this film and he has proved his acting abilities here too. He has proved that a good actor is not bounded to any particular category rather he can act in any kind of cinema. Unlike his other movies here he is very loud and over the top and it has worked really well for the film. His evil laughter is just awesome. The only bad thing is the screen time he has been given. He has hardly 4-5 scenes, it would have been a better decision to give him a lengthier role.

Among the rest of the cast members Saurabh Shukla is excellent in his small role as Shaina's father. Every time he comes on the screen he will surely make you laugh. Unfortunately the same can not be said about Mithoon Chakraborty, the good actor has been wasted again in a stereotypical father's character. Archana Puran Singh is okay as the the loud over the top Punjabi mother of Devi. 

The technical team has worked very well. Ayananka Bose's camerawork is a visual treat for the audiences. He has shoot the outdoor locations of Poland very delightfully.The action sequences choreographed by Anl Arasu and Stefan Richter is breath taking. The visual effects are also very nice and it has enhanced the impact of the death-defying stunts very well.

There are not enough scope of songs in the movie still the songs has been forced in the screenplay. Apart from "Jumme Ki Raat" and "Hangover", the rest of the songs are not so good so most of the songs could have been avoided in the movie specially the item song featuring Nargis Fakri. No matter the song is situational or not but "Jumme Ki Raat" is one of the biggest highlights of the film. It is very much popular even before the release of the film and it will definitely help the business of the film. It has been nicely composed by Himesh Reshamiya and superbly choreographed by Ahmed Khan. Also the song "Hangover" is melodious and it is the only situational song in the film so it works well in the film too.

Overall it is yet another masala entertainer from Salman Khan for his fans. No matter how good or bad it will appeal to the audiences it will definitely break lots of box office records.If you are a Salman fan then you will obviously watch it but if you are not then also you can give it a try for the brilliant actors Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Don't try to use your brain while watching this film rather feel this by your heart because the movie explains itself in the climax as "Mere baare me itna mat socho , main dil me aata hoon samajh me nahin".