Tuesday, 6 October 2015

A quick update of Bengali movies in the Third quarter of 2015

For Bengali movies the third quarter of 2015 was average , it has very few successful films in comparison to the large number of flops. 

Lets have a month-wise recap of the second quarter.

July

The only big release of this month was Venkatesh film's Eid release "Besh Korechhi Prem
Korechhi", featuring Jeet and Koyel. It was a romantic comedy directed by Raja Chanda.
After a long time a fully commercial Bengali film did well at the box office. Once again it proved that Jeet still has the stardom to pull a commercial film on his shoulders. 
People loved the chemistry between the leading pair Jeet and Koyel. The popular songs composed by always dependable Jeet Ganguly were add on for the success of this movie.

There were no other big release in this month, but there was a Bengali short film on youtube which created lots of buzz. It was Sujay Ghosh directed short film "Ahalya", a gripping suspense thriller featuring Soumitra Chatterjee, Tota Roychoudhury and Radhika Apte. This movie got really good response from the viewers.

August

The month of August started with two movies "Shesher Kobita" and "Anubrato Bhalo Achho?". Both the movies were well appreciated at different festivals and had limited scope at box office.

"Shesher Kobita", directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay , was based on the novel written by
Rabindra Nath Tagore with the same name. It was a story of platonic love between two different individuals Amit Ray and Labonya played by Rahul Bose and Konkona Sensharma.
The director has done a good job to transform the story on big screen with authentic periodic set up. Apart from that the performance of two leading ladies Konkona Sensharma and Swastika Mukherjee were highly commendable.The film which was released after a long delay got a decent opening and continued to do good business for first few weeks which made it an average earner at the box office.

"Anubrato Bhalo Achho" , directed by Partha Sen was a story of two strangers who met by
chance and comes close to each other coming out of their marital commitment to fulfill the void in their life. Before its theatrical release this movie had traveled to many national and International film festivals and was well received everywhere. Unfortunately at cinemas people did not respond that well to this movie mostly because it has very less commercial value due to its uni-dimensional story-line an slow pace. But the performance by Ritwick Chakraborty in the leading role was extra ordinary. He once again proved his caliber playing much older character than his real age with almost perfectly. Among the other cast members Swastika Mujherjee and Debolina Dutta were good too.

During the holiday of Independence day another two big releases came together "Ek Nodir Galpo" and "Nirbaasito".

"Ek Nodir Galpo" was yet another long delayed film which have to wait for so many years to
get released, in this long wait even the director Samir Chanda passed away. It was a story of a father daughter and their bonding, based on a short story by Sunil Gangopadhyay . The father daughter duo has been played by Mithun Chakraborty and Sweta Prasad. The film got good response at box office and continued to run at theaters for more than one month. Mithun Chakraborty was brilliant in the leading role of a father who is very much affectionate about his daughter.

"Nirbashito" was the directorial debut of talented actress Churni Ganguly. This movie was loosely based on the life of the controversial
Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin. Although it was  not a typical biopic rather it had focused on the loneliness and pain of the author once she was banished from her own country, own people and own literature. The movie was very well made and Churni ganguly has done a wonderful job as a director as well as a leading actress too. The film was highly appreciated at film festivals but the commercial fate of this movie was not so good.

Apart from these movies there was another release "Nataker Mato" featuring Paoli Dam in the lead role. this movie got a mixed response at ticket windows.

September

The month of September was not so happening. 

This month one of the most successful commercial film director Raj Chakraborty came with
a new comers love story "Parbo Na Ami Chharte Toke". It was a complete masala entertainer featuring Bonny Sengupta and Koushani. The film did fare enough business considering the new leading cast. The music by Indradip Dasgupta was also a big hit which worked in favor of this movie.

Another important release of this month was director Bauddhayan Mukherjee's debut movie "Teenkahon". It was yet another festival
favourite with a limited box office appeal, but whoever had seen the movie have liked. It was a combination of three short stories which had covered 100 years of journey of Bengali culture, language and socio-economic condition of Bengali's. This movie had some brilliant performances by Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Joy Sengupta, Ashish Vidyarthi and new comers Barshan Shil and Ananya Sen.


Best Films of Q3 2015
  • Shesher Kabita
  • Anubrato Bhalo Achho?
  • Nirbashito
  • TeenKahon
Best Directors of Q3 2015
  • Partha Sen - Anubrato Bhalo Achho
  • Suman Mukhopadhyay - Shesher Kabita
  • Churni Ganguly - Nirbashito
  • Bauddhayan Mukherjee - TeenKahon

Top Performers of Q3 2015:

Actors:
  • Ritwick Chakraborty -Asha Jaoar Majhe
  • Ritwick Chakraborty - Anubrato Bhalo Achho?
  • Mithun Chakraborty - Ek Nadir Galpo
  • Shaswata Chatterjee - Nirbashito
  • Sabysachi Chakraborty - TeenKahon
  • Joy Sengupta - TeenKahon
  • Barshan Shil - TeenKahon

Actresses:
  • Konkona Sensharma - Shesher Kabita
  • Swastika Mukherjee - Anubrato Bhalo Achho? / Shesher Kabita
  • Churni Ganguly - Nirbashito
  • Deboleena Dutta - Anubrato Bhalo Achho?
  • Ananya Sen - TeenKahon

Friday, 2 October 2015

A Quick update of Bollywood in the 3rd Quarter of 2015

The third quarter of 2015 was much better in terms of box office business. There was the first 300cr film of this year in this quarter. Few other movies too did a good business in the 70-80 cr range.

Lets have a quick month wise recap of the Hindi movies in third quarter of 2015.

July

This month was the best of this quarter with the only 300 cr+ film of the year so far which was "Bajrangi Bhaijaan".

The first big hit of this month was south Indian blockbuster "Bahubali". This S.Rajamouli
directed film created history. It became the first Hindi dubbed south Indian language movie to cross 100 cr mark. It was released in too many languages as a dubbed film , all over India and abroad and in every language version it got fantastic response. The visual effects were the best of any Indian movie so far. Overall it collects 500 cr + worldwide.
The next big release of this month was Salman Khan starer Eid release "Bajrangi Bhaijaan". As expected it got a tremendous opening and enters in 100 cr club in the first weekend. It continues its extra ordinary business because of the heart touching story and also for the fantastic performance by Salman Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and the little wonder Harshali Malhotra. On the final run it became the biggest hit of this year so far and the second biggest hit of all time with the collection of 320 cr.
The last release of this month was Ajay devgan and Tabu starer "Drishyam". This film was a South Indian remake but not a regular commercial remake rather it had a gripping story and some wonderful acting by the leading cast. This thriller was highly appreciated by the audiences and as a result it became a hit with around 76 cr collection. The fans of Ajay Devgan were very much delighted to see Ajay Devgan in a meaningful role after a long time.

August

The box office response in the month of August was quite low compared to July. The only
big hit of this month was Karan Johar's production "Brothers". It earned around 82 cr at the box office.It was a story of two separated brothers in the background of MMA(mixed martial arts). The film got good response and both Akhshay Kumar and Siddharth Malhotra's performances were highly appreciated. The action sequences featuring Martial Atrs were designed extremely well.
Apart from that there were no big commercial success. Though Nawazuddin Siddiqui starer "Manjhi - The Mountain Man" was appreciated by some section of audiences mostly because of the extra ordinary performance by the leading man Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Apart from that Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif starer "Phantom" also got an average response at the box office but considering the high budget of this film, based on global terrorism, we can not say it was a box office gainer.

September

The month of September got a really wonderful opening with "Welcome back" , which was a
sequel to the 2007 hit comedy "Welcome", though some of people thought it was actually a remake of the original in the name of a sequel. Once again the brother duo Uday bhai and Majnu Bhai played by Nana Patekar and Anil kapoor win the heart of the audiences with their superb comic timing. This film took a wonderful start and earn 50 cr in its first weekend. Though its collection dropped later but finally it managed to register 95 cr at the box office.
It followed by some flops which include two back to back flops in two consecutive weeks
"Hero" and "Katti Batti" , both directed by Nikhil Advani. Also Madhur Bhandarkar failed to impress masses as well as critics with his latest "Calendar Girls".
Finally the funny man of Television Kapil Sharma brings back the smile on cinema owner's faces with his Bollywood debut "Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karoon". It was directed by director duo Abbas-Mastaan who are mostly famous for their thrillers. So lots of people were doubtful about the film but when it released it witnessed a really unexpected good response from the audiences. It earned around 28 cr in its opening weekend which is pretty good for a new comer Hero's movie. Hopefully it will cross 50 crore mark easily in its lifetime business, considering the response of the audience we can hope for even more.

On a whole the third quarter have provided some good movies and good amount of money at the box office. We are hopeful about the next quarter which have some big releases lined up to release specially in Diwali and Christmas which includes Salman Khan's "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" and Shahrukh Khan's "Dilwale".

Best Films of Q2 2015
  • Bajrangi Bhaijaan
  • Drishyam

Top Performers of Q2 2015:

Actors:
  • Salman Khan - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
  • Ajay Devgan - Drishyam
  • Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Manjhi - The Mountain Man/ Bajrangi Bhaijaan
  • Sanjay Mishra - Masaan
  • Jacky Shroff - Brothers
  • Anil Kapoor - Welcome back
  • Nana Patekar - Welcome Back
  • Kapil Sharma - Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karoon
Actresses:
  • Harshali Malhotra - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
  • Richa Chaddha - Masaan
  • Tabu - Drishyam
Top Songs of Q2 2015:
  • Selfie Le Le Re, Tu Chahiye, Bhar De Jholi - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
  • Sapna Jahan - Brothers
  • Hafte Me Chaar Shanivaar, Baton Ko Teri - All Is Well
  • Afgaan Jalebi - Phantom
  • Main Hu Hero Tera - Hero