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

For Bengali movies the fourth quarter of 2015 was the best quarter of this year , it has four Durga puja hits and two Christmas hits.

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

October

October is the month of Durga Puja vacations and probably the best season for a Bengali movie release  and this October it the golden time for Bengali movies when five movies released on a same day which was the Friday before Puja and among these five four movies were big hits. 

Raajkahini

A renowned director Srijit Mukherjee, a huge star cast of very talented actors and actresses,

a heart touching subject and a wonderful presentation all make it a big hit from the very beginning. Once again Srijit Mukherjee proved lucky for Puja release. People loved the story about the freedom fight of a group of women against the male dominated society in the backdrop of India Bangladesh partition. The movie not only get appreciation in Bengal only rather people from Bollywood also recognize the raw talent of the movie. Even there are talks of a Hindi remake of this one. Rituparna Sengupta got lots of acclaim for her leading performance. It became a big hit specially among urban centers.

Byomkesh Bakshy

Director Anjan Dutta came once again with yet another Byomkesh movie but this time with a brand new actor as Byomkesh. It was Jishu Sengupta who had stepped into the shoes of Byomkesh Bakshy. He was joined by Sashwata Chatterjee as Ajit and some television and film veterans who are almost regular in Mr. Dutta's films. This movie once again proved that sleuth films are here to rule Bengali film industry. Jishu Sengupta did a good job as Byomkesh but the story selection was not up to the mark. It was comparatively weaker story than other Byomkesh movies by Anjan Dutta.There was big hype created around the movie specially because the last Byomkesh movie by the same director was a big hit so it got a wonderful opening and completed a successful run of more than 50 days at theaters.

Katmundu

So far director Raj Chakraborty had a reputaion of a successful film maker of South India remakes only but with Katmundu he proved that he can make a successful film with original script too provided the script is good. Katmundu was a situational comedy with some really funny moments and an wonderful comic act by Rudraneel Ghosh. It was a story about three guys and their adventures in Kathmandu in a holiday. The scenic beauty of Kathmandu had been captured really well with the soulful music by Anupam Roy in the background, which was also a big hit. this movie did well not only at multiplexes rather it worked in small centers too for its simple and funny story. Now there are talks of its sequel too.


Sudhu Tomari Janno

It was a South India remake but director Birsha Dasgupta had made the film in a more subtle unlike any mainstream commercial masala movie. There was no item songs in foreign locations or any unnecessary action sequences just to add masala in the film. All these help the movie to do a better business among urban audiences too. Other factor for its success was definitely superstar Dev in the leading role. Dev was struggling to make it a big hit in commercial zone for his last few releases but with this one he once again proved he has a huge fan base. It was a big hit specially in small centers. The performances by Shrabanti and Mimi was also got good response. The music by Arindam was also very popular specially the song "Egiye De"

November

There was no particular big release in November as the month was mostly dominated by the last month's Puja releases. The only big release of this month was Director Atanu Ghosh's Abby Sen featuring Abir Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Priyanka Sarkar and Chiranjeet Chakraborty in the lead roles. It was a story about time travel so there was a nostalgic trip to 80's Calcutta. It was a good film with a potential to be an average earner but it did not get a perfect release mostly because of the pressure of all four Puja releases it git lesser number of shows and could not reach out to a larger section of audiences. The acting done by Abir Chatterjee had been highly appreciated.



December

After Durga Puja vacations, the month of December is yet another favorite season for Bengali film producers as there are holiday seasons for Christmas and New year.
There were two big releases in consecutive weeks, both were from Venkatesh films.

Har Har Byomkesh

So far we have seen only Anjan Dutta's Byomkesh movies in recent past but this time we got a new director narrating the story of Byomkesh on his own way. It was director Arindam Sil.Once gain we got Abir Chatterjee back as byomkesh but this time with a new Satyabati and Ajit which were played by Sohini Sarkar and Ritwick Chakraborty. This movie got a fresh look and treatment with the scenic beauty of varanasi as the backdrop of the story. The locations Varanasi and the North-Indian classical music in background also made us nostalgic about "Joy Baba Felunath". The casting of non bengali but bengali speaking actors in supporting role also gave the film a fresh look. It opened very well at the box office and doing good business till the end of the year.

Arshinagar

it was the first ever Bengali adaptation of  Shakespeare's classic "Romeo and Juliet". It was

an experimental film made by Aparna Sen, where the story telling style was much influenced from theater acting which gave the film a different look and feel.It featured commercial film stars Dev and Rittika as lead along with Jishu Sengupta and a lot of other talented actors including Waheeda Rehman. The movie was quite experimental on its own so it may be considered as one brave attempt but it had very lesser commercial appeal. The film did not get a good opening at the box office. Although it is still running in theaters and its final box office performance is yet to be evaluated.

Best Films of Q4 2015

• Rajkahini
• Har Har Byomkesh

Best Directors of Q4 2015

• Srijit Mukherjee - Rajkahini
• Arindam Shil - Har Har Byomkesh
• Aparna Sen - Arshinagar

Top Performers of Q4 2015:

Actors:

• Abir Chatterjee - Abby Sen/Har Har Byomkesh
• Shaswata Chatterjee - Rajkahini/Byomkesh Bakshy/Katmundu
• Koushik Sen - Rajkahini/Byomkesh Bakshy
• Harsh Chhaya - Har Har Byomkesh
• Rudraneel Ghosh - Katmundu
• Jishu Sengupta - Byomkesh Bakshy/Rajkahini/Arshinagar

Actresses:

• Rituparna Sengupta - Rajkahini
• Shrabanti - Sudhu Tomari Janno
• Parno Mitra - Rajkahini
• Mimi Chakraborty - Sudhu Tomari Janno
• Sohini Sarkar - Har Har Byomkesh