Review of Bengali movie "Saheb Bibi Golaam"

#SahebBibiGolaam has set very high expectations since the release of its first teaser. It has grabbed eyeballs for its slick and stylish look and bold contents. After watching the film you will surely get what it has promised in trailers, an edgy stylish thriller and some really bold scenes but still you will feel something is missing and that is a strong script.

It is a story of three different characters who belongs from totally different backgrounds and religions. The first person is Jimmy Luke (Anjan Dutta) who is #Saheb. Jimmy is an ex-

police officer who is a contact killer now. He has an emotional past where he had lost his wife's life and his relationship with his son. He prefers to live a lonely life and has no regrets for being a killer as his logic is simple, if he won't kill then someone else will. But in spite of being a killer he has a sympathetic heart towards social injustice against women. The second character is Jaya (Swastika Mujherjee), she is Bibi. Jaya is a housewife who is an obedient daughter- in-law, a perfect mother and a good wife. She is obeying all her duties honestly but somewhere she has a void inside as she is not happy in her conjugal life. Her husband is not interested to have any physical relationship. One day she takes a bold decision to give her life a new turn by opting for being a part time prostitute for satisfying her physical desires. The third character is Javed (Ritwick Chakraborty) who is Golaam. Javed is a taxi driver who is in love with a rich girl Rumi (Parno Mitra) who is his regular passenger from late night parties in weekends.
Jimmy, Jaya and Javed were living their lives in the same city without crossing each other's

path, but one tragic coincidence brings them together. Here comes the weaker part of the script because the way all these three tracks has been interconnected that could have been written in a better way. It looks very much forced in the script.Apart from that there are few more weak points in the screenplay. Like the romantic track between taxi driver Javed and his passenger Rumi looks so hurried and superficial that when it ends in a tragic note, it fails to generate the required sympathy for the protagonist.
At one point Jaya discovers a secret about her husband just by a coincidence, that too looks like a forcefully inserted coincidence in the screenplay. There is a rape scene towards the climax but the prelude to that scene looks very immature. It could have been placed in a better way as part of the story.

In spite of these shortcomings one should really praise some strong points of the story. It raises a strong voice against violence against woman. It makes a strong point about freedom of woman for their sexual preference.
The climax will also be well received as it signifies victory against injustice, although it is too violent. Another good point about the film is that it never wastes time to spoon feed the audiences rather it believes on the intelligence of the viewers and says a lot with just giving a smart hint. 

As a director, it is Pratim D Gupta's second full length feature film. His directorial debut was good but mostly unnoticed. He has matured a lot from there not only in terms of directorial skills but also now he knows how to create right buzz for his film. His love for the city of Kolkata is very prominent in every scene as the city itself has become a character in the film. His direction is very stylish and his eye for every minute detailing is commendable. Only thing he could have been done better was to work more on the script to make it more convincing.

All the actors have been cast really well even the ones who have very less screen time. Anjan

Dutta looks and acts convincingly as cool headed contract killer Jimmy. His character has very less dialogues but with his mannerisms and body language he has managed to connect with the audiences. There is an emotional part too in his character and he has played that wonderfully. 
Swastika Mujherjee is just extraordinary as Bibi. She has to play two different roles one as the obidient housewife Jaya and another one as the free spirited prostitute Shuktara. As Jaya she has worked more with her expressions, as Shuktara she has used her body to make it sensuous. The way she has performed the bold scenes it needs courage and very few heroine has that guts to do that. She is one actress who is really brave and bold in real life and that has worked in her favor to portray her onscreen character.
Ritwick Chakraborty is a dynamite of talent and you can not overlook his brilliant acting. Anyone will fall in love for this innocent cabbie, Javed. Watch him in the scene where he is practising dancing skills to impress his girlfriend. Only one thing needs to be said whatever he has done here is good and honest but looks repetitive. We have seen him doing all this earlier too. Especially his character Javed has a strong hangover from the character he had played in Srijit Mujherjee's #Nirbaak.
Parno Mitra has very less to do as a rich young girl who is in love with a taxi driver. She has managed to look good and have given good support. In her last scene she had some scope to prove her acting capabilities but she could not utilize that chance fully. Vikram Chatterjee, a television heartthrob who has tried his luck in movies few times has been reintroduced here in a negative role. He is just okay as Zico, the arrogant rich spoilt son of a politician. In some scenes to make his villainous personality more strong he has done too much over acting. 

The technical team is in terrific form here. Cinematographer Gairik Sarkar has rediscovered the beauty of the city Kolkata with his lens. Editing by Sanjib Dutta is crisp enough to maintain the required pace. Background score is very heavy in few scenes otherwise it is okay. One must praise the team behind production design and costume design, they have given the film and the characters very authentic look.
The music has been composed by immensely popular Anupam Roy and he has not disappointed his fans. The song "Mon Bhalo Nei" will remain with you for long time. 

Overall #SahebBibiGolaam is a thriller with a different taste. The screenplay is weaker but it has originality. It is a brave attempt to protest injustice against women. Watch it for the earnest performance by the whole cast and crew.

Review of Bengali Cinema Hemanta

William Shakespeare’s #Hamlet has inspired many directors to adapt it in form of plays or movies as it is an interesting emotional drama of complex characters. In India Vishal Bhardwaj has already made an adaptation in Hindi as #Haider but #Hemanta is the first Bengali film to be adapted from #Hamlet. It was a long cherished dream of Director Anjan Dutta to adapt it as a film on celluloid and finally he has done it and #Hemanta is here in theaters.

Anjan Dutta has tried to be true to the original play as much as possible though he has transformed the story to today’s time in the backdrop of Kolkata. But the characters are almost true to the original as per their basic emotions. Here the Kingdom of Denmark has been changed to a Bengali Film production house, Agradoot Pictures and the ghost of Hamlet’s father has been changed to mobile messages from an unknown number which does not exists in real.

The story begins when Hemanta (Parambrata Chatterjee) comes back to Kolkata from America where he is studying film direction. Hemanta comes back to search answers of some sms which he is getting from some unknown numbers. Not only is him, rather his childhood friend Hirak (Jishu Sengupta) is also receiving similar messages. Hemanta believes that the sms are not just spam rather someone wants to give him some message. Soon he discovers that the messages are related with his father’s death which is believed to be a suicide but after decoding the messages Hemanta gets convinced that it was a murder and there was a conspiracy going on in his father’s production house. After coming back to Kolkata, Hemanta also discovers that his widow mother Gayatri (Gargee Roychowdhury) has married his uncle Kalyan Sen(Saswata Chatterjee). Gayatri was an actress before her first marriage and now both Gayatri and Kalyan are managing the production house as Trustees. With the help of the mobile sms, Hemanta understands it was his mother and uncle who were involved in the murder of his father and now he wants to take revenge but not sure how to take revenge. On the other hand Hirak also discovers some ongoing money laundering in Agradoot pictures with the help of his hacker friend Yuri (Shubhra Saurav Das). Hemanta is disturbed, impatient and clueless to take decision on the other hand Hirak is calm and composed and want to take revenge in legal way. In between all these, there is Olipriya (Payel Sarkar) who is a childhood friend of Hemanta and daughter of Kalyan Sen’s manager PulakBabu. Both Olipriya and Hemanta like each other but their priorities in life are different. Olipriya wants to get married with Hemanta and settle down where Hemanta is clueless about his future and not ready to commit to any relationship in the middle of the complications he is going through.

It’s true that to adapt a vast novel in a two and half hours film is very tough and the screenplay writers have tried here to touch the main characters and their basic emotions but still it looks like hurried towards the climax. It seems something remained untold or could have been explained a bit more. There are some moments which are really well scripted specially the confrontation scenes between Hemanta and Gayatri, the love hate relationship of the mother son duo has been portrayed very well. Also the relationship between Hirak and Yuri has been written wonderfully. There is not a single mention of their sexuality but still their relationship is pretty clear. But one will feel sad that this adaptation has just told the story which you already know it has added nothing new to add.

As a director Anjan Dutta is okay. Credit should be given to him for choosing perfect actors for playing different characters. But he should have been more careful about the screenplay. He has become so obsessed with the characters that he has missed to conclude the story in a perfect way.

All the actors have been perfectly cast and have done fine jobs. Parambrata Chatterjee has done one of his career best performances as the disturbed confused Hemanta. The impatience and aggressiveness of his character has been portrayed perfectly by the body language and mannerism of Parambrata. As per the director, no other actor in Bengali film industry could have done the character better than Parambrata Chatterjee and Parambrata has proved his director right.

Same can be said about Jishu Sengupta who is brilliant as calm and composed Hirak, who is exactly opposite to the character of Hemanta. Jishu Sengupta has played a supporting character that has not much screen time but he has managed to left impression. The chemistry between Jishu and Parambrata is absolutely wonderful; together they both have complemented each other in two exactly opposite characters.

For a change ,Saswata Chatterjee has played an out an out negative character and he is absolutely brilliant as the white  collared criminal Kalyan Sen who can go to any extent to be in top of his business.  There is not much scope for showing his love for Gayatri but in one scene he has been allowed to express his emotions towards her and he is too good in that.

Gargee Roychowdhury is undoubtedly one under rated actress in Bengali film industry. She is a powerhouse of talent and here she has fully utilized the opportunity to showcase her talent as Gayatri Sen. Gayatri is a woman torn between her affection towards her son and love towards her husband, the dilemma of the character has been expressed perfectly by Gargee . The pain and mental stress of her on screen character can be visible in her acting.

Payel Sarkar is good as Olipriya a simple girl with simple dreams in a complicated world around her. Payel has very limited screen time but still it can be said it is much better role for her compared to her last few commercial movies. She has done full justice with her character and has left her mark.

Apart from the main cast special mention should be given for two actors who have small roles but they are just extraordinary. One is Sagnik Chatterjee as raju , the helping hand of Kalyan Sen in his criminal activities and another one is Shubhra Saurav Das who has played Yuri, the gay friend of Hirak who is a hacker and helps Hirak to solve the mystery of the SMSes. Both of them have done fine job in their limited scope.

There is not much scope for songs but the background score by Neel Dutta is effective. But the only song which is there, towards the climax is not up to the mark which we expect from this father son duo.

Overall #Hemanta is a film which is neither too good nor too bad. Story wise it has nothing new to tell but still you can watch it for the brilliant performances by the whole cast.

Review of Bengali Movie Eagler Chokh

Almost one and half year ago a new age sleuth was introduced in Bengali cinema who is very much different from the regular Bengali cinelover’s favourite Byomkesh or Feluda, he is Shabor Dasgupta, from Kolkata police crime branch. All credit goes to director Arindam Sil for bringing Shabor from the pages of Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay novels to the silver screen. His maiden attempt with Shabor became hugely popular and as a result the leading production house of Tollywood, Shree Venkatesh Films decided to join hands with Arindam Sil to make it a franchise. As a result now we have the second part of Goyenda Shabor Series which is #EaglerChokh. When the first movie of this series #EbarShabor was released there were no expectations from that one but this time audience have high hopes with #EaglerChokh , so whether the movie has been successful to fulfil all the expectation, let’s find out.

Just like #EbarShabor , #EaglerChokh too is a complex story of love, desire, sex, greed, betrayal and complex human emotions, only this time it has more adult contents in the

story. The movie begins with the signature style where we have been introduced with crime in the beginning followed by a superb chase sequence in title credits.

The crime scene here is the murder of one woman Nandini(Payel  Sarkar)  and an attempt to murder of the other woman in that house Shibangi(Joya Ahsaan). Shibangi is the wife of a rich business man Bishan Roy (Anirban Bhattacharya) and Nandini is Shibangi’s friend cum business partner who stays with Bishan and Shibangi in the same house. The crime happened in absence of Bishan when he was out of town. In the first investigation Police consider it as just a case of robbery and accidental murder, but the Junior Investigation officer (Gaurav Chakraborty) has doubt that it is more than just a robbery so he insists Shabor (Saswata Chatterjee) to get involved in this case along with his assistant Nandlal (Shubrajit Dutta).

While doing his investigation Shabor finds the case is not that simple and there are so many layers. He also comes to know that Bishan is an alcoholic and is suffering from psychological trauma of getting sexually abused by an elderly woman in his teenage. He hates to have any emotional relationships with any woman but enjoys having sexual pleasure with women once he is drunk. There are many women in his life who are physically attracted to him; Nandini is one of those women. The more Shabor proceeds with his investigation he founds every person in the suspect list has some secrets with them. The more deep he goes; he finds darker side of human emotion which are controlling the sub conscious mind of the victims as well as the suspects. 

The story and screenplay has been written by Arindam Sil along with Padmanava Dasgupta is very interesting and it keeps the audience engaged for every single frame. By the time the movie ends one will hardly care to know who the culprit is; rather the audience will get involved more in the dark secret which gets revealed in the climax. The length of the film is near about two hours so it is precise and will never bore you.

As a director Arindam Sil has already proved his calibre in his earlier thrillers and this time too he has not disappointed his fans. His signature style of storytelling is there in every shot. He knows to present his story in a stylish way making it more attractive to the audiences. This time too he has managed to make the look and feel very urban and stylish. Also he knows while directing a crime thriller when to disclose how much to make the suspense alive till the end.

Among the actors, Saswata Chatterjee is very effective as the smart cop Shabor Dasgupta. His dialogue delivery, his body language is perfect for the character only he needs to work a bit on his weight to look more fit specially in the action sequences. He has worked really well to maintain continuity of his character from the first part. Also his comic timing with his assistant Nanda is bang on. Subhrajit Dutta has improved a lot from his earlier portrayal of Nanda, this time he has made his presence felt more than last time. His comedy is perfect relief in the rather serious intense drama.

Anirban Bhattacharya who is mainly a theatre actor has done a wonderful job. He is excellent as Bishan Roy, a person going through psychological trauma. As per the story he is not handsome but attractive and we must say he has carried his stylish look such a way that he looks really attractive. Also in his drunk scenes he is perfectly alright.

There are too many female characters but Joya Ahsaan has done the best job among them. For most of the part, Joya has played a patient on hospital bed and she has done excellent job to portray her physical pain along with her mental stress that she is going through. She is one fine actress who gets very less chance in Bengali movies and we deserve to see her in more films with powerful characters.

Payel Sarkar is okay in a character with negative shades but she has not much scope. Debutante Riya Banik has done quite a good job as Janhavi a teenager girl who works as an assistant to Shibangi. She has a good role and she has done full justice with that.

Ushosi fails to impress in her acting debut. Gaurav Chakraborty , June Malia and Arunima Ghosh are alright in their extended cameos.

The technical team is brilliant to make the film more stylish, rich and interesting look and feel wise. The cinematography by Shoumik Halder is eye catching; the background music and songs done by Bickram Ghosh are good. Editor has worked really well with his scissors to make the film crisp and engaging which is required for a thriller. Special mention should be given for production design department, costumes designer and make-up artist who have given the film a really stylish urban look.

Overall #EaglerChokh has fulfilled all the expectation as a successor of #EbarShabor. It has pace, suspense, drama and some good acting. While watching the film you will feel yourself involved with detective Shabor Dasgupta in his investigation and for a single moment it won’t bore you. This is one good crime thriller and you should not miss it.

August 2016 will be the Month of Thrillers in Bengali Cinema

It's very rare that three big Bengali releases coming in one month that too without any festive season, but this rare scenario is going to happen in August 2016. 

There are three back to back big releases this August and surprisingly all three are thrillers. So it won't be wrong to name this as the Month of Thrillers.

On the Independence long weekend that is on 12th August two movies will be released on same day.
The first one will be #Hemanta directed by Anjan Dutta. This is one long cherished dream of

Anjan Dutta to adapt Shakespeare's revenge drama Hamlet. Last year Aparna Sen too had tried her hands to remake a Shakespeare play with #Arshinagar but it failed badly. Unlike Aparna Sen, Anjan Dutta has adapted his story in a contemporary setup in today's Kolkata. Here Hamlet has been changed to Hemanta , played by Parambrata Chatterjee. He is on a mission to find the murderers of his father with his friend Hirak, a character inspired from Horatio from the original play. This character has been played by Jishu Sengupta. Then there is Hemanta love interest Olipriya inspired from Ophelia which has been played by Payel Sarkar. The two most complex and grey characters of the play Claudius and Gertrude has been named as Kalyan and Gayatri and has been played by very talented Shaswata Chatterjee and Gargee Roychoudhuty. The trailer has already launched and generated positive feedback. A thriller, a Shakespeare's tragedy, a wonderful ensemble cast and a director who has earlier directed thrillers very smoothly what more we need from a film. It looks like a winner already. Let's hope for the best.

Hemanta Trailer

The other release on 12^th August will be Shree Venkatesh Films' production #GoyendaShaborEaglerChokh. Last year director Arindam Sil had surprised everyone with his slick stylish thriller #EbarShabor, this time he is back with the second instalment of Shabor Series. Once again it will be based on a Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay story, set in today's Kolkata. It will be a murder mystery where there are too many female characters in the suspicious list. Shaswata Chatterjee will be back as detective Shabor Dashgupta and this time in his investigation, he will be joined a young Police officer played Gaurav Chakraborty. Among the others it will be theater actor Anirban Bhattacharya along with Jaya Ahsaan, Payel Sarkar, Ushahi, June Malya. Once again it will be a tale of love , lust , doubt , betrayal and of course suspense .The first part of Shabor Series was a big hit and we can expect the same form this one too.

Eagler Chokh Trailer

After two weeks on 26th August, there will be yet another thriller at your nearest theaters, it

will be #SahebBibiGolaam. Since the first teaser has been released there is enough curiosity

for the film. The bold and edgy thriller has grabbed eyeballs not in Bengal rather it has received positive feedback from many celebrities from Bollywood too. It has been directed by critic turned filmmaker Pratim D Gupta. Although his directorial debut was almost unnoticed but this time he is back with full energy and a wonderful cast which consists names like Anjan Dutta, Swastika Mujherjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Parno Mitra. It will be interesting to see what happens when a contact killer, a bore housewife and a taxi driver's lives get interconnected with each other in a surprising twist. The music has been composed by Anupam Roy and the songs are very melodious. This movie has to struggle a lot with censor board for its bold contents which had delayed its release date, hope all this wait will be fruitful for this film and audience will give it a good response.

 Saheb Bibi Golaam Trailer