Best Bengali Movies of 2016

The year 2016 is over now and it is the time to look back and revisit the best Bengali movies of 2016.Business wise 2016 was not that good for Bengali movies as most of the movies were flops and the sad thing is even a big number of movies went totally unnoticed because of lack of promotion. But we saw a good trend this year that audiences are more interested to see movies based on good content and original content rather than the south Indian remakes.

Here is the list of 10 Best films of 2016

[In order of their release date]

Bastushaap

With the movie #Bastuushaap, directed Kaushik Ganguly once again came with a

unique subject and this time it was Bastu and this concept was gelled with an interesting story revolving around a family and their problems. Very intelligently the story told us about to get a better life one should organize the Bastu of his inner self not of the house. Kaushik ganguly had treated the film quite differently from his regular movies. It was comparatively more mainstream and different from Kaushik Ganguly's signature style and it worked with the audiences.The main cast was full of talented actors Abir Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Churni Ganguly and Kaushik Ganguly himself and all five actors delivered one of their finest performances. Also the music by Anupam Roy was quite popular which also worked in favor of the movie.

Sankhachil

#Sankhachil was an Indo-Bangladesh joint venture about the painful effects of

partition. It was directed by very talented Gautam Ghosh. In the lead cast there was Prasenjit Chatterjee along with Bangladeshi actress Kusum Sikder and a young girl Saanjhbati. The story was very emotional and heart touching about the struggle of a parent to save their daughter from a fatal disease. It was full with nostalgic moments regarding the pain of partition of Bengal. Moreover the powerful performances by the whole cast, especially by Prasenjit Chatterjee was another highlight of the film. The film connected very well with the audiences for its nostalgic emotions about Indo-Bangla partition and also for the realistic representation of the situation at Indo-Bangla border area. Also the performances by the whole cast was highly applauded. It was hugely appreciated in different film festivals and also received National award for best Bengali film category.

Cinemawala

#Cinemawala was a Venkatesh Films production, directed by master storyteller

Kaushik Ganguly. This was Kaushik Ganguly's attempt to bring attention to the poor condition of single screen theaters. Day by day such theaters are losing their existence. The film tried to protest against piracy through a story of a father and son and their collision, the battle between single screen theater owner and pirated CD seller. In the lead roles Paran Bandopadhyay and Parambrata Chatterjee were extra ordinary. They were perfectly supported by Arun Guhathakurta and Sohini Sarkar. Although it was a film for the sake of single screen theater owners but the subject was too classy to be a single screen theater favorite. Even in multiplexes it got mixed response, but it got very warm response at the festivals.

Praktan

#Praktan was a film for which there was a sky-high expectation since the film was

announced. There were two main reasons for that, one was director duo Shiboprasad Mujherjee and Nandita Roy, whose last film #Belasheshe was the biggest hit of last year, another reason was after long 14 years one of the most loved on screen couple of Bengali cinema, Prasenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta were coming back together.  When the film released it got bumper opening and after watching it people find it has satisfied all the expectations. The story was very promising which was about two ex lovers who met accidentally on a train journey after a long gap and interestingly that concept had some similarity with the real life scenario of the lead couple. People only went to see Prasenjit and Rituparna together but they got in addition superb performance from Aparijita Addhya, a heart touching story and soulful music. All these worked as magic for the film and it created history at the box office.

Eagler Chokh

Last year director Arindam Sil had surprised everyone with his slick stylish

thriller #EbarShabor, this time he was back with the second instalment of Shabor Series. Once again it was based on a Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay story, a murder mystery set in today's Kolkata. It was a story revolving around a young guy who is going through a mental trauma after facing sexual abuse at a young age. Around him there were many female characters among them many were sexually attracted to the guy. Shaswata Chatterjee once again did an excellent job as detective Shabor Dashgupta. Among the others it was theatre actor Anirban Bhattacharya in the central character who did a superb job and grabbed everyone's attention. Among the girls Jaya Ahsaan and debutante Riya Bank gave remarkable performances. The first part of Shabor Series was a big hit and the second one continued that trend.

SahebBibiGolaam

It was critic turned director Pratim D Gupta's second directorial venture. Since

the first teaser had been released there was enough curiosity for the film. The bold and edgy thriller had grabbed eyeballs not only in Bengal rather it had got positive feedback from many celebrities from Bollywood too. As a director Pratim D Gupta’s directorial debut was almost unnoticed but this time he was back with full energy and a wonderful cast which included names like Anjan Dutta, Swastika Mujherjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Parno Mitra. It was an interesting story about a contact killer, a bore housewife and a taxi driver whose lives gets interconnected with each other in a surprising twist. It was an interesting as well as refreshing story. Another good point about the film was it had raised strong voice against social injustice and crime against women and this point helped it more to get connected with the audiences. The music by Anupam Roy was very melodious and popular.This movie had to struggle a lot with censor board for its bold contents which had delayed its release date, but the audience were mature enough to accept the bold contents so it got positive feedback from audience.

Zulfiqar
One of the most successful director Srijit Mukherjee collaborated with the biggest production house of the industry to make a big budget Magnum opus with almost

half dozen of big stars, definitely this was enough to make #Zulfiqar one of the most awaited film of this year. It was the talk of the town since the first teaser was released. The story concept, to adapt two Shakespeare's novels 'Julius Caesar' and 'Antony and Cleopatra' in one movie that too in the backdrop of mafias in Khidderpore doc area was very fresh and appealing to Bengali cine lovers. Apart from the director and the concept the huge star cast was obviously an added attraction which included names like Prosenjit Chatterjee, Dev, Parambrata Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Kaushik Sen, Ankush, Paoli Dam, Nusrat, Rahul Banerjee among others.Not to forget the wonderful music by Anupam Roy which was already popular before the release of the film. All these factors helped this film to get the biggest opening among the other Puja releases. After watching it, people were divided in different opinions. Some felt it was a good effort from Srijit but some loyal fans of Srijit Mukherjee felt that he tried to attend more commercial subject coming out of his own signature style of film making ,to make it more mass appealing. No matter whether some people were not too happy with it but the positive response towards it was huge enough and that reflected on the box office collections too. Among the actors Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Kaushik Sen, Paoli Dam got appreciation for their performances. Dev got a huge acclaim for his superb acting in a mute character. But Jisshu Sengupta was the show stealer with his exceptionally well portrayal of a negative character.

ByomkeshOChiriyakhana
During last year Durga Puja, director Anjan Dutta presented Jisshu Sengupta as

new Byomkesh Bakshi and it was a big hit. Getting inspired from last year's success the team came back this Puja with yet another mystery of Byomkesh Bakshi. This time the story was 'Chiriyakhana'. This was the same story on which Satyajit Ray had made his only Byomkesh movie with Uttam Kumar. Though it was not a kind of remake of Ray's 'Chiriyakhana', rather director Anjan Dutta had made it, in his own way. This time too Jisshu Sengupta, Saswata Chatterjee and Ushoshi were there as Byomkesh, Ajit and Satyabati. Along with them there were a bunch of film and television actors like Shantilal Mukherjee, Sayani Ghosh, Neel Mukjerjee, Priyanka Sarkar, Riju Biswas, Kanchan Mallik and Subhra Saurav Das. All of them were perfect in their roles especially Subhra was too good as a mentally challenged guy. Both Jissu and Saswata were as usual in good form. Whenever Anjan Dutta has made a Byomkesh film it has never failed and this time too there was no exception. The movie got a wonderful opening and considering its limited budget it became a big hit in just few weeks. In fact it was the most profitable film among the all six releases during this Puja.

Byomkesh Pawrbo

Last year director Arindam Sil had reintroduced Byomkesh in his first attempt

with Byomkesh movies with #HarHarByomkesh and this year with #ByomkeshPawrbo he continued that trend. Once again we got a Byomkesh movie which was more mainstream and more contemporary without compromising with the traditional Byomkesh sentiments. This movie was based on Shirdendu Bandopadhyay's novel "Amriter Mrityu", which was about solving the mystery of illegal arms circulation. The backdrop was set in the forest areas of Dooars in the time of 1948. One must say the recreation of the period of 1948 had been done very authentically by the talented crew lead by Director Arindam Sil. As Byomkesh Bakshi, Abir Chatterjee was in superb form and he was the main highlight of the film. Apart from him Sohini Sarkar, Kaushik Sen and Rudranil Ghosh were also appreciated for their performances. Besides fine acting and direction another high point of the film was brilliant cinematography by Soumik Halder. The movie was well received by the audiences.

Double Feluda

It was a Feluda movie which marked the celebration of completion of glorious fifty years Feluda series. That is why for the fans it had not one rather two stories in

two halves. These two stories were "Samaddarer Chabi" and "Golakdhaam Rahasya". As Sandip Ray is yet to find a new actor to play Jatayu so he had to choose two stories from the initial phase of Feluda series where Jatayu was not there. To play Feluda and Topshe he once again chose his old favorites Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Saheb Bhattacharya. Although Sabyasachi  Chakraborty has grown old, but with perfect make up and a better body language Sabyasachi managed to overcome all those shortcomings.

Apart from two stories, there were some additional features for the fans like the opening credit which showed the original textbook snapshots from different popular Feluda stories to bring back all the memories of reading the books. The end credit was a journey through the memories of Feluda movies where the cast and crew members shared their experience working with Satyajit Ray on Feluda movies, in a short documentary format. Sandip Ray's simple storytelling and Sabyasachi Chakraborty's wonderful performance in the title role make it a favorite among the fans.