Review of Bengali Movie #Khwato

Kamaleshwar Mukherjee’s #Khwato is definitely one bold and brave film hardly ever made in Bengali cinema, not just because of the erotic scenes but because of creating bold leading characters that are bold enough to accept their physical desires. But if we consider it as an erotic thriller then it must be said it is erotic but not thrilling that much.

The story begins on an interesting note when a young couple Rishav (Ronodeep) and Sohag(Tridha) decides to spend a long holiday in a beach side resort to have some fun moments together. All of a sudden they meet a suspicious stranger who lives alone in a

cottage on the beach. Soon they discover the stranger is none other than yester years famous author Nirbed Lahiri(Prasenjit Chatterjee) who is living life alone for last twenty years, leaving the name and fame, away from the social circuit. Sohag is a die-hard fan of Nirbed and on her insistence Rishav too agrees to take the hospitality of Nirbed. Obviously Sohag and Rishav have too many questions about Nirbed’s self banishment and to answer that Nirbed tell them the story of his last novel “Khwato” which is actually an autobiography of his life and is still incomplete. From then starts the flashback story of the author Nirbed Lahiri who is open to flirt with any lady even in front of his wife Srijeeta (Raima Sen). One day Nirbed meets Antara (Paoli Dam) the wife of Animesh (Rahul Banerjee), who is a friend of Srijeeta. Nirbed feels attracted physically as well as mentally with Antara from the first visit and soon he gets a chance to share bed with Antara in return of the favour he did for Animesh. Gradually it turns into a love lust relationship with active participation from both Nirbed and Antara.

But what is the future of this extra marital relationship and what will happen if their spouses come to know about this. For that you have to watch the film.

Although it begin with an interesting note with a passionate story of an author and his muse but  soon it turns into a regular story of extra marital affair. The twist in the end too does not go well with the mood of the film.

As a director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee has done better work earlier. This time he has chosen a bold subject and he is not shy to present it in bold way, but he should have concentrate more on the story.

Probably it is the boldest character played by Prasenjit Chatterjee in his whole career. He has never seen doing so much steamy scenes on screen and he is confident enough to do

those scenes. He has two different looks in this film one in his flashback where he is in his late 30s, a celebrity author and another one in his late 50s where he is living a lonely life. Like his all recent films here too he has taken good care of his looks, specially the aged look, he looks really amazing in that.  He has played both the parts with honesty. It is one character which can be easily identified as grey or even negative as we are not habituated to see a hero who is so much open about his physical needs. Credit must be given to Prasenjit Chatterjee, for taking the risk to play such a character.

Paoli Dam is no doubt a wonderful actress who has emoted very well in the complex character of Antara. The dilemma of her character to choose between responsibilities and desires has been clearly portrayed by Paoli. If we talk about the bold scenes those are not tough for Paoli anymore, she has matured a lot doing erotic scenes, but when she is not doing those scenes she has proved her acting abilities too. Watch out her in her last scene, she is just too good in that.

Sadly Raima Sen has been sidelined with a half baked character of the wife of author Nirbed Lahiri. Apart from one scene where she has a confrontation with her husband she has nothing much to do apart from being a part of a group. Rahul Banerjee has make his presence felt as a happy go lucky Animesh. Tridha has added enough glamour with her revealing clothes. Ronodeep is good in a supporting role.

The technical team has done good job. The production design of early 90’s Kolkata is efficient. Camerawork has been done quite well, the sea beaches have been captured really well. The background score and sound design is good enough to add the required amount of drama.

Overall #Khwato is a bold film with bold characters who can challenge social moralities. No matter the lead characters are white, black or grey but they are not fake, they have real human desires. There is love, lust, passion, betrayal which could have taken it to some another level but sadly it remains just an ordinary extra marital story only. Watch it just too see the performances of the lead pair do not expect anything more.

Update of Bengali Movies in the Second Quarter of 2016

The second quarter of 2016 was much better than the first quarter. In this quarter we got the biggest hit of the year so far.
Let's have a month wise recap of the Bengali movies in Q2 2016.

April

This was the month of Poila Boishakh so it was obvious to have big releases. This year too two big movies were released during Poila Boishakh. One was #Power and another one was #Sankhachil. Both were totally different movies for different set of audience so both did well without hampering each other's business.

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

had been 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. There were many other actors from both side of Bengal. 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 all , specially by Prasenjit Chatterjee was another highlight of the film. The film connected very fast with the audiences and it showed in the box office collections. The film was well received by critics, audience and in film festivals too.

#Power was a south Indian remake from Shree Venkatesh films production house directed by Rajiv. It was out an out commercial film to cash on the star power of Jeet that too in a double role. One Police officer and another one as his look alike who later take the position of the police officer. Jeet was accompanied by two lovely ladies Nusrat and Sayantika who were much enough to add glamour quotient. Then there were lovely song and dance sequences too with the catchy music of Jeet Ganguly which helped it make more popular among the masses. As expected it get good response at the small centers. Once again Jeet proved his star power in commercial cinema with #Power.

May

The month of may have two big releases one was festival favorite #Cinemawala another one was the biggest hit of this year so far #Praktan.

#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 loosing their existence. The film tried to protest against piracy with 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 able 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, the slow pace of the film worked against the film and in spite of getting a good opening it remained an average earner at the ticket windows.

#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. People had 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. Another benefit it got because of the worldwide release on same day which was first time for any Bengali movie. It is still running successfully at theaters and most probably it will keep running till the end of the year.

June

There was not a single big release to mention, in the month of June.

So the second quarter was good on overall and we are even more hopeful from the third quarter as there are too many big releases in queue including two big Eid releases Jeet starer #BadshahTheDon , Dev and Jishu starer #KelorKirti. Also there is Prasenjit Chjatterjee's erotic thriller #Khwato. Then in August there will be , second part of Shabor series #EaglerChokh, Anjan Dutta's remake of Hamlet, #Hemanto , Pratim D Gupta directed thriller #SahebBibiGolaam.

Best Film of Quarter 2 2016

• Shankhachil
• Cinemawala
• Praktan

Best Directors of Quarter 2 2016

• Gautam Ghosh - Shankhachil
• Kaushik Ganguly - Cinemawala
• Shiboprasad Mukherjee, Nandita Roy - Praktan

 Best Actors of Quarter 2 2016

• Prasenjit Chatterjee - Shankhachil
• Paran Bandopadhyay - Cinemawala
• Prsenjit Chatterjee - Praktan
• Parambrata Chatterjee - Cinemawala
• Arun Guhathakurta - Cinemawala

Best Actresses of Quarter 2 2016

• Kusum Sikder - Shankhachil
• Rituparna Sengupta - Praktan
• Sohini Sarkar - Cinemawala
• Aparajita Addhya - Praktan

Update of Bollywood Movies in the 2nd Quarter of 2016

The second quarter of 2016 was average for Bollywood movies, there was one 100cr hit, few surprise hits , one big surprising flop. Apart from that one significant trend was that Hollywood movies kept doing superb business and gave tough competition to Bollywood releases.

Lets have a month wise recap of the 2nd quarter of 2016.

April

The month of April was the month full of surprises where one of the most awaited films from big production house having big star failed at the box office, on the other hand two comparatively smaller films with lesser expectations perform really well at the box office.

The month started with Director R.Balki's  #KiAndKa featuring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan. It was a movie about the role reversal of two genders male and female where a woman can be the working member of a family and his husband can happily accept the role of a homemaker. The different concept of the film was the main highlight and it got clicked with the audiences. As a result it did well enough business and earned more than 50cr which was not at all expected from this movie. On final run its box office results were good enough to be called an average hit at the box office.

It was followed by the highly expected #Fan where Shahrukh Khan was playing a double role of a super star and his lookalike fan. There were sky high expectations from this film. Trade analysts were looking for a 200cr club member but surprisingly the film became the biggest flop of Shahrukh in last one decade. It got big opening which was expected but after watching the film both critics and audiences were highly disappointed. As a result its collection kept dropping from the first Monday and its lifetime collection limited to only 85cr which was even lower than 100cr. No matter how bad it performed at the box office but everyone was flattered by Shahrukh Khan's brilliant acting, specially as the fan Gaurav.


Finally came yet another surprise hit of the year #Baaghi. It was a

remake of a South Indian film featuring one film old Tiger Shroff along with Shraddha Kapoor. It was just an average film with an ordinary storyline but what worked in favour of the movie was its high voltage action sequences featuring a mix of different martial art forms. The way Tiger Shroff had executed all the deadly action sequences that were a treat for the eyes. It got a huge opening weekend collection followed by a whopping 60cr in first week. Its life time collection was 76cr, which was good enough to call it a big hit.
There was another small release in the last week of April which was #NilBatteySannata , it was an wonderful film about following your dreams. This mother daughter story had touched everyone’s heart but due to limited release and marketing it could not make it big at box office. Swara Bhaskar had done highly commendable job along with the child artist Ria Shukla

Apart from that another highlight of the month was Hollywood biggie #TheJungleBook, this 3D animation film created history becoming the biggest earning Hollywood film in India with a tremendous box office collection of around 184cr, which was much more than many Bollywood film's lifetime collection. It was clearly an indication that Hollywood movies are here to be tough competition for Bollywood releases in near future.

May

The month of May was less significant compared to April in terms of Box office business. This month have several small releases including two back to back biopic but none of these movies was able to gain popularity.

The month started with #Traffic a thriller based on real life incident. It has a different storyline with some good moral lessons about humanity. People who had watched the film had liked it but due to weaker publicity and lack of star power the film reached to very limited audience. 

The second significant release of this month was #Azhar a film based on the controversial life of former Indian skipper Md Azharuddin. The film was not as authentic and interesting as expected rather it was a movie where few facts had been merged with more fictional stories to add entertainment value. The movie got average response with only 33cr box office collection in its lifetime business, but people liked Emraan Hashmi in the title role.

Then came yet another movie based on the real life incident of Sarbjit’s imprisonment in

Pakistan Jail. The movie was #Sarbjit and it was directed by Omung Kumar. The film had been promoted quite well as a comeback vehicle of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan but the real show stealer was Randeep Hooda who performed brilliantly in the title role. From his superb acting to his physical transformation for the character was appreciated by each and all. People also liked Aishwarya as Dalbir Kaur and Richa Chaddha as Sarbjit Kaur’s wife. The film got average opening and did a limited business of around 29cr only which was not good enough, but compared to the small budget of the film it can be called an average earner.

The last week of May witnessed three small releases on same Friday. The movies were #Veerappan, #Waiting and #Phobia. None of the movie could bring audience to theatres. But the performances of Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin in #Waiting and Radhika Apte in #Phobia were highly appreciated.

June

The month of June was a better one from May. It got a wonderful opening with a 100cr hit

#Houseful3. It was the third part of #Houseful series featuring old favourites Akshay Kumar , Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez and Boman Irani along with the new entrants Abhishek Bachchan, Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakri. Just like the earlier movies of this series, #Houseful3 too was a mindless comedy revolving around one father, his three daughters, their three boyfriends and some confused identities. Honestly speaking this was the worst film of this series but surprisingly with Akshay Kumar’s immense popularity it got a huge opening and recorded highest opening weekend collection of 2016 so far, with around 53cr. It kept doing well because of its mass appeal , catchy songs and presence of Akshay Kumar, which helped it too earn 80cr in its first week and a lifetime business of 108cr(as of now).

It was followed by gripping thriller #TE3N. It was a decent thriller with superb acting by Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan. But sadly it did not receive that much positive response from the audiences and went quite unnoticed with a very low box office collection of around 18cr only.

Then came one of the most controversial film of this year, #UdtaPunjab. This Abhishek

Chaubey directed film tried to trace the root cause and effect of Drug addiction in the state of Punjab. This movie got too many objections from Censor board especially because of its name as they claimed it will defame the state and it’s Government. Finally the producers had to take this case to High court to get the film released that too without changing the name. It was a very hard hitting film with authentic representation of the current situation in Punjab. The negative publicity worked in favour of the film and it got a very good opening. Also the subject, the superb acting by Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Punjabi actor Diljit Dosanjh got clicked really well with the audiences, which turned into a good box office collection with around 48cr in its first week.

Along with #UdtaPunjab another movie was released on the same day it was #Dhanak. It had been directed by very talented director Nagesh Kukunoor. This fairytale story of two young siblings from a remote village of Rajashthan was really wonderful. Both the child actors had done awesome job. This was a small movie with big heart but sadly due to very limited publicity and also because of the shifted limelight to #UdtaPunjab, the movie went totally unnoticed by people.

The final release of this month was a dark psychological thriller #RamanRaghav2.0, directed by Anurag Kashyap. This was a thriller about one serial killer and one crazy cop and their cat and mouse chase. The main highlight of this movie was realistic direction of Anurag Kashyap and the superb acting by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The movie was just okay and it was from a genre where a very low percentage of theatre going audiences shows interest, so this movie neither got a good opening nor its collections improved later. As expected it was just appreciated by few critics only, at box office it was a flop show.

Overall the first quarter was okay with not much big releases. There are some biggies in the next quarter including Salman Khan's Eid release #Sultan, Hrithik Roshan's periodic drama #MohenjoDaro, Akshya Kumar's #Rustam. We are hoping for even better Q3.

Best Film of Q2 2016

• Nil Battey Sannata
• Sarbjit
• Udta Punjab
• Dhanak

Best Director of Q2 2016

• Aswiny Iyer Tiwari - Nil Battey Sannata
• Omung Kumar - Sarbjit
• Abhishek Chaubey - Udta Punjab
• Anurag Kashyap - Raman Raghav 2.0

Best Actor of Q2 2016

• Shahrukh Khan - Fan
• Randeep Hooda - Sarbjit
• Shahid Kapoor - Udta Punjab
• Emraan Hashmi - Azhar
• Manoj Bajpayee - Traffic
• Diljit Dosanjh - Udta Punjab
• Naseeruddin Shah - Waiting
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui - TE3N/Raman Raghav 2.0
• Amitabh Bachchan - TE3N
• Vicky Kaushal - Raman Raghav 2.0

Best Actress of Q2 2016

• Swara Bhaskar - Nil Battey Sannata
• Aishwarya Rai Bachchan - Sarbjit
• Radhika Apte - Phobia
• Alia Bhatt - Udta Punjab
• Kalki Koechlin - Waiting
• Lara Dutta - Azhar
• Prachi Desai - Azhar
• Richa Chadhdha - Sarbjit
• Kareena Kapoor Khan - Udta Punjab
• Vidya Balan - TE3N

Top Songs of Q2 2016

• High Heel - Ki & Ka
• Jabra Fan - Fan
• Sab Tera - Baaghi
• Itni Si Baat Hai - Azhar
• Pyaar Ki Ma Ki, Taang Utha Ke - Houseful3
• Chitta Ve, Ik Kudi - Udta Punjab

Mahanayak Paying Tribute To Mahanayak

For the first time in Indian Television Industry a TV series has been made to pay tribute to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. This will be a 100 episode TV series named #Mahanayak. It has been produced by Shree Venkatesh Films and will be aired on Bengali entertainment channel, Star Jalsha starting from this 27^th June, every evening at 7PM.

This idea has been conceptualised by director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee and has been directed by Birsha Dasgupta. As it is not a biopic rather a fictional story loosely based on the professional and personal life of Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, so the name of the characters has been changed.

The story is obviously something to watch out for but another highlight of this series is the star cast. Mahanayak of today’s times Prasenjit Chatterjee is making his television debut in Fiction series with playing the title role of a superstar named Arun Kumar. Paoli Dam will be seen playing the most popular heroine of that time Suchorita which is obviously based on Suchitra Sen. Also it will feature Tanushree as  Priya and Priyanaka as Gayitri which are based on the characters of Supriya Devi and Savitri Chatterjee respectively. Apart from these actors there will be Sabyasachi Chakraborty playing a character based on Satyajit Ray , Shantilal Mukherjee playing a character based on Hemanta, Bishwanath Basu playing a character based on Bhanu.

We all are looking forward to see one Mahanayak playing another Mahanayak , on our TV screens. Best of luck to the whole team, hope the series will create history on Television world.

Nominations for IIFA Awards 2016

Best Picture
Eros International & Bhansali Productions - Bajirao Mastani
Eros International, Salman Khan, Kabir Khan, Rockline Venkatesh - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
N.P. Singh, Ronnie Lahiri, Sneha Rajani - Piku
Junglee Pictures & Vishal Bharadwaj - Talvar
Eros International, Krishika Lulla, Aanand L Rai - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Best Director
Aanand L Rai - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Kabir Khan - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Meghna Gulzar - Talvar
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Bajirao Mastani
Shoojit Sircar – Piku

Leading Role - Male
Amitabh Bachchan - Piku
Ranbir Kapoor - Tamasha
Ranveer Singh - Bajirao Mastani
Salman Khan - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Varun Dhawan – Badlapur

Leading Role - Female
Deepika Padukone - Bajirao Mastani
Deepika Padukone - Piku
Shraddha Kapoor – ABCD 2
Kangana Ranaut - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Priyanka Chopra – Dil Dhadakne Do

Supporting Role - Male
Anil Kapoor - Dil Dhadakne Do
Deepak Dobriyal - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Farhan Akhtar - Dil Dhadakne Do
Nawazuddin Siddiqui – Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Irrfan Khan – Piku

Supporting Role - Female
Anushka Sharma - Dil Dhadakne Do
Huma Qureshi - Badlapur
Priyanka Chopra - Bajirao Mastani
Konkana Sen Sharma – Talvar
Tanvi Azmi - Bajirao Mastani

Comic Role
Nawazuddin Siddiqui – Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Kapil Sharma – Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon
Deepak Dobriyal - Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Negative Role
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Badlapur
Gajraj Rao - Talvar
Darshan Kumar – NH10

Music Direction
Ankit Tiwari, Meet Bros. Anjaan and Amaal Mallik - Roy
Pritam – Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Bajirao Mastani

Best Story
V. Vijayendra Prasad – Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Massimo Carlotto- Badlapur
Juhi Chaturvedi – Piku

Lyrics
Amitabh Bhattacharya - Gerua (Dilwale) 
Irshad Kamil - Agar Tum Saath Ho (Tamasha) 
Varun Grover - Moh Moh Ke Dhaage (Dum Laga Ke Haisha) 

Playback Singer - Male
Arijit Singh – Hamari Adhuri Kahaani (Hamari Adhuri Kahaani) 
Arijit Singh - Sooraj Dooba (Roy) 
Papon - Moh Moh Ke Dhaage (Dum Laga Ke Haisha) 

Playback Singer - Female
Sunidhi Chauhan – Girls Like To Swing (Dil Dhadakne Do) 
Monali Thakur - Moh Moh Ke Dhaage (Dum Laga Ke Haisha) 
Kanika Kapoor - Chittiyan Kalaiyan (Roy) 
Shreya Ghoshal - Deewani Mastani (Bajirao Mastani)

Review of Bengali Film Praktan

In last one decade Shiboprasad Mujherjee and Nandita Roy have became a big name as directors. They make a totally different genre of movies which are neither made for festivals nor for rural single screen theatres; they make movies solely to give entertainment with a story with which people can connect. With #Praktan they have continued their legacy by making yet another tale of human relations and emotions with which one can easily relate.

The story has been developed from a one line idea from Rabindanath Tagore's poem "Hathat Dekha", what will happen if someone has to face his or her ex in the same train compartment during a journey. The concept is interesting but to develop a full length film around this concept is challenging and Shiboprasad and Nandita duo has successfully completed this challenge.

The story starts with two women sharing the same compartment in a train journey from Mumbai to Kolkata. One woman is Sudipa (Rituparna Sengupta) another one is Malini

(Aparajita Addhya). These two ladies are completely different from each other,Sudipa is a career centric self dependant woman on the other hand Malini is a housewife, her whole world revolves around her family and home only. Sudipa is very reserve while Malini is very talkative and friendly. Malini is accompanied with her 8 year old daughter Putul and because of Putul and also the friendly nature of Malini, Sudipa has to start conversation with Malini. During their conversation Sudipa discovers that these two ladies are connected with one common person that is Ujaan Mujherjee (Prasenjit Chatterjee), Malini's husband and coincidentally Sudipa's ex-husband.  As Sudipa recalls her memories about Ujaan audience come to know about their past how they were introduced during a Kolkata tour and then fell in love, got married and finally got separated. It's tough for Sudipa to share same coach with Malini after knowing her identity, still she managed but it becomes more difficult when Ujaan too join these ladies in middle of their journey. From that point begins the journey of two ex-lovers that too in presence of their present. The climax is quite predictable and realistic but it has a feel good factor and a wonderful message. Every relationship requires some adjustments and if one did some compromises to be in a relationship that does not mean losing to someone rather it can be seen as winning a relationship. 

The screenplay is very interesting, the way the flashback sequences have been inserted are quite interesting. Two parallel stories progress together, one is the back story of Ujaan and Sudipa and another one is the present day story in the train journey between Ujaan, Sudipa

and Malini. Both the stories progress in such a way that people will remain engaged with both the tacks. Although it can be said the back story of Ujaan and Sudipa is a bit cliché, we have seen the egoistic battle of a working couple where the Man has problem with his wife's professional life. Also there could have been a better reason for the final clash between the two which forced them to get separated. Anyways these little shortcomings can be overlooked with the additional separate tacks of the co-passengers in the train. There is a newly married couple played by Bishwanatg Basu and Manali Dey, they have provided enough comical relief. Then there is an elderly couple played by Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabitri Chatterjee, with their track the director duo has tried to focus on the loneliness of the elderly couples who are not taken care by their children. Then there is a musical group consisting Anindya and Upal of Chandrabindoo along with Surojit of Bhumi fame and Anupam Roy. This musical group has given enough support with their wonderful songs in every situation. There are two interesting point in the screenplay one just before the interval when Ujaan and Sudipa comes face to face for first time after 10 years and another one is the surprise element in the last scene. The screenplay is thoroughly enjoyable with drama, emotion, humour and of course romance.

As directors Shiboprasad Mujherjee and Nandita Roy has done a fabulous job. They are true magicians who know to connect with their audience. The best thing about their story presentation is their simplicity. Their narrative style is just like the character of Malini, who can connect with you with the simplicity and can teach you big lessons without making it sound like lectures.

All the actors are in tremendous form. Prsenjit Chatterjee has done superb job while Rituparna Sengupta is absolutely wonderful. Both Prasenjit and Rituparna have to play their

characters in two different moods. One in the flashback part where they have played young immature couple who loves each other but also fights with each because of their ego and another one is in the portion where they meet after 10 years during the train journey when they are more mature with life experiences, in both the parts Prasenjit and Rituparna are excellent. Together their chemistry is awesome. For long 15 years we have missed this couple now we will definitely look forward to see them together again. 
Apart from the lead couple Aparijita Addhya has surprised with her acting. Very often she gets a meaty role and when she has got it, she has just given her cent percent to it. She will make you laugh out loud with her comic act. She has a supporting role and she has much lesser screen compared to the lead pair but by the end of the film she will win your heart. 
Among the others Bishwanath Basu has given solid performance with his perfect comic timing, Manali Dey has ably supported him. Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabitri Chatterjee are good. The musical team is perfect in their own department, that is music but in acting too they are not bad.

When the story grips you, one hardly cares about the technical details. But one must say editing is fantastic, the way the past and present has been joined it's quite impressive. Cinematographer has also done a good job. Thanks to him we have seen our so familiar Kolkata in a complete new look.

Music by Anupam Roy and Chandrabindoo is nice and very apt for the different situations. All the songs including an Antakshari sequence are nice to ears but the song that will remain with you for longer time is "Tumi Anno Karo Sange Bandho Ghar".

On a whole #Praktan is wonderful film with one gripping story, some wonderful performances and soulful music. It will give you some valuable tips about maintaining relationships too. It is train journey which you will remember for long time. Go and watch the film, don't miss it.

Review of #Cinemawala

In last few decades the number of single screen movie theaters in West Bengal has reduced from 700 to 250. This is really alarming. In last 100 years movies has been one of the top most entertainments in our life then what caused the movie theaters to shutdown. Some people may blame it on the increasing number of multiplexes growing in big cities but how many big cities are there in West Bengal, very few. Then there must be other threats against the business of Movie theater owners who are called exhibitors in technical terms and in general we can call them #Cinemawala. This movie tries find the root cause of reducing number of footfalls in theaters, it tries to feel the pain of those #Cinemawalas who use to sell us entertainment, showing our larger than life imagination on big screen by running film reels in their projectors. They gave us entertainment throughout their life but what we are giving them in return; we are giving them empty theaters. Most of the cine-goers now don't go to those theaters as they prefer to bring that entertainment in cheap rates in form of pirated CD DVD and Internet downloads. Who cares if it's illegal, from police to politicians everyone is silent about this illegal activity happening in broad daylight. The only people who actually have to face tough times are those exhibitors, distributors and producers, who are not getting proper return of their investment and hard work. May be we don't care but movie making is a business and if we don't buy their products in form of paying tickets and keep encouraging piracy then ultimately we are cheating the people behind the business and helping some criminals who are taking illegal shortcuts to earn easy money.

Every cinema lover must be thankful to director Kaushik Ganguly for protesting this illegal

activity with his wonderful film. The film talks about #Cinemawalas from two generation with two different moral values .First one is Pranab (Paran Bandopadhyay) who was a movie theater owner once upon a time but now his cinema hall is not in running condition and other one is his son Prakash (Parambrata Chatterjee) , a pirated DVD seller. Throughout the movie Kaushik Ganguly has tried show the clash between these two different thinking people one who stands for honesty another one who believes to be practical no matter how unethical it is. The movie never tries to take side but still by the end you will know which side is right and which one is wrong. 

The story is unique like Kaushik Ganguly's other films. The screenplay is a bit slow in pace and has longer scenes, it revolves around very few characters as a result it looks monotonous sometimes. But the wonderful performances of the lead cast makes you glued to the screen. Towards the climax it takes an emotional twist which will surely shake you. The ending is thought provoking; one must be thoughtful about the future of the industry which kept giving us entertainment.

As a director Kaushik Ganguly is once again in top form. The way he has created his characters and their backdrop in small town of West Bengal, is amazing. The moments he has drawn on screen sometime says a lot even without a dialogue. Watch out the climax scene where a dead body procession is going on from one side of the road and a rikshaw is coming from the other side of the road doing publicity of a new release. There is no dialogue but the scene clearly says how those small time pirated video halls are killing movie theaters.

Among the actors Paran Bandopadhyay is extra ordinary. He hardly gets chance to showcase his potential. This movie is one o those few films where we get to see Paran Bandopadhyay's excellence as an actor. He has bring life to his character of an old, drunk, frustrated man who is bearing the pain of being unsuccessful in personal life as well as professional life. He is too good in the drunken scenes and in the climax he has emoted quite well even without any dialogue.
Parambrata Chatterjee is good as an aspiring DVD seller who wants to prove his father that he too can do something on his own. He looks natural as a small town businessman with his

body language and mannerisms. His scenes with his on screen father is good where his body language shows, no matter if the son dislikes his father but still there is an awe towards him.
Arun Guhathakurta is good as Pranab’s aid Hari who was the projectionist once in the theatre. He has performed his part very well and has given able support to Paran Bandopadhyay. In his last scene when he displays his affection for the projector, he is too good in that scene. In that one scene he has summed up all the pain of the technicians working in cinema halls who are jobless now because of shutdown of cinema halls.
Sohini Sarkar has been cast very well in the character of a small town housewife struggling between the fights of his husband and father in law. The character has lesser screen time but with her easy charm and natural acting Sohini has made her character remarkable. Through her expressions she has highlighted the dilemma of her character because of the ongoing fight between the two important men in her life where she cannot take side to any of them.
Lama is good as Parambrata’s friend cum business partner who has a stammering problem. He has left impression in his brief appearance.

The technical team has done a wonderful job in recreating the small town atmosphere. Production design is very natural specially the setting of the old cinema hall. Cinematographer Soumik Halder has captured the cinematic moments very well.

#Cinemawala is a tribute to all those people behind this entertainment industry who are losing their money because of the indifference of the audience. If you feel movies is the biggest source of entertainment in your life then please watch it and all other movies in theaters or legal home videos. Don’t encourage film piracy. It’s time to pay back to our beloved #Cinemawalas who has always given us entertainment in form of cinema on big screen.