2015 was a very good year for Bengali cinema, in terms of business as well as in terms of good quality films. Thanks to the new brigade of directors with interesting subjects and a fresh approach to tell the subject. Following is the list of the top five directors of Bengali cinema in 2015 based on their creativity.
1.Shiboprasad Mukherjee & Nandita Roy - With their each and every film
Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy have proved that story is the main hero of their
film and with their 2015 release "Belasheshe" they have proved it once again. The main lead of the film were not any conventional super stars rather they were an old couple of more than 70 yrs age, but the story was the hero here which touches everyone's heart.The director duo had given us the very beautiful message through their film, that how to make the bonding of a marital relationship more stronger. The screenplay had been written so skillfully providing enough scope for comic relief as well as for emotional connect too. With its engaging story with which everyone can relate and some heart touching performances the film got a good response from the audiences and became the biggest hit of 2015. In fact it is one of the biggest hits ever.
2.Srijit Mukherjee - From 2010 Bengali movie lovers have got an amazing director Srijit Mukherjee, who has changed the way of film making in Bengali cinema. Since 2010 he is
continuously giving us wonderful films every year. In 2015 he gave us two movies, two totally different movies from each other. First one was "Nirbaak" which was the most experimental film from the director till date. It was a film which combined four love stories together with a common theme where in each love story one partner was silent. It did not become successful at box office but hats off to the director for attempting a subject close to his heart without compromising for box office. The second release was the Puja release "Rajkahini", a story about a group of women's revolution against male dominated society in the backdrop of India Pakistan partition. It was more mainstrem compared to the earlier one with the common ingredients of a Srijit Mukherjee film an engaging story, a fresh approach to tell the story, a well sound technical crew, an appropriate ensemble cast. This movie made Srijit famous among some Bollywood heavy weight filmmakers too.
3.Arindam Sil - Before 2015 he was hardly there in scene as a director. He was just an actor turned director with one film experience that too was a box office failure. But by the
end of 2015 Arindam Sil proved himself as a successful director with not one rather two big hits. The year started as well as ended with his films "
Ebar Shabor" and "Har Har Byomkesh". Both the films were detective thriller but in different backdrop and time frame. "Ebar Shabor" was a multi-starer set in Kolkata of 2015, revolving around a murder mystery. With this film Arindam Sil gave us a fresh look of urban Kolkata with refreshing styling as well as production design. It was a big hit with more than 100 days successful run. "Har Har Byomkesh" was a Byomkesh Bakshy film set in Varanasi in pre-independent India. Here too he showed his skill as a director with choosing a fresh supporting cast which gave it a new look and feel and make it different in spite of having more than three Byomkesh film in just one year. This film got a good opening and still doing good business.
4.Kaushik Ganguly - Kaushik Ganguly has done specialization in telling unconventional stories. He can choose a subject about which others can not even dream of. In 2015 too he
continued this with "Chhotoder Chhobi". It was a film about the dwarfs working as clowns in circus. We hardly think about their life and their struggle, this movie gave us an inner view of their life, their problems and their emotions. It take guts to make such a film where your lead pair are dwarfs. Another difficult task was to cast actors who are dwarfs but good actor too and Kaushik Ganguly did this wonderfully.For the film Kaushik Ganguly had chosen a set of brilliant actors and a talented technical team. Although it was not a box office success mostly because of the all new unknown cast and the depressing subject of the film. But it got great reviews at different film festivals and many awards including national award.
5.Anindya Chattopadhyay- Anindya Chattopadhyay is already popular as the member of famous Bengali band "Chandrabindu". In 2015, he made his debut as a director with "Open
Tee Bioscope" and he scored a perfect 10 with his debut. The master stroke was choosing the subject which was actually his tribute to his own teenager-hood in the 1990's. The subject connected with audience too making them nostalgic about their growing up age. the small references of big events from 1990's were incorporated in the screenplay very intelligently. Another strong point of the film was its casting, which had no big stars but were extremely talented actors perfectly cast in each role. The film got good opening and easily connected with the audiences and as a result it did good enough business of around 100 days to claim itself a hit.
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Apart from these extremely talented directors we also loved the following:
- Suman Mukhopadhyay - Shesher Kabita
- Aparna Sen - Arshinagar
- Partha Sen - Anubrato Bhalo Achho
There were some debutante directors who impressed us:
- Aditya Vikram Sengupta - Asha Jaoar Majhe
- Churni Ganguly - Nirbashito
- Bauddhayan Mukherjee - TeenKahon
