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

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