Top Actors of Bollywood in 2016

The year 2016 is about to end so it is a time to look back and see how the actors of Bollywood performed throughout the year. It can be easily said the senior actors were more dominating than the younger brigade. 

Here are the Top 5 Actors of Bollywood in 2016
[This ranking has been done based on combining the factors like acting, box office success and the actor’s contribution towards the success of his movies.]

1. Aamir Khan - He had only one release this year #Dangal but it was big enough to give

him the top position. Since the first trailer was released it created storm. Everyone was looking forward to see the movie, after all a Aamir Khan movie was releasing after long two years. Aamir Khan once again proved he is Mr Perfectionist. The way he portrayed his character of Haryanvi wrestler, it was definitely one of the best performances we have seen by any actor in recent times. His body language, his Haryanvi accent, and his wrestling moves everything showed his dedication as an actor. As expected the movie got huge opening and earned 100cr in just 3 days and near about 200cr in first week itself. The movie is already the second big hit of 2016 and soon it will enter 300cr and hopefully it will break all the records to be the highest grosser of all time.

2. Salman Khan - Salman Khan once again proved he is the Sultan of box office with his

only release of the year #Sultan. It was released on Eid, the most favourite season for Bhaijaan. This movie did a humongous business and entered 300cr club to become the second big hit of Salman Khan. Ruling the box office is an old habit of Salman Khan but with his last few releases he is getting acknowledged for choosing good subjects and acting well too. In #Sultan too he was highly appreciated for his performance in the role of a wrestler who struggles to find his lost love and lost glory.

3. Akshay Kumar - Akshay Kumar kept us entertaining throughout the year with three

back to back hits #Airlift, #Houseful3 and #Rustom. All of these three movies were 100cr hits. Among these three the best film was #Airlift. Akshay Kumar gave superb performance in this movie as a NRI who helped to airlift a group of Indian people from Kuwait to India. It was one of his career best performances so far. In #Houseful3 he entertained us with his comic timing, though it was very poor comedy but no doubt Akshay Kumar's comic performance was the best thing about the film. In #Rustom once again he appeared in serious role and he won our hearts once again. Also we can not forget his cameo in #Dishoom, it was hilarious and his five minute appearance was the best thing about the movie. Overall it was a very good year for his career.

4. Shahrukh Khan - Superstar Shahrukh Khan was missing this year. He appeared in two

movies and both failed to even enter in 100cr club. No doubt business wise he is lagging much behind of the other two Khans. But if we forget about those things then it can be easily said it was very good year for Shahrukh Khan as an actor. This year we saw Shahrukh coming out of his comfort zone of playing romantic roles and doing quite different characters. First he appeared in #Fan where he played a double role a superstar and his lookalike fan. As the fan he gave an award winning . In his second outing #DearZindagi we saw him giving able support to Alia Bhatt as her cool and composed therapist. We must say he was very impressive in that rool. Also his beard look made him look more appealing.

5. Sushant Singh Rajput - Among the crowd of veteran actors this young talented guy

has made a quick entry solely because of his hard work and talent. He appeared as captain cool M S Dhoni in the biopic #MSDhoniTheUntoldStory and he played this role superbly. He had totally nailed it, the way Dhoni plays cricket. Watching him on screen playing those big shots was so real that even people from cricket world were speechless. He proved his calibre not only on learning cricket styles but also in the emotional scenes where he showed the struggle that Dhoni has to go through in his life. This movie earned 133cr at box office and became the third highest grosser of this year which was a big achievement for a comparatively younger actor like Sushant.

Apart from these actors there were some more actors who were very much impressive with their following performances.

Ranbir Kapoor (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil) - For last few years he was going through a bad phase in his professional career. But this year he got back his lost luck and gave a big hit with #AeDilHaiMushkil. He did an awesome acting as the heart broken lover. He was rocking with every emotion and he got a big thumbs up from each and everyone. Even those who had not liked the film had praised Ranbir Kapoor for his effortless acting.

Fawad Khan (Kapoor & Sons)- He was more in news for all the wrong reasons for his guest appearance in #AeDilHaiMushkil but the film where he was really impressive that was #KapoorAndSons. He was too good in that film and it was one brave step for him to take such a role which many of his contemporaries might have denied to do. 

Randeep Hooda (Sarbjit) - He was just out of the world with his extraordinary performance in and as #Sarbjit. His physical transition was something to look out for and his expression showing the agony and pain of Sarabjit was so real. 

Rishi Kapoor (Kapoor & Sons) - He played the mischievous grandfather excellently. Though his make-up was very helpful to make him look like an old man but to play a character who is much older than your real age is not an easy task and Rishi Kapoor had mastered this tough job with his perfect mannerism.

Amitabh Bachchan (Pink)  - He is of course a big star and brilliant actor and he really do not need any recommendations now still we must say he was dynamic as the lawyer in #Pink. Every single dialogue mouthed by him became a rage nationwide. Even at this age he can give tough competition to his juniors.

Shahid Kapoor (Udta Punjab) - His portrayal of a drug addict pop singer Tommy Singh was very much impressive and authentic. The way he had transformed himself physically was highly commendable. 

Diljit Dosanjh (Udta Punjab) - This Punjabi super star made a confident debut with #UdtaPunjab and we love him for everything he does on screen.

Manoj Bajpayee (Aligarh) – He portrayed an aged Gay professor fighting for his basic rights of having privacy in his personal life. He was brilliant with the mannerism of an aged lonely guy. Also playing a gay character was one bold decision for his part as an actor.

R. Madhavan (Saala Khadoos) – This was unfortunately one over looked performance of the year. Hats off to Madhavan for playing the role of a strict boxing coach with such perfection.

Pankaj Tripathi (Neel Batte Sannata ) – Even without saying any funny dialogue he made us laugh with his expressions and that is the talent of this wonderful actor.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Raman Raghav 2.0) – Nawazuddin is powerhouse of talent and he once again proved that playing a psycho serial killer with such perfection.

Piyush Mishra (Happy Bhaag Jayegi , Pink) – He is not a regular face as an actor but whenever he comes on screen he proves himself as a talented actor. Whether it is doing comedy in #HappyBhaagJayegi or doing a negative character in #Pink ,he did both with same excellence.

Farhan Akhtar (Wazir) – He played an emotional character who is struggling with his relationship and he was good enough to leave his mark in spite of sharing screen space with Big B.

Rajkumar Rao (Aligarh) - He played a small time reported who an old man to fight his legal battle. Rajkumar Rao was very natural in his performance and we appreciate the way he had picked up the malayali accent for his character.

There were some Actors who were not so impressive in 2016.

Flop Actors of 2016

Aditya Roy Kapoor -  He was very much hopeful with his solo release of this year #Fitoor and had given a lot of effort for that but it flopped badly at the box office.

Hrithik Roshan - He appeared in much hyped periodic drama #MohenjoDaro which was an ambitious project and his Fans were very much hopeful with it, but finally it was disaster.

Emraan Hashmi - He kept searching for good luck but failed once again. Both his movies #Azhar and #RaazReboot were big flops, though he still have teh good luck with his songs.

The Actor who was missing in 2016
Saif Ali Khan - Though he was very much in news for his personal life for becoming a proud father but professionally he was missing from big screen.

Update of Bengali Movies in the 4th Quarter of 2016

The last quarter of 2016 was the best in terms of business as well as good movies. As there two most favorite festive seasons Durga Puja and Christmas were there in this quarter, so most of the awaited movies were released in this quarter.

Let's look back at this quarter and have month wise recap.

October

The month of October is always special for bengali movie lovers as it is the season of Durga Puja which has became the most favorite festive season for Bengali film producer since last few weeks.This year Durga Puja season was even bigger with six release Zulfiqar, #Gangster, #Abhimaan, #ByomkeshOChiriyakhana,#Chocolate and #PremKiBujhini. Among these six two were hits, two were average successful and other two surrendered to the other stronger competitors. Let's talk about the movies which made highlights in this month.

#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. But after watching it, people were divided in different opinions. Some felt it was a good effort from Srijit but many of the 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. Also a great satellite deal and Amazon Prime deal helped it to break even on its second week itself, in spite of having a high budget. On final run it was a big box office success. 
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. It continued ruling ticket windows for a long time. In fact it was the most profitable film among the all six releases during this Puja.

#Abhimaan
It was the third mainstream masala movie of this year featuring superstar Jeet. This was a

remake made by director Raj Chakraborty. To add the glamour quotient there were two lovely ladies Shubhoshree and Sayantika. This movie had all the ingredients of a commercial blockbuster action, emotion, drama, romance, songs picturised in beautiful foreign location and a big reliable star. The songs like “Mon Bechara” and “Saiyaan” were quite popular. Moreover to be ahead in the tough completion during Puja weekend the producers choose to release it one day ahead of the other releases. Though this strategy was not that effective for this movie as the number of theaters was very less where it was released one day ahead. It got a decent opening at the small centers and most of the people who had watched this film had liked this family entertainer but in the long run it could not manage to be a big blockbuster. Maybe lack of promotion and tough fight among commercial movies during Puja had ceased its business to some extent. Though  it got an average success but Jeet once again proved that he is still more loved super star than his other contemporaries.

#Gangster
Like every year Shree Venkatesh Films released one out an out commercial film on Puja alongside one Srijit Mujherjee film, this time it was #Gangster. They repeated their last

Puja hit director Birsha Dashgupta who had given a big hit on last Puja with #SudhuTomariJanno. In recent time, commercial movies are not doing good business, maybe because of that this time they launched a new leading man Yash Dashgupta who was already a household name because of his successful TV serial. The presence of Yash had given the film a fresh appeal at the same time it had limited the budget too. This was a love story of a gangster played by Yash where the female lead was played by Mimi Chakraborty. The movie was shot beautifully in the exotic locations of Turkey. The fresh pair and the maiden location had given the movie a refreshing look. Moreover the songs like “Thik Emon” and “Bol Na Re Mon” were very popular much before the release. For the commercial movie lovers it was definitely a good choice to watch during the Puja vacations and they choose to watch it for obvious reasons. The movie got a better than expected opening and continued doing better than average business even having tough completion from the other releases and Bengali film industry got a new commercial star Yash Dashgupta.

November

The month of November ususally have to suffer from the overdose of movies in October during Puja, so normally there is hardly any big movie which comes in November. This year in November there were several small movies but two movies which made a mark were #ThammarBoyfriend and #Antarleen

#ThammarBoyfriend

As the name suggest, it was a movie based on a funny concept of one old grand mother and her young boyfriend played by Savitri Chatterjee and Abir Chatterjee respectively. It was really wonderful to see Savitri Chatterjee playing a leading lady after a long time. Though the subject has been presented as comedy but the main motive of the movie was to give a social message that was to give love and care to the elderly people. It was a nice comedy with some beautiful performances by Abir Chatterjee, Arunima Ghosh and Supriyo Dutta. The movie got a fare enough response at the ticket windows though  business wise it could not be called a successful film but the film got positive response from the audiences and people liked the message of this film. People feel connected with the strong social message. 


#Antarleen
This was a murder mystery with some wonderful performances and engaging twists.

Debutante director Arindam Bhattacharya made this film with a relatively unknown cast and crew which gave it a fresh approach. In this movie for the first time we got to see Kharaj Mukherjee in a lead role that too doing some serious stuff as an investigating officer of crime branch. Also it was lovely to see Mamata Shankar making a comeback in movies with a solid performance. Apart from that, the exotic locations of hill town Kasouli was an added attraction of the film. In spite of being a good thriller it got very cold response at the ticket windows and mostly it was because of the lack of promotion and star value. Though the few number people who had watched this movie , they had liked it very well. We hope, we will get to see some really good movies from this talented director in future.

December

The month of  December is also one special season for Bengali movies as it is time of Christmas and New Year vacation. Specially this vacation season is related with school holidays so it is the perfect time for releasing adventure movies like Feluda and Byomkesh.
This December we witnessed one big clash of the two sleuths when both #DoubleFeluda and #ByomkesPawrbo released on same Friday, though both the movies are doing well at the box office without affecting each other's business.

#ByomkeshPawrbo

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 got a very good opening and kept doing good business with every passing day. It is one of the rare successful movies of this year and the way it is gaining popularity it will keep doing good business for long time.


#DoubleFeluda
#DoubleFeluda was not just a regular Feluda movie by Sandip Ray. It was quite different as it marked the celebration of completion of glorious fifty years Feluda series. That is why the word Feluda was used in the title itself and also 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 choose his old favorites Sabyasach Chakraborty and Saheb Bhattacharya. Sabyasachi Chakraborty has played the character of Feluda on screen for the maximum time and he has succeeded to match our expectations every time. Before the release of this film, there were many doubts to many people, as he is growing old and looking aged. But on a surprising note with perfect make up and a better body language Sabyasachi managed to overcome all those shortcomings.
Apart from two stories in two halves, 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 there 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. As expected the movie got a better opening and continued successful run.

Overall the last quarter of 2016 was the best and now we are looking forward to even better and bigger 2017.

Best Film of Quarter 4 2016

• Zulfiqar
• Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana
• Byomkesh Pawrbo
• Double Feluda
• Antarleen

Best Directors of Quarter 4 2016

• Srijit Mukherjee - Zulfiqar
• Anjan Dutta - Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana
• Arindam Sil - Byomkesh Pawrbo
• Sandip Ray - Double Feluda
• Arindam Bhattacharya - Antarleen

 Best Actors of Quarter 4 2016

• Dev - Zulfiqar
• Parambrata Chatterjee -  Zulfiqar
• Jishhu Sengupta - Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana / Zulfiqar
• Kharaj Mukherjee - Antarleen
• Abir Chatterjee - Byomkesh Pawrbo
• Kaushik Sen - Zulfiqar / Byomkesh Pawrbo
• Prosenjit Chatterjee - Zulfiqar
• Saswata Chatterjee - Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana
• Shubhra Saurav Das - Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana
• Ankush Hazra - Zulfiqar
• Rahul Banerjee - Zulfiqar
• Rudranil Ghosh - Chocolate / Byomkesh Pawrbo

Best Actresses of Quarter 4 2016

• Arunima Ghosh - Thammar Boyfriend
• Sohini Sarkar - Byomkesh Pawrbo
• Paoli Dam - Zulfikar
• Mimi Chakraborty - Gangster
• Mamata Shankar - Antarleen

Update of Bollywood in 4th Quarter of 2016

The last quarter of this year was the biggest one with three 100 cr Hits and one Aamir Khan release which has already crossed 150 cr mark in just 5 days and have all the potential to become the highest grosser of all time.
Let's do a quick recap of Q4 2016.

October
The month of October had a bumper start with #MSDhoniTheUntoldStory. It was the biopic

of one of the most loved captain of Indian cricket team Mahendra Singh Dhoni. It was one of the most eagerly awaited movies of this year and it got a bumper opening with a huge 21cr on opening day and 66 cr in its first weekend. This craze proved once again that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is really a big brand who can assure a big opening of the level of Big Bollywood stars. The movie was wonderfully made by Neeraj Pandey and the solid performance by Sushant Singh Rajput in the title role was highly appreciated. This movie kept doing excellent business and became the third highest grosser of 2016 with a lifetime collection of 133 cr.
It was followed by a Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's #Mirzya , a contemporary take on folk tale of "Mirza Sahiba" . This movie was awaited because it marked the debut of Anil Kapoor's son Harshvardhan Kapoor along with debutante Sayami Kher. But in spite of the support and back up of industry insiders, Harshvardhan's debut turned out to be one of the biggest disasters of this year.

Next highlight of this month was the big clash on the Diwali weekend between two biggies Karan Johar's #AeDilHaiMushkil and Ajay Devgan's #Shivaay. Though both the movies

were different from each other in terms of concept and treatment, still they have to fight with each other to grab audiences attention. Both movies got good opening because of the big expectation and holiday seasons but after watching these movies both audience and critics were disappointed. As a result after getting a good opening collections dropped for both the movies from second week onward.Although people could not connect with the emotional one sided love story of #AeDilHaiMushkil but the performances of Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma and the music by Pritam were highly appreciated. On the other hand the main highlight of #Shivaay were the exceptionally well picturization of Himalayas and the wonderfully designed high voltage action sequences.
On final run, #AeDilHaiMushkil win the fight by a safe margin with a collection of 112 cr at domestic box office where #Shivaay just managed to enter 100 cr club , even in the worldwide business #AeDilHaiMushkil was much ahead of #Shivaay. 

November
The month of November begin with back to back flop sequels starting with #RockOn2 ,

#TumBin2 followed by #Force2. #RockOn2 tried to take the story forward from where it was ended in the first part with the same cast with an addition of Shraddha Kapoor but this time it failed to connect with the audience. Neither the story nor the music was that much impressive compared to the first part. #TumBin2 was almost a remake of the first part with fresh new cast. #Force2 was a spy thriller dealing with global terrorism. Among these three #Force2 get comparatively better response but in the long run all three were big flops. There were two main reasons , first of all these movies were not as good as the prequels and secondly these movies were partially affected by the Govt's decision of demonetization which forced people to cut off there luxuries like watching movies because of the lack of cash available in hand. 

This bad phase ended with #DearZindagi, the last release of November. It was a simple heart touching story of a young ambitious  girl who is fighting with challenges in her personal and professional life and finally how she learns to overcome it with the help of a therapist. This movie had been produced by Karan Johar and directed by Gauri Shinde. It featured Alia Bhatt and Shahrukh Khan in the lead roles but in spite of having such big names associated with it , this movie was promoted as a simple small film where the content was the main USP not the stars. Both Alia Bhatt and Shahrukh Khan did fabulous job along with the supporting cast and this movie make its way to everyone's hearts which helped it to became a hit with a collection of 67 cr, which is profitable enough considering the small budget of the film. This movie was also got much acknowledgment for addressing an important but ignorant topic that is to take care of mental health.


December
The month of December started with one of the highly awaited film of recent times

#Kahaani2. #Kahaani had set a benchmark for thrillers so when the same combo of director Sujoy Ghosh and actress Vidya Balan came together it set sky high hopes automatically. But unfortunately the film was not up to the mark to our expectations. First of all it was not at all a thriller and a perfect successor of #Kahaani, rather it was an emotional story of a mother and daughter which was trying desperately to be qualified as a thriller. The only good thing about the movie was the brilliant acting by the leading lady Vidya Balan. No doubt it was a big flop, in spite of getting comparatively better start. Another good thing was the way it had handled a sensitive issue of child abuse but unfortunately that issue lost somewhere while trying to make it a thriller forcefully. We wish the team had made it just as a emotional drama and not as a sequel to #Kahaani.

The second week saw a similar incident when another much hyped film #Befikre flopped to match the expectations from the big director behind the movie Aditya Chopra. When Aditya Chopra decided to come back to director's seat we obviously expect yet another classic from him. On the contrary to that what we found in this Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor starer, that was just a regular boy meets girl story who are not ready to commit in relationship but finally falls in love. This is one age old story which has been told so many times even three four times under Yashraaj banner itself. The only good thing about the movie was the highly energetic performance by Ranveer Singh and some superb dancing by the lead pair.

Finally Mr Perfectionist Aamir Khan arrived as a savior to Bollywood with his Christmas release #Dangal which was based on the real life story of Haryanvi wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat who gave training to her daughters Geeta and Babita to became world champion wrestlers. There is no doubt this Nitesh Tiwari directed film is one of the best film of recent times. Aamir Khan is no doubt the biggest USP of the film which has helped it to earn more than 150cr in just five days. Apart from Aamir Khan the other positive factors about this movie is the story which had blended entertainment with social message about women up-liftment and patriotism , brilliant performances by the whole cast and the hard work of the crew to make the film and the wrestling matches look absolutely authentic. This movie has already broken some record and we are hopeful that it will enter 350cr mark to be the biggest grosser of all time.



Overall the last quarter was very good in terms of business and now we are eagerly waiting for the big releases of next year. Hope 2017 will be be a bigger one for Bollywood.

Best Film of Q4 2016

• MSDhoni The Untold Story
• Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Dear Zindagi
• Dangal

Best Director of Q4 2016

• Neeraj Pandey - MSDhoni The Untold Story
• Karan Johar - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Gauri Shinde - Dear Zindagi
• Nitesh Tiwari - Dangal

Best Actor of Q4 2016

• Shushant Singh Rajput - MSDhoni The Untold Story
• Ajay Devgan - Shivaay
• Ranbir Kapoor - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Shahrukh Khan - Dear Zindagi
• Ranveer Singh - Befikre
• Aamir Khan - Dangal
• Tahir Raj Bhasin - Force 2
• Farhan Akhtar - Rock On 2
• Purab Kohli - Rock On 2

Best Actress of Q4 2016

• Anushka Sharma - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Alia Bhatt - Dear Zindagi
• Vidya Balan - Kahaani 2
• Aishwarya Rai Bachchan - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Sana Fatima Sheikh - Dangal
• Sanya Malhotra - Dangal
• Sakhshi Tanwar - Dangal

Top Songs of Q4 2016

• Koun Tujhe - M S Dhoni The Untold Story
• Ae Dil Hai Mushkil/Bulleya/Channa Mereya/Break Up Song  - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Bolo Har Har/Darkhast  - Shivaay
• Love You Zindagi - Dear Zindagi
• Koi Fariyaad  - Tum Bin 2
• Dangal Dangal / Dhakad / Haanikarak Baapu - Dangal 

Review of Byomkesh Pawrbo

Last year, director Arindam Sil had reintroduced the popular sleuth character from Bengali literature Byomkesh Bakshi, with his movie #HarHarByomkesh. First time he made a Byomkesh movie which was more contemporary more mainstream without compromising the core qualities of a Byomkesh thriller. He has continued that trend with his second outing with Byomkesh in the movie #ByomkeshPawrbo.

#ByomkeshPawrbo is a movie based on Sharadindu Bandopadhyay’s novel “Amriter Mrityu”. The story is set in the backdrop of a small town Santagola in the Dooars area of

North Bengal during the time of 1948. Govt of West Bengal assigns a task to Byomkesh Bakshi (Abir Chatterjee) to find out the persons responsible for the illegal arms circulation in Santagola area. So Byomkesh has to go to Santagola and he is accompanied by his wife Satyabati (Sohini Sarkar) and writer friend Ajit (Ritiwick Chakraborty). Reaching there he finds there are four rich and powerful local businessman who are the prime suspects. These persons are Biswanath Mullick (Kaushik), Badrinath Das (Rajatava), Nafor Kundu (Subhasis) and Jamunadas Gangaram (Ashok Singh). The mystery gets more confused when two back to back murders happen in the nearby village. First a mentally challenged man Amrito gets killed and it is followed by the murder of another middle aged suspicious guy Sadananda Sur (Rudranil Sengupta). By doing further investigation Byomkesh comes to conclusion that both the murders are actually related with the illegal arms dealing.

The screenplay has been adopted doing some minor changes from the original text but it can be said it is very well written script which is crisp and engaging till the end. No matter if you

have already read the story or not you will enjoy the investigation process of Byomkesh with little help of Satyabati and Ajit. It’s true that there are only four suspects so it is rather easy to predict the main culprit and many of you may predict that even before the climax but that does not affect the enjoyment of watching the movie. The references of literature especially Mahabharata has been used quite cleverly in the story proceeding. Also the dense forest of Dooars area has been used wonderfully not just as a backdrop rather as a character of the film. Only problem with the script is one additional song before the climax which looks very much out of place. It could have been avoided or could have been placed in the first half, but this is negligible.

As a director Arindam Sil has always succeeded to prove his caliber. In recent times when Bengali film industry is going through a bad phase, Arindam Sil is one of those directors who are giving commercially successful movies that too without compromising the quality of the film. He has skilfully modified the well familiar dhoti kurta clad sleuth to fit into today's time. The way he has performed as a captain to the talented cast and crew and has extracted the best work from them is commendable.

Among the actors the best of all is no doubt Abir Chatterjee in the title role of Byomkesh

Bakshy. It is his fifth film as Byomkesh and every time he is evolving to be a better actor and more suited for the role. For a change this time he has seen doing some hand to hand battles and horse riding and he has done those sequences confidently. There are some disguises for his character too and he has managed those portions very well.

Sohini Sarkar looks adorable as the sweet cooperative Satyabati. Even in the last film we have seen Arindam Sil presents more calm and sweet version of Satyabati compared to the text and Sohini looks perfect in this version of Satyabati. Ritwick Chakraborty has nothing much to do as Ajit. He has managed to make her presence felt in the supporting role.

Among the others Kaushik Sen is very natural as always. Rajatava Dutta is okay. Shubhashis Mukherjee is good providing some comic relief. Sumanta Mukhopadhyay looks convincing as the local inspector at Dooars. Special mention should be given for Rudranil Ghosh. He has very lesser screen time and hardly two three lines but he is just brilliant in those scenes. His expressions and body language is too good as a middle aged lonely man having many secrets under his sleeves. Supriya Dutta is excellent in his one scene appearance, he will definitely make you laugh in that one scene.

The technical team has a major responsibility when the film is set in a different period and

here we must say the whole technical crew has done a fabulous job. Their research to recreate the era is just too good. DOP Soumik Halder is in excellent form with his camera. The opening credits where he has shot the dense forest from a top view, he has made us spellbound. Special mention should be given to the night sequences shot in jungle, they are brilliantly captured. Same can be said about the sound design which is perfect. While talking about the recreation of the period of 1948 how can we not talk about the makeup and costumes done by Sabarni Das. Her effort has made every character look perfect on the screen. Also Tanmay Chakraborty is good in production design; especially the set designed for Sadanand Sur’s house looks very authentic.

Both the music and background score has been done by Bickram Ghosh and we must say he

is better in background score than the songs. The songs are not bad but have not been used properly in the movie. The over hyped mujra number “Dil Rasiya” featuring Sayantika does not work that much. There were more expectations from the song considering that it has been choreographed by ace choreographer Saoj Khan. But the output on screen is just ordinary and we must say Sayantika should have work harder on her dance steps, though she is okay with her facial expressions.

Finally it is a well made film from a brilliant and hard working cast and crew lead by a talented director. This movie is a perfect blend of modern film making approach with traditional Byomkesh emotions.