Update of Bengali movies in the 1st quarter of 2017

For Bengali movies the first quarter is always the weakest one as there is no festive season so normally no big movie releases during this time. The first quarter mostly have to survive with last year's Christmas release. That happened in 2017 also when last year's #ByomkeshPawrbo continued doing good business till January. In addition to that there was surprise big hit #BibahoDiaries.

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

January

The month of January had two surprises with two big releases #TheBongsAgain and #BibahoDiaries. Both the movies performed exactly opposite to the expectations.

#TheBongConnection

Considering the recent trend for successful urban cinema people had high hopes with #TheBongsAgain specially as it was the sequel to much acclaimed #TheBongConnection, but it was not able to live up to those expectations. Though it has good performances by the two leading ladies Parno Mittra and Neha Panda, good music by Need Dutta and some superb foreign location but the thing which was missing was a proper story which can recreate the nostalgia of the bongs living abroad. As a result the movie could not connect with the audiences and could not match with standards set by its prequel.

#BibahoDiaries

#BibahoDiaries was a light hearted comedy about the post marriage side effects. This had not been promoted that well and it was more in news for wrong reasons as some production house had claimed director Mainak Bhaumik has remade their unreleased movie with new cast. It had been released in a smaller scale, moreover some theaters took off the shows because of two big Bollywood releases. But in spite of all these factors playing against it ,the movie shine out like a star with its strong ability to connect with the audiences. There was no doubt the main highlight of the film was the extremely humorous dialogues written by Saurav Paloudhi. Also the lead pair of Rittwick Chakraborty and Sohini Sarkar were too good with their performance. The movie got such a huge response that theater owners started increasing showtimes since third week. This movie proved the power of good word of mouth publicity. It kept doing fantastic business till the end of the quarter completing 75 successful days at theaters.Thus it became the first big hit of this year.

February

#TomakeChai
The month of February started with Saraswati Puja and for the first time Shree Venkatesh
Films tried to make it a festive holiday for movies considering it as Bengali's Valentine's day. On this occasion they released their first film of this year #TomakeChai , a love story featuring young romantic couple Bonny Sengupta and Kaushani Mukherjee. But sadly the real life couple could not create that magic in their reel life romance.

#Devi

It was followed by Paoli Dam's #Devi , a never seen before adaptation of the classic novel "Devdas". Here the lead protagonist has been changed to a female who goes through heart break followed by alcohol and drug addiction. This twisted tale got much recognition since it's poster launch and trailer release but sadly the film did not receive the same love from cinegoers. Although the performances of Paoli Dam and Shataf Figar were appreciated.

March

The month of March had two significant releases #Asamapta and #MandobasarGalpo.

#Asamapta

#Asamapta was a story about complex human relationships set in the backdrop of a hill town. This Suman Mukhopadhyay directed film had some brilliant performances from actors like Bratya Basu, Swastika Mukherjee, Rittwick Chakraborty. It was liked by a small section of audiences but mostly people kept themselves away from this film mostly because of the slow narrative. 

#MandobasarGalpo

#MandobasarGalpo was psychological thriller about obsessed lovers but it was bit slow paced to qualify as a thriller. Still it get thumbs for the surprising twist towards the climax. Also people liked the performances of Paoli Dam and Parambrata Chatterjee.

Overall the only big highlight of the first quarter was #BibahoDiaries other than that most of the films failed to win hearts. Now we all are looking forward to the second quarter which has some truly big movies to look out for like the Poila Boishakh releases #Bishorjon and #One followed by #DurgaSohay and #Posto, then there will be Eid releases #Chaamp and #Boss2.

Best Film of Quarter1 2017

• Bibaho Diaries

Best Directors of Quarter1 2017

• Mainak Bhaumik - Bibaho Diaries

 Best Actors of Quarter1 2017

• Ritwick Chakraborty - Bibaho Diaries/Asamapto
• Shataf Figar - Devi
• Bratya Basu - Asamapta
• Shubhra Saurav - The Bongs Again
• Parambrato Chatterjee - Mandobasar Galpo
• Biswanath Basu - Bibaho Diaries

Best Actresses of Quarter1 2017

• Parno Mittra - The Bongs Again
• Neha Panda - The Bongs Again
• Sohini Sarkar - Bibaho Diaries
• Paoli Dam - Devi/Mandobasar Galpo/Asamapta
• Swastika Mukherjee - Asamapta

Update of Bollywood in Q1 2017

First quarter of 2017 was quite good with four 100cr movies, though all these were big hyped movies with big stars, there were no small movies which get huge returns at the ticket windows.Let's do a quick recap of Q1 2017.

January

The beginning of the month was not that good. The successful pair of #Ashiqui2, Aditya Roy

Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor came together for another love story #OkJaanu which flopped

badly. Then came the two biggies of the month during the long weekend of Republic day holiday. It was the biggest clash of the year so far when Shahrukh Khan's #Raees and Hrithik Krishna's #Kaabil released on same day. Both the movies got good opening but because of Shahrukh Khan's presence #Raees got better opening and performed better in first two weeks. But from third week #Kaabil took a lead , though after one week collection kept dropping for both the movie. On a whole both the movies entered in 100cr club, total lifetime collection of #Raees was around 139cr and for #Kaabil it was 126cr. Considering the investments #Kaabil was in more profit. Both Shahrukh and Hrithik got the much needed hit for their career but once again it is proved they are still not ready to compete for 200 or 300 CR clubs. 

February
The month of February had one big hit and one big flop. While Akshay Kumar's #JollyLLB

turned out to be a major hit on the other hand Vishal Bhardwaj's Magnum opus #Rangoon failed to impress the audiences. #JollyLLB once again proved Akshay Kumar's stardom with an opening weekend collection of 50crr and total lifetime collection of around 116 cr. It was Akshay Kumar's fourth consecutive 100cr hit. Although the loyal fans of the franchise were quite unhappy with sequel as it was not up to the mark compared to the first part. #Rangoon got rave reviews for the brilliant performance of the three leads and also for the authentic representation of the period of Second World War but what was lacking was a convincing story line. Apart from these two there was another small movie #TheGhaziAttack which was based on a real historical war between India and Pakistan. This movie was appreciated very much by both critics and audiences.

March

The month of March was almost dedicated to Girl power when so many movies released

with strong female characters in lead like #Phillauri, #NaamShabana, #AnaarkaliOfAarah, #Poorna. Even this month's biggest hit #BadrinathKiDulhania tried to deliver the message of gender equality in disguise of rom-com. This movie released during the holiday season of holi plus it has the charming lead pair of Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt plus the foot tapping music, all these factors made it an instant favorite among the crowd. As a result it entered easily in 100cr club with a lifetime collection of around 114cr. Among the other movies there was Anushka Sharma's periodic piece #Phillauri and Rajkumar Rao's survival drama #Trapped both were small budget movies with fresh subject and powerful performance. But the movies could not perform at the box office.

Overall the first quarter of 2017 was okay with few good hits but still the wait for big blockbuster is there which may be complete in the next quarter with Salman Khan's Eid release #Tubelight.

Best Film of Q1 2017

• Trapped
• Phillauri
• Poorna

Best Director of Q1 2017

• Vishal Bhardwaj - Rangoon
• Vikramaditya Motwane - Trapped 
• Anshai Lal - Phillauri
• Rahul Bose - Poorna

Best Actor of Q1 2017

• Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Haramkhor/Raees
• Shahrukh Khan - Raees
• Hrithik Roshan - Kaabil
• Akshay Kumar - Jolly LLB 2
• Shahid Kapoor - Rangoon
• Varun Dhwan - Badrinath Ki Dulhania
• Rajkumar Rao - Trapped
• Saurabh Shukla - Jolly LLB 2
• Annu Kapoor - Jolly LLB 2
• Kay Kay Menon - The Ghazi Attack
• Saif Ali Khan - Rangoon
• Diljit Dosanjh - Phillauri
• Pankaj Tripathi - Anaarkali Of Aarah
• Sanjay Mishra - Anaarkali Of Aarah
• Sahil Vaid - Badrinath Ki Dulhania

Best Actress of Q1 2017

• Sweta Thripathi - Haramkhor
• Yami Gautam - Kaabil
• Kangna Ranaut - Rangoon
• Alia Bhatt - Badrinath Ki Dulhania
• Anushka Sharma - Phillauri
• Swara Bhaskar - Anaarkali Of Aarah
• Taapsee Pannu - Naam Shabana
• Aditi Inamdar - Poorna
• Mehreen Pirzada - Phillauri
• S Mariya - Poorna

Top Songs of Q1 2017

• Hamma Hamma  - Ok Jaanu
• Laila Main Laila / Zaalima / Udi Udi Jaye  - Raees
• Main Tere Kaabil / Sara Zamana  - Kaabil
• Ye Ishq Hai / Mere Miyaan Gaye England - Rangoon
• Badri Ki Dulhania/ Tamma Tamma /Ashiq Surrender Hua / Hamsafar  - Badrinath Ki Dulhania
• Shahiba / Dam Dam - Phillauri 

Review of Mandobasar Galpo

As the name itself suggests #MandobasarGalplo is not like any regular love story rather it is about the dark side of love when love becomes obsession. It is a psychological thriller dealing with the complexity of obsessive lovers.

The story starts with Ahana (Paoli Dam) who is a renowned film director but she is going through a bad phase in her personal life as she is going through a mental trauma. She was in a relationship with a musician Ritwick (Kaushik Sen) who died accidentally just two days before their marriage. Ahana broke down completely after this incident and even she needed therapy from her psychiatrist friend Sayantan (Parambrata Chatterjee). Ahana has almost lost interest in everything but Sayantan insists her to go back to movie making to divert her mind. She starts her new film and while finding a new lead she finds a guy Rick (Indrashish Roy) who is also a musician and have similar habits like Ritwick. This similarities brings Ahana closer to Rick and she starts feeling possessive towards Rick considering him as a replacement of Ritwick.But her attachment toward her movie's leading man start impacting the film as well as the life of all the people around Ahana and her film. Finally towards the end, there comes a surprising twist which changes the equation of all the relationship.

The story is fresh for Bengali movies but the screenplay is not that tight as it must be to be an engaging thriller. In first half most of the time has been wasted to introduce the characters. The main suspense starts building towards the end and the big twist comes too late just before the climax. Just before the climax lots of things happened suddenly and it was too much to digest at one go. Another bad thing is even after revealing all the secrets lots of questions remains unanswered about the main protagonist as the whole focus shifts to some other character who was mostly ignored for the rest of the movie.

As director Tathagata Banerjee has chosen good actors but he looks immature to handle such complex subject. His portrayal of mentally depressed patients is too cliche and after one point it starts looking repetitive.

Paoli Dam is very good actress and she has tried her best to show the mental instability of Ahana though in some portions it looks like a continuation of her character from #Zulfiqar but still she has managed quite well with the mood swings of the character. Parambrata Chatterjee is very natural and have underplayed the character very well, we wish he would have got more screentime. Indrashish Roy looks a misfit in his character of a musician and actor. He looks overweight to be a actor and also in the scenes where he have to play guitar as a trained musician he looks under rehearsed. Kaushik Send is good in an extended cameo.

In the crowd of the veterans young talents Anindya Chartterjee and Dipanwita have left impression in significant roles.

Ashok Bhadra's music is okay but considering the story revolves around two musicians there could have been better scope for music which is not there.

Overall it is a good attempt to try a fresh and complex subject but it could not live up to the expectations. Still this can be watched once for the good performances of the lead actors.

Winners of Jio Filmfare Awards (East) for 2016

Filmfare Awards are back to reward the best of Bengali movies for 2016.
#SahebBibiGolaam has taken lead with maximum number of six awards including Best Leading Actor(Female) and Best Supporting Actor (Male). 
It has been followed by #Cinemawala and #Praktan both have have won five awards each. #Cinemawala have won the big awards like Best Film and Best Director. #Praktan has mainly dominated the musical categories, also both the actresses have won awards for their performances.

Here is the full list of  Winners of Jio Filmfare Awards (East) for 2016

Best Film - Cinemawala

Best Director - Kaushik Ganguly (Cinemawala)

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male) - 

Prosenjit Chatterjee (Shankachil)

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female) - 

Swastika Mukherjee (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male) -

Anirban Bhattacharya (Eagoler Chokh)  &

Ritwick Chakraborty (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female) - 

Aparajita Auddy (Praktan)

Critic’s Choice Awards

---------------------------------

Best Film - Cholai

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male) - 

Paran Bandopadhyay (Cinemawala)

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female) - 

Rituparna Sengupta (Praktan)

Music Awards

--------------------- 

Best Music Album - 

Anupam Roy and Anindya Chatterjee (Praktan)

Best Lyrics - Anupam Roy - 

Tumi jaake bhalobasho (Praktan)

Best Playback Singer (Male) - 

Nachiketa Chakraborty - Ek purono mosjide (Zulfiqar)

Best Playback Singer (Female)- 

Iman Chakraborty - Tumi jaake bhalobasho (Praktan)

Technical Awards

----------------------------- 

Best Editing - Sanjeeb Datta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Sound Design - Anirban Sengupta (Shankhachil)

Best Production Design - Dhananjay Mondol (Cinemawala)

Best Background Score - Neil Adhikari (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Choreography - Baba Yadav - Selfie (Abhimaan)

Best Cinematography - Gairik Sarkar (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Original Story - Kaushik Ganguly (Cinemawala)

Best Screenplay - Pratim D Gupta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Dialogue - Subhomay Chatterjee (Cholai)

Debut Awards

---------------------

Best Debut Director – 

Arindam Bhattacharya (Antarleen)  &

Ayan Chakraborty (Shororipu)

Best Debut Actor – Yash Dashgupta (Gangster)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Supriya Devi

Nominations for the Jio Filmfare Awards (East)

The prestigious Filmfare Awards is back for second time to give awards for the excellence in Bengali cinema.It is going to happen on Feb 25th. After having voting for 23 days for Popular categories finally the nomination list is ready.

There are total 18 categories in this list including awards for Music and Technical categories also along with the main Popular categories. 

#SahebBibiGolaam is leading with 15 nominations followed by #Cinemawala with 13 , #Praktan with 11 and #EaglerChokh with 10 nominations.

Surprisingly some big movies like #Zulfiqar,#ByomkeshPawrbo and #ByomkeshOChiriyakhana has been nominated only 7 ,4  and 2 categories respectively.On the other hand,there are some really small and almost overlooked movies which have made it big at the nominations like #Cholai which have 5 nominations, #Sharoripu and #Antarleen have 4 nominations each.

Here is the full detail of the nomination list:

Best Film

Cinemawala

Double Feluda

Eagoler Chokh

Praktan

Shaheb Bibi Golaam

Shankhachil

Best Director

Arindam Sil (Eagoler Chokh)

Goutam Ghose (Shankhachil)

Kaushik Ganguly (Cinemawala)

Pratim D Gupta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Sandip Ray (Double Feluda)

Shiboprosad Mukherjee-Nandita Roy (Praktan)

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male)

Abir Chatterjee (Byomkesh Pawrbo)

Chiranjeet Chakraborty (Shororipu)

Dev (Zulfiqar)

Jisshu Sengupta (Byomkesh O Chiriakhana)

Paran Bandopadhyay (Cinemawala)

Prosenjit Chatterjee (Shankachil)

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female)

Gargi Roy Choudhary  (Benche Thakar Gaan)

Jaya Ahsan (Eagoler Chokh)

Paoli Dam (Khawto)

Raima Sen (Monchora)

Rituparna Sengupta (Praktan)

Swastika Mukherjee (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male)

Anirban Bhattacharya (Eagoler Chokh)

Arun Guha Thakurta (Cinemawala)

Jisshu Sengupta (Zulfiqar)

Koushik Sen (Zulfiqar)

Parambrata Chatterjee (Cinemawala)

Ritwick Chakraborty (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female) 

Aparajita Auddy (Praktan)

Churni Ganguly (Bastu-Shaap)

Mamata Shankar (Antarleen)

Shajbati (Shankhachil)

Sudipta Chakroborty (Shororipu)

Best Music Album

Anupam Roy (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Anupam Roy (Zulfiqar)

Anupam Roy and Anindya Chatterjee (Praktan)

Indraadip Dasgupta (Bastu-Shaap)

Jeet Ganguly (Love Express)

Best Lyrics

Anupam Roy - Ek purono mosjide (Zulfiqar)

Anupam Roy - Mon bhalo nei (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Anupam Roy - Tumi jaake bhalobasho (Praktan)

Prosen - Thik emon ebhabhe (Gangster)

Prosen - Tomake chai (Gangster)

Srijaato - Tomake chuye dilam (Bastu-Shaap)

Best Playback Singer (Male)

Anupam Roy - Aami aajkal bhalo aachi (Zulfiqar)

Anupam Roy - Mon bhalo nei (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Arijit Singh - Tomake chuye dilam (Bastu-Shaap)

Nachiketa Chakraborty - Ek purono mosjide (Zulfiqar)

Surojit Chatterjee - Bhromor (Praktan)

Best Playback Singer (Female)

Anwesha - Dhoya tulsi pata (Chocolate)

Imon Chakraborty - Tumi jaake bhalobasho (Praktan)

Shreya Ghoshal - Kolkata (Praktan)

Shreya Ghoshal - Tomake chuye dilam (Bastu-Shaap)

Shreya Ghoshal - Tomar ki naam (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Editing

Rabiranjan Maitra (Khawto)

Sanjeeb Datta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Subhajit Singha (Cinemawala)

Subrata Ray (Double Feluda)

Sujay Dutta Ray (Antarleen)

Sujay Dutta Ray (Eagoler Chokh)

Best Sound Design

Anindit Roy, Adeep Singh Manki (Eagoler Chokh)

Anindit Roy, Adeep Singh Manki (Byomkesh Pawrbo)

Anirban Sengupta (Bastu-Shaap)

Anirban Sengupta (Cinemawala)

Anirban Sengupta (Shankhachil)

Anup Mukherjee (Double Feluda)

Best Production Design

Arindam Sil, Tanmoy Chakraborty, Soumik Haldar, Sabarni Das (Byomkesh Pawrbo)

Dhananjay Mondol (Cinemawala)

Dhanonjay Mondal (Khawto)

Indranil Ghosh and Uttam Guha (Shankhachil)

Saswati Karmakar (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Unmaat (Cholai)

Best Background Score

Bickram Ghosh (Eagoler Chokh)

Binit Ranjan Moitra (Praktan)

Goutam Ghose (Shankhachil)

Indradip Dasgupta (Cinemawala)

Neel Dutt (Byomkesh O Chiriakhana)

Neil Adhikari (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Choreography

Adil Shaikh - Item bomb (Kelor Kirti)

Arvind Thakur - Dhitang dhitang (Love Express)

Baba Yadav - Dhat teri ki (Baadshah: The Don)

Baba Yadav - Selfie (Abhimaan)

Baba Yadav - Shona (Hariprada Bandwala)

Jayesh Pradhan - Uth chori biye (Shikari)

Best Cinematography

Gairik Sarkar (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Gopi Bhagat (Cholai)

Ishaan Ghosh (Shankhachil)

Soumik Haldar (Eagoler Chokh)

Soumik Haldar (Khawto)

Soumik Halder (Cinemawala)

Best Original Story

Abhijit Guha and Sudeshna Roy (Benche Thakar Gaan)

Arindam Bhattacharya (Antarleen)

Arun Ray (Cholai)

Ayan Chakraborti (Shororipu)

Kaushik Ganguly (Cinemawala)

Pratim D Gupta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Screenplay

Arindam Bhattacharya (Antarleen)

Arindam Sil & Padnamabha Dasgupta (Eagoler Chokh)

Arun Ray (Cholai)

Ayan Chakraborti (Shororipu)

Kaushik Ganguly (Cinemawala)

Pratim D Gupta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Best Dialogue

Arindam Sil and Padmanabha Dasgupta (Eagoler Chokh)

Koushik Ganguly (Cinemawala)

Padmanabha Dasgupta, Arindam Sil (Byomkesh Pawrbo)

Pratim D Gupta (Shaheb Bibi Golaam)

Shiboprosad Mukherjee (Praktan)

Subhomay Chatterjee (Cholai)

Review of Bibaho Diaries

In Bengali movies normally comedies do not work well with audiences and the main reason is most of the Bengali comedies are frame to frame remakes of popular Bollywood comedies so there is no refreshment at all but fortunately #BibahoDiaries is not one such boring comedy rather it is a film which keeps you entertaining from beginning to end. When we want to enjoy a comedy the two main factors are funny dialogues and superb comic timing of the actors and the good news is #BibahoDiaries scores good marks in both of these two departments.

Story wise it has nothing new to offer it is the same age old story of a couple who have a love marriage but after marriage they get the reality check, they come to know how the romantic equations keep changing between two lovers when they become husband and wife as the responsibilities of a married life comes in between. In spite of being an over exposed subject the film never appears to be boring because of the refreshing screenplay (especially in the first half), the funny dialogues and of course wonderful performances by the lead actors.

From the opening credit you will get a glimpse of the refreshing narrative where few random couples are quizzed about their opinion on marriage. The opening credit itself sets the comic mood. The story is about, pre and post married love story of Pratyay (Ritwick Chakraborty) and Royona (Sohini Sarkar). Pratyay is a struggling theatre actor and director who don’t want to do any job to pursue his career in theatre and Royona is a professional photographer. They both belongs from different family background and social status but still they start liking each other after some casual meetings and finally they decides to get married with their parent’s half hearted consent. The second half is about the side effects of a married life, some regular conflicts between the newly married couple about each other’s habits and also some intervention from the in laws.

The screenplay written by Mainak Bhaumik and Saurav Palodhi is enjoyable till the end, though the pace drops for in the second half and the pre-climax confrontation between Prtyay and Royona looks little hurried, but we can overlook that for the humorous lines which keep coming at regular intervals. All credit goes to dialogues writer Saurav Palodhi, the funny one liners are well written, also there are some smartly written lines against current political situation of the state.

As a director Mainak Bhaumik has tried to attempt a comedy for the first time and he has done full justice with that. Though he has treated the subject in a similar way like his earlier films.

Apart from the dialogues which other factor has worked most in favor of this film is the

brilliant performance by the lead pair. Ritwick Chakraborty is absolutely brilliant like always. It is a welcome change to see him doing comedy after a long time and he has done a superb job. He has also acted as the narrator in the film where he is telling his own love story and he has done exceptionally well in those scenes. Sohini Sarkar has portrayed her character wonderfully, though her character is bit one sided and have lesser scope compared to her male counterpart but she has managed her own to stand out. In most of her earlier films we have seen her in traditional look of a Bengali housewife, but here she has played a modern urban character of a young independent working woman and she looks very nice in her urban attire. Together Ritwick and Sohini have showed a sparkling chemistry which has helped them looking more convincing as a couple on the screen.

Among the others Biswanath Basu and Kamalika Bannerjee has done good job as Prtyay’s friend and Royona’s friendly elder sister. Lily Chakraborty is impressive in a small role. Bishwajit Chakraborty, Mithu Chakraborty, Dulal Lahiri and Alaknanda Roy are good as the parents of the bride and groom.

The music composed by Savvy is good and all the songs have been used quite well in the movie. The wedding song “Evabei Suru Hok”, wonderfully sung by Lognojita, is the best one and it will be with you for a long time.

Overall #BibahoDiaries is a complete entertainer with superb funny dialogues and wonderful comic performance by the lead pair. No matter you are married or not you will definitely enjoy reading the pages of this diary.