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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Review of The Bongs Again

Almost 10 years ago Anjan Dutta had made a film which was completely out of trend that time, a movie with no commercial element, a Bengali movie with almost 70% dialogues in English, a movie talking about the global Bengalis. At that time it did not get much success but definitely it grabbed attention from many. Then in last 10 years lots of things have changed in Bengali film industry now urban crowd have started taking interest in good quality Bangla movies and may be because of that Anjan Dutta is back with #TheBongsAgain, a sequel to #TheBongConnection.

#TheBongsAgain is a story of two girls Olypriya (Parno Mittra) and Sarah (Neha Panda). Both are looking for their roots in a different country, different culture. Olypriya goes to London from Kolkata, to search her father who had left her with her mother several years ago. Sarah comes down to Kolkata from abroad to search her real mother who had left her in an orphanage from where she was adopted later. During their search they came across with different aspect of relationships, Oli almost broke up with her long term boyfriend Anindo (Gaurav Chakraborty) on the other hand Sarah found a close friend in Jisu (Jisshu Sengupta) who helped her in her search. They also come across the real world of their respective parents whom they are looking for. Olipriya experienced the life, her father use to live, a bondage free life for which he left his family behind. A group of stranger bohemian guys lead by Jerry (Anjan Dutta) helped her to explore the lifestyle of her father. In Kolkata Sarah too saw the struggle of poor homeless people, like her mother, the way they have to survive every day. She experienced all these through the eyes of Nitai (Shubhra Saurav), a small time fraud who use to cheat foreigners to earn some money.

The story is promising but sadly the screenplay does not go well. After a point it looks lost, you won't understand where the story is going to, rather it looks like a bunch of video songs playing one after another showing the different lanes of Kolkata and beaches of Kent. There are several relationship but none of those has been given proper time to flourish as a result no one will be bothered to know the climax of the relationships. 

As a Director Anjan Dutta has tried to make a youthful film but he is just partially successful. He is good with casting and locations but he failed to find a proper screenplay to justify his talented cast and crew.

Acting wise both the girls are wonderful. Parno Mittra has played her part really well. In emotional scenes she is too good. Neha Panda is a young talented actress who was very much unutilized so far in bit roles but this movie has given her a full grown platform to showcase her talent and she has utilised that opportunity quite well. Anjan Dutta is good but looks like he is repeating himself in a character what we have seen him playing again and again. Jisshu Sengupta is honest and sincere with his performance but he has hardly anything to do here. Shubhra Saurav is excellent in a supporting role. Gaurav Chakraborty has provided good support.

The music has been composed by Neel Dutta and like the other Anjan Dutta movies music is one of the biggest highlight of the film. The songs are good and have been used quite well mostly in background. Cinematography by Indranil Mukherjee is extraordinary. The way the beaches and valleys of Kent have been shot that is a treat to our eyes.

Overall it is a film which looks good from outside but what is missing, is an engaging story. You can watch it only for the wonderful performances by the two leading ladies and for the melodious music by Neel Dutta.

Bengali Movies to Watch out for in 2017

Year 2017 has just begun and we wish this year will produce more entertaining movies and will be bigger and better in terms of box office business.

To begin the year let's have a look about the Bengali movies to watch out for in 2017.

Movie - Posto

Director - Shiboprasad Mukherjee & Nandita Ray

Cast - Jisshu Sengupta, Mimi Chakraborty, Soumitra Chatterjee, Lily Chakraborty

Why Recommended

·        Shiboprasad & Nandita this Director duo's name is enough to make us curious for this movie.

·        Jisshu Sengupta and Mimi Chakraborty are also an added attraction.

Movie - Amazon Abhijaan

Director -  Kamaleshwar Mukherjee

Cast - Dev

Why Recommended

·         It will be the sequel to super hit film #ChanderPahar

·         It will release during the season of Durga Puja which is most profitable season for Bengali movies.

Movie - Meghnadbadh Rahasya

Director - Anik Dutta

Cast - Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Gargee Roychowdhury, Abir Chatterjee, Bikram Chatterjee, Sayani Ghosh

Why Recommended

·         #BhooterBhabishyat fame director Anik Dutta is making a movie after a long gap so we are hopeful that it will be an interesting subject which has bring back the man to director's chair once again.

·         The cast too is interesting having some really good actors.

Movie - Durga Sohay

Director - Arindam Sil

Cast - Sohini Sarkar, Tanushree, Anirban Bhattacharjee, Indrashish Roy, Sampurna Lahiri

Why Recommended

·         Director Arindam Sil has already proved he makes really nice movies so we can definitely be hopeful from his next directorial.

·         It will be a family drama with a wonderful ensemble cast 

Movie -  Bisorjon

Director - Kaushik Ganguly

Cast - Abir Chatterjee, Joya Ahsaan

Why Recommended

·         It has been directed by Kaushik Ganguly so we can expect a fresh and interesting story.

·         It will be a love story between a Indian guy and Bangladeshi girl played by the talented actors Abir Chatterjee and Joya Ahsaan

Movie - Next Kakababu Movie

Director - Srijit Mukherjee

Cast - Prosenjit Chatterjee

Why Recommended

·         It will be a Srijit Mukherjee film so we can definitely be hopeful with this.

·         Last time the Kakababu Movie #MisharRahasya was a big hit and we hope the next movie of this series will be of same calibre.

Movie -  Mukhomukhi

Director - Kamaleshwar Mukherjee

Cast - Jisshu Sengupta , Payel Sarkar

Why Recommended

·         Nothing much has been known about the movie till now but we can expect a good sensible movie from director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee.

·         Jisshu Sengupta as the leading man is also enough grow our interest for this movie.

Movie - Dhumketu

Director - Kaushik Ganguly

Cast - Dev , Shubhoshree, Rudranil

Why Recommended

·         It will be really interesting to see the combination of commercial movie's hit pair Dev and Shubhoshree under the direction of Kaushik Ganguly.

·         After getting positive reviews in #Zulfiqar, we are more interested to see Dev doing some serious acting.

Movie - Arindam Sil's next movie based on Dhananjay case

Director - Arindam Sil

Cast - Anirban Bhattacharya

Why Recommended

·         The movie will be based on the much controversial real life incident of Dhananjay and Hetal Parekh. But the filmmakers have promised to tell the story with a never seen before angle which is enough reason to wait for its release.

·         Also we are hopeful with Arindam Sil as a Director.

Movie - Next Byomkesh movie

Director - Anjan Dutta

Cast - Jisshu Sengupta, Saswata Chatterjee, Ushoshi

Why Recommended

·         Whenever Anjan Dutta has made a Byomkesh movie, he has never failed to impress the audiences, so it won't be wrong to expect yet another successful Byomkesh movie during this Puja.

Movie - Chaamp

Director - Raj Chakraborty

Cast - Dev, Rukmini Mitra, Chiranjeet

Why Recommended

·         It's true that commercial movies are not getting that good response but this movie has some features which can help it to be a real champion.

·         It will be a sports based film after a long time that too with a sport like Boxing which has hardly been featured in Bengali movies so far.

·         It will mark the debut of Deb's rumoured girl friend Rukmini that too opposite Dev

Movie - The Bongs Again

Director - Anjan Dutta

Cast - Jisshu Sengupta, Parno Mitra, Anjan Dutta, Neha Panda

Why Recommended

·         It will be a sequel to #TheBongConnection which was not a big hit but got positive feedback.

·         It had a wonderful ensemble cast full of talented actors.

Movie - 72 Ghanta

Director - Atanu Ghosh

Cast - Ritwick Chakraborty, Abir Chatterjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Indrani Haldar, Sudipta Chakraborty

Why Recommended

·         It will be mix of six different stories bind together.

·         Though this format of telling multiple stories has not been that successful so far but it gives us a chance to witness multiple interesting short stories in one film.

·         Also it has a very interesting cast with so many talented actors playing different roles in different stories.