Tag Archives: Abhishek Bachchan

Rituparno Ghosh – the most courageous director of our time

Rituparno Ghosh – the most courageous director of our time.

written by Souranath Banerjee.

12 National awards and many international ones tagged to his name; Rituparno Ghosh is one of India’s most proclaimed director of all times.

unishe-april-posterHe was also a writer, actor, lyricist and a brilliant television talk-show host!

His second film Unishe April won the National Award in the year 1995 and announced the arrival of a Bengali director who has bestowed himself with the responsibility of continuing the tradition of making classy Bengali films which are both intellectual and entertaining at the same time.

Not an easy task since his predecessors were globally influential stalwarts; the likes of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak.   

last-lear-posterNow, if one cares to analyze the time when Rituparno Ghosh started his career (in the early 90s), evidently it was the time when Bengali Cinema was going through a tough phase.

Throughout the 80s there was this trend of commercializing Bengali films which apparently meant a desperate attempt to ape the popular Bollywood culture of elaborate songs and action sequences. And thus happened this major shift in the trend of Bengali Cinema – from the earlier artistic films to the so-called ‘commercially entertaining’ ones.

In the year 1991 Satyajit Ray won the National award for his last feature film Agantuk. By that time, apart from a handful of film-makers like Goutam GhoseAparna Sen and Buddhadev Dasgupta, the Bengali film industry was flooded with mediocre directors and their mass-pleasing movies.

badiwali-posterBengali industry was in need for someone to create a balance between the traditional arty films and the commercial ones and Rituparno Ghosh was THE director who had the courage and the capability to fill-up this vacuum!

The success of Unishe April was followed by superb films like DahanBariwaliUtsabChokher BaliRaincoatDosarAbohomaanShob Charitro KalponikNoukadubiChitrangada and many more.

More than two decades of Rituparno’s magical cinemas.

Dosar-posterIn the early phase of Rituparno’s film-making career his films mostly portrayed the middle-class Bengali families, their desires and despairs. This was probably his most successful phase as he skillfully intersected the typical average Bengali household and delicately revealed it’s secrets to us.

He worked with many talented Tollywood actors like Prasenjit ChatterjeeDebashree RoyRaima SenTota Roy ChowdhuryKonkona Sen SharmaAparna SenIndrani HaldarDipankar DeyMithun ChakrabortyChiranjitRupa GangulyMamata ShankarJishu Sengupta and others.

Raincoat-PosterThen came the phase when he would make films not only in Bengali but also in English and Hindi and his star-cast would be mostly actors and actress from Bollywood. He has worked with Aishwarya Rai BachchanSharmila TagoreNandita DasJackie ShroffAbhishek BachchanSoha Ali KhanAmitabh BachchanAjay DevgnAnnu KapoorKiron KherPreity ZintaArjun RampalDivya DuttaManisha KoiralaBipasha Basu and others.

And in the last phase of his career he mostly made films on stories that dealt with sexuality. These bold films were probably more personal to him since Rituparno himself was openly homosexual and in the last years of his life he also explored a transgender lifestyle. 

chitrangada-posterHe once said “It is for me to decide whether I will stand in the queue for men or for women or neither of the two.”

Towards the end of his career Rituparno Ghosh also acted in a few films like Aarekti Premer GolpoMemories in March and Chitrangada.

A great admirer of Rabindranath Tagore, a researcher of the epic book Mahabharata and an ardent fan of Satyajit Ray – Rituparno Ghosh, a person who loved cinema and was loved by all.

One of those rare directors whose films received the peak of both critical and commercial acclaim.

As film-maker Goutam Ghose remembered him after Rituparno’s death on 30 May 2013 – 

dahan-poster“His films, with their sensitive portrayal of human relationships, anguish, trauma and love in a fast-changing, post-liberalization India charmed audiences. His brilliant story-telling reflected contemporary society like never before. While his death creates a tremendous void that can never be filled, Rituparno’s work blazed a trail that has paved the way for an entire generation of filmmakers who have dared to be different. It was Rituparno who gave them the courage.”

A salute to the most courageous film-maker of our time.

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Happy New Year (2014)

Written by Abhikendu Deb Roy.

Ratings: 3/5.

A mission is usually of three parts – the aim, the act and the outcome. Mission ‘Happy New Year’: To accomplish an act of theft in the midst of a World Dance Championship. Result: No prizes for guessing, mission successful. It is the act in between which is the essence of this 3 hours long movie.

Director Farah Khan, after a disastrous Tees Maar Khan, is back with the actor she had started her career as a director. Needless to say, the entire plot revolves around Shah Rukh Khan, a meticulous planner who is out there to take revenge for his father’s imprisonment due to a false accusation. A commercial movie like this can never end with a gory conclusion; so you know what happens at the end. It is how he arranges his teammates for the dance competition and the theft likewise is what makes the journey interesting.

Happy New Year was meant to be an SRK movie. Right from his entry exhibiting those 8-pack abs, hoots and claps across the hall are heard every now and then. His acting can never go wrong, and maintains the personality of a team leader. He appears stylish as well, his golden streaks and a rugged goatee being in fashion these days. However, Shahrukh looks tired and aged in some of his scenes, the energy missing almost throughout the entire film.

Boman Irani, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood and Vivaan Shah play their parts pretty moderately, with a few glimpses of overacting getting noted down from each of them at parts.

Unlike other Khan movies, this is one of those very rare specimens in Bollywood where heroines are just not merely diminished to the role of a showpiece. Farah must be appreciated for giving Deepika Padukone enough opportunities to showcase her talents. Deepika works wonders for this film and is probably the brightest actor among them all, emanating positive vibes and energy.

A linear script keeps the plot simple, but makes it too predictable at parts. Logic is seriously lacking in the script, but one must not, in such a film, ask for explanations of a double role or a team of non-dancers winning the trophy on an international platform. It does carry a few minor twists here and there which take the level of interest for a viewer a few notches up the hill.

With dance championship as one of the building blocks of the film, you can expect superbly built stages with a visual treat of lighting. Inspite of indoor sequences predominant, the set design has been put to larger-than-life situations with intricate detailing of the canvas. Cinematographer Manush Nandan is apt for the portrayal of such a magnanimous film.

180 minutes may seem too long for a film these days, but once you dig into that couch at a plex with a tub of popcorn, you won’t get a hint of how the time is passing by, thanks to the moderately tolerable rib-ticklers and the adrenaline upsurge. But there were patches of the film which could have been done away with, had the editor Anand Subaya noticed.

Dance numbers are expected from a film with such a theme, and there are too many. Countless songs tend to drag the film a bit, but you will enjoy the beats of Indiawaale and Satakli. The only romantic number Manwa Laage has a déjà vu of the romantic hero. But that one song during which you just cannot take your eyes off from the screen is Lovely, the introductory item song of Deepika. Vishal-Shekhar could have come up with a soundtrack of superior quality.

Final Verdict: You will like the film if you are a Shah Rukh fan and if you go in with the mindset of enjoying a masala flick. We however miss the romantic chocolate boy Shahrukh from the olden days. There is a pinch of patriotism in the potboiler as well. It is surely an entertaining film, but surely not a meaningful one.

And also expect Shah Rukh’s youngest son Abram to headbang with his doting father at the end of the movie.

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