Tag Archives: Riddhi Sen

BEST BENGALI FILMS 2015 – 2016 (10+1list)

22 January, 2017 Souranath Banerjee 3 Comments

Best Bengali Films 2015 – 2016

written by Souranath Banerjee

Hello to all you Bengali ‘nak uchu’ snobs who consider Bengali Cinema/Literature/Music as the epitome of art and creativity – well, glad to announce that I am exactly like you!

And when ever we Bengalis talk about Cinema, we time travel to the memorable glorious past of Bengali Cinema – the days of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak and then coming back to the present we proudly allude to the likes of Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Gautam Ghose, Aparna Sen.

Such legendary directors and their invaluable contribution to World Cinema make us feel honoured and content, and why not?

Similar Interest: Best Bengali Films 2012 – 2014

Similar Interest: Best Bengali Classic Comedies of all times

However this current list is of more recent times, the last two years to be exact (2015 – 2016), a list of the best Bengali films from exceptionally talented directors who are very much the present and the future of Bengali Film Industry!

Best Bengali Films 2015 – 2016 – let the countdown begin!

10. Double Feluda (2016)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1V7VWYKbeI

Sandip Ray have made his latest film on none other than two back to back mystery stories originally written by Satyajit Ray, based on the famous detective character Feluda!

And guess what, Sabyasachi Chakraborty is back in and as Feluda and still rocking! And then of course we have Saheb Bhattacharjee as Topshe and Paran Banerjee as Sidhu Jetha. I only wish that somebody could replace Mr.Lalmohan Ganguly aka Jatayu aka Santosh Dutta as well. I guess some people are just irreplaceable!

9. Belaseshe (2015)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0zUrtioA2g

Directed by Shibprasad Mukhopadhyay and Nandita Roy, probably the best film that explores the intricate emotional values of various human relationships, be it married or unmarried, short time or a life-long companionship!

Brilliant chemistry between Soumitra Chatterjee and Swatilekha Sengupta straight after they shared the screen in Satyajit Ray‘s Ghare-Baire in the year 1984.

8. Byomkesh O Chiriakhana (2016)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjc4ogHSOo0

It seems that the Bengali-audience can never have enough of their favourite detective Mr.Byomkesh Bakshi.

Directed by Anjan Dutt, this thriller revolves around the murder of a judge and this time Jishu Sengupta plays the role of the typical ‘bhodrolok’ sleuth to perfection. And Saswata Chatterjee as Byomkesh’s friend/assistant Ajit and Usashi Chakraborty as Byomkesh’s wife Satyabati.

7. Shankhachil (2016)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stkkOMmchpo

Acclaimed director Goutam Ghose‘s latest film won the National Award for Best Bengali film of 2016!

It’s a India-Bangladesh joint venture and the story is also based on consequences of partition and how people get affected by it still today.

Commendable performances by child artist Shajbati and then of course Prasenjit Chatterjee, Kusum Sikder, Dipankar Dey all have given their best.

6. Eagoler Chokh (2016)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oZZkXdFRS0

Based on Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay‘s story and directed by Arindam Sil this is the best detective thriller among the endless Bengali-detective movies that had been churned out in the last year.

The investigator Shabor Dasgupta played perfectly by Saswata Chatterjee slowly connects the dots as he cracks a murder case of a young woman.

Ebar Shabor, by the same director and based on the same detective character is also worth your time.

5. Chotoder Chobi (2014)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8xRKKtL2Oo

An emotional heart-touching love story between two people born with genetic defect causing dwarfism.

Directed by Kaushik Ganguly, this slow-pace drama won a National Award in the ‘Best Film on Other Social Issues’ category.

Unique concept, superb direction and brilliant natural performances by Debalina Roy and Dulal Sarkar. Mr.Dulal Sarkar was also awarded best-actor at Goa International Film Festival last year.

4. Nirbashito (2014)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iang3nizjTE

A biography of a writer in exile, a story about her isolation, her hopes and her helplessness – officially not based on the life of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen but rather inspired by her life post exile.

Directed and also performed by Churni Ganguly, the film won the National Award for Best Bengali film of 2015 and also was India’s Oscar nomination in the category “Best foreign film” in 2015!

3. Open Tee Bioscope (2015)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhYpZrYrUBw

Adolescence, adventures and experiences, friends and infatuations – Kolkata seen through the eyes of a young boy.

Superb performances by the young actors Riddhi Sen, Surangana Banerjee, Dhee Majumder.

Directed by Anindya Chatterjee and Shoojit Sircar, if you want to experience the nostalgic North Kolkata of the 90s, this is the film you should watch!

2. Cinemawala (2016)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9_lUiinpFo

This film beautifully takes on two different tussles – one, as the digital media threatens the single screen movie theatres specially in the small towns and the secondly, the universal clash between a father and his son.

Brilliantly performed by Paran Banerjee and Parambrata Chatterjee and directed by Kaushik Ganguly, an emotional tale that Cinema-lovers cannot miss.

Praktan (2016)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMJPxLAjuXU

A married woman meets her ex husband while they are on a journey from Mumbai to Howrah by train – a beautiful film about relations and relationships.

Directed by Shibprasad Mukhopadhyay and Nandita Roy, probably the most popular Bengali film of the last couple of years portraying a brilliant chemistry between Prasenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta.

and (The ‘+1′ film is not necessarily the best but certainly the most innovative one. A must watch)

+1. Asha Jaoar Majhe (2014)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFObwB9TAwc

Also known as Labour of Love, this is one unique film that won two National Awards and was appreciated in many festivals around the world.

(click for the review)

Directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, starring Ritwick Chakraborty and Basabdatta Chatterjee this is one of the best non-comercial visual treat that happened to the Bengali Industry in the recent times.

A few other films that are also worth your time are Srijit Mukherji‘s Rajkahini (2015), Suman Mukhopadhyay‘s The Last Poem (2015), Pavel‘s Babar Naam Gandhiji (2015) and Suman Ghosh‘s Kadambari (2015).

Poster courtesy: www.imdb.com

Film Reviews (Indian)

Parched (2015)

Video 28 September, 2016 Souranath Banerjee Leave a comment

Parched review

written by Souranath Banerjee

Self-empowerment of rural women – Parched instantly reminded me of Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala!

My Ratings: 4/5.

Seldom issue based films (especially in Bollywood) suffer from striking a balance between telling a story that is both entertaining as well as didactic.

And that is exactly where Leena Yadav‘s remarkable film Parched comes out as a winner!

Dealing with four rural female characters in the lead – Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee), Lajjo (Radhika Apte), Bijli (Surveen Chawla) and Janaki (Lehar Khan) and then of course their struggle in a male-dominating society being the core of the film, Parched has done an incredible job in charming the audience, mostly through it’s unapologetic dialogues (thanks to Supratik Sen) that ranges from being real, straightforward to vulgar!

The film through each of its feminine-character’s remarkable journeys efficiently tackles so many women-oriented social issues like domestic violence, sexual harassment, education, child marriage, dowry, status of the widows, choice of asserting her sexual preferences, fertility prejudices, prostitution, even the importance of rural small-scale businesses and then of course the independence of women on the whole!

Such powerful acting by everyone in the film but electrifying Radhika Apte surely leads the pack.

Tannishtha Chatterjee also plays a very mature part, probably the most difficult one in the film. Even Surveen Chawla as the prostitute/dancer makes her mark. Riddhi Sen as the young egoistic male, and then Adil Hussain and Sumeet Vyas – all did justice to their roles.

Through the lenses of ace cinematographer Russell Carpenter and the appropriate melodious music by Hitesh Sonik, Parched has definitely managed to tell a fascinating story, most importantly something very different and genuine.

The backdrop being Rajasthan, and essentially dealing with strong women characters, Parched instantly reminded me of Ketan Mehta‘s epic film Mirch Masala (1987).

But i guess the real success of a film like Parched will be when the women of rural India can get to watch it and enjoy as much as the urban multiplex audience did!

Totally worth your time and money.

Poster courtesy: www.impawards.com, www.imdb.com.

Film Reviews (Indian)

Children of War (2014)

17 May, 2014 Souranath Banerjee Leave a comment

My Ratings: 4/5

Children of War is one of the most sincere films I have seen in the recent times.

I won’t recommend this film for children or even adults with weak hearts since Children of War showcases some of the most visually disturbing images of rape, torture and genocide ever seen in Indian Cinema.

But most importantly Children of War voices the truth.

The film successfully recreates the horrific crimes orchestrated by Pakistan over the Bangladeshi (Bengali) people in the pre-independence era of Bangladesh in 1971.

For nine months the common people of Bangladesh (then-East Pakistan) were tortured and denied of their rights to form a separate democratic country. Surprisingly the world turned a blind eye to this genocide until India took it personally and overpowered the Pakistani troops (in more sophisticated words: kicked their asses big time) along with the help of Bangladeshi resistance force (Mukti Bahini).

Children of War makes us revisit those horrific pages of history and acknowledge the sufferings of those innocent lives of Bengali people lost in the battle for the independence of Bangladesh.

The film has a soul of its own that connects to you – hats off to the first-time director Mrityunjay Devvrat for making Children of War so real.

Indraneil Sengupta, Raima Sen, Tilotama Shome, Victor Banerjee, Farooq Sheikh – all did a good job but the man who steals the show is the evil Pakistani commander Pavan Malhotra – brilliantly wicked.

In the film Malik (Pavan Malhotra) who is in charge of a Pakistani war camp believes that if enough Bangladeshi girls (war prisoners) are raped and made to bear Pakistani children then the idea of revolution for their separate country will eventually die down. So under his observation women of all ages who are dumped in that war camp are routinely raped and tortured till they become pregnant with the so called ‘children of war’.

We also experience the story of a brother (Riddhi Sen) and sister (Rucha Inamdar) who has lost everything of their own including their parents – their only aim is to reach India where they can be safe. But can they survive till the end of their journey?

On the other hand there is the journalist (Indraneil Sengupta) who is forced to take up a gun instead of his pen to fight back against the injustice and also to search his wife (Raima Sen) who is imprisoned in the war camp of Malik.

The film tells us such tales of intolerable human suffering that somehow make us feel guilty – guilty of being proud of our over-glorified human existence.

Children of war is a film everyone should watch – not only because it’s a very well-made film but also to have a better understanding of the world history.

And then you only wish that history doesn’t repeat itself … ever.

Film trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3xWa-pBtdQ

Cinema Forensic

Tag Archives: Riddhi Sen

BEST BENGALI FILMS 2015 – 2016 (10+1list)

Best Bengali Films 2015 – 2016

written by Souranath Banerjee

Parched (2015)

Children of War (2014)

For the love of cinema