Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Coming Soon! TASHER DESH

The most anticipated film...... Even in the conception stage the film has been written about extensively, and has become the talk of the town. Director Q (of 'Gandu' fame) has promised his viewers a no-holds-barred adaptation of the Tagorean classic. The radical film has an international cast and the first look, straight from the floors, has caused a flutter that's quite unheard of, especially for a Bangla film.

Friday, June 22, 2012

'Hemlock Society'


In 'Hemlock Society', Srijit Mukherji's new film, Koel is a revelation.

The film stars Koel Mallick, Parambrata Chatterjee, Rupa Ganguly, Dipankar De, Shilajit Majumdar, Saheb Chatterjee. Anindita Bose, and Biswajit Chakraborty.




It features, in interesting cameos, Priyanka, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabitri Chatterjee, Sohag Sen, Bratya Basu, Raj Chakraborty, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, and Barun Chanda, and also, in a song sequence, Jeet.

The songs for the film have been composed by Anupam Roy, while the theme music has been scored by Indraadip Dasgupta.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Talking films

Bangla films are supposedly witnessing a resurgence.
That's great news. For film buffs, for filmmakers, for Bangalis.
But let us have a reality check........
is it really all hunky dory for Tollygunge?
The answer - after an in depth study - would be: NO!
Yes, more Bangla films are being screened in multiplexes than before.
Yes, more people are turning up to watch Bangla films in theaters.
Some of these films are giving stiff competition to the latest releases from Mumbai or Hollywood, but it is just a small percentage of our films, and even a smaller percentage of these success stories are what can be termed 'good cinema', the rest flex their muscles thanks to the moolah pumped in by the moneybags who back these ventures.
So many of our films are copies of Southie (Tamil or Telugu) hits (and sometimes one even finds remakes of Marathi films and Hollywood hits!) and we tend to overlook this and feel glorified by the roaring business.
Banal products are often hyped beyond logistic terrains and the distress-signals are far-reaching. Case in point: a current release that shows polish in poster-designs does a disgusting overkill on television news-channel by trumping up a line that roughly  translates as "I need a sanitary napkin for myself!", mouthed by the heroine in desperation, shown a million times, inviting ripples of laughter, scorn and dismay.
Tollygunge still loves to showcase the item girls from Mumbai - from Monica Bedi to Claudia Ciesla to Rakhi Sawant to Yana Gupta to Mehak Chahal to Veena Malik - and the list keeps growing.
Aging superstars still romance around trees and now even in virgin locations overseas with nubile nymphets or voluptuous sirens.
Many of the non-mainstream products languish in the cans, still, year after year. Many dissolve into oblivion after being allotted poor screenings for a week or so. Many of the filmmakers who dare to challenge the rut and refuse to dish out stale fare by going against the grain have to give up the hopes of a release as their films do not receive the censor's nod.
Celebrated filmmakers have to settle for accolades and appreciation elsewhere and find it convenient to remain silent regarding the dumbing down phenomenon here on the native soil.
Things really need to change for the better.
I seriously hope they do.
So that we can really celebrate Bangla cinema with pride and honor.