Bengali film industry got back its shine in 2010

The difference between parallel cinema and mainstream commercial cinema blurred as works like ‘Autograph’,’Moner Manush’,’The Japanese Wife’ and ‘Shukno Lanka’ kept cash registers ringing at the box-office while garnering critical applause.

Most Bengali films in the past few years had became the butt of all jokes as filmmakers went on churning out no-brainer flicks and “copycats” of popular South Indian films.

But things changed as films made by a new breed of young directors took new-age cinema beyond acclaimed names like Aparna Sen,Rituparno Ghosh,Goutam Ghosh and Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

Made by debutant director Srijit Mukherji,the Prosenjit starrer ‘Autograph’ created such ripples that even Bollywood is planning to remake it in Hindi with superstars Shahrukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor being rumoured to play the lead roles.

Inspired from Satyajit Ray’s ‘Nayak’ and Ingrid Bergman’s ‘Wild Strawberries’,the film impressed the audience globally during its international premier at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in October.

‘Autograph’ also created a new trend as the soulful melodies composed by Debojyoti Mishra outsold Bollywood tracks at all city music stores.

Released earlier this month,veteran director Goutam Ghosh’s ‘Moner Manush'(The Quest) became the first Indian film in the past decade to pick the Golden Peacock trophy at the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa.

Taking regional cinema to another level,the story of 19th century mystic poet Lalon Faqir and his liberal sect,was the first ever film collaboration between India and Bangladesh and also the first one since 1954 to have simultaneous releases in the two neighbouring countries.

“It is doing very well,both in India and Bangladesh. The IFFI award was a big award for us but the biggest award is the box-office success. This has really excited us as it is being watched by a cross-section of the people,” Ghosh said.

However,maverick director Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Abohomaan’ won many awards but failed to generate much steam at the box-office.

The film won four national awards,including the best Bengali film and the best director award. It also gave little-known actress Ananya Chatterjee the best actress award and veteran Arghyakamal Mitra the best editing award.

Made by another debutant director Gaurav Panday,’Shukno Lanka’,which revolves around the life of a junior artist in Tollywood,became one of the few Bengali films released simultaneously in Kolkata,Delhi and Mumbai.

‘Shukno Lanka’,which means dry chilly in English,was received well both at the box-office as well as at the hands of the critics,who went gaga over Mithun Chakraborty’s stunning performance.

Although Raja Sen’s ‘Laboratory’,which marked Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon’s debut into Bengali films,failed to create noise at the cinema halls here,it did brisk business in the US.

Based on the classic short story by Rabindranath Tagore,’Laboratory’ was premiered in three US cities along with India.

On the other hand,Aparna Sen’s ‘The Japanese Wife’,starring Rahul Bose and Raima Sen,attracted multiplex audience after the ‘poetry on celluloid’ got good reviews.

But it was the commercial success of mainstream films like superstar Dev starrer ‘Le Chakka’,’Bolona tumi amar’ and ‘Dui Prithibi’,Anjan Dutta’s ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’,’Gorosthane Sabdhan’ (based on Satyajit Ray’s ‘Feluda’ story),’Wanted’,’Prem By Chance’ and ‘Josh’ that pumped oxygen into the lungs of the cash-starved industry.

However,many of the 80 releases this year fared badly.

“Only half a dozen of the films have been outstanding this year. All the big releases did well but the small-budget ones have been very bad. Filmmakers are still making copies of other films. But the focus should be more on quality than on quantity,” observed veteran film critic Shoma A Chatterji.