Three new releases during Durga pooja
The Durga Pooja festival in Bengal is always an opportune time for filmmakers to ready their films for release. The exhibitors, few of whom in Calcutta are keen on Bengali films these days, throw open their gates to new Bengali releases during this festive time. It is no different this year. The only difference being that the three films lined up for release this Pooja are by directors whose names spell SUCCESS in big capital letters. The first of these is Haranath Chakravarty’s Asroy. The second is Shesh Thikana directed by Prabhat Roy, while the third is Apon Holo Pawr directed by Ratan Adhikari. These are saleable names in the entire state of West Bengal and cinebuffs who never tire of films in their mother tongue are waiting with bated breath for the release of these films.

Haranath Chakravarty’s Asroy has the ideal mix that guarantees a hit in terms of box office. With the hottest pair of Prasenjit and Rituparna Sengupta in the romantic lead, Asroy, which means shelter, is based on a story by Neelmoni Mitra with its script and dialogues penned by Manotosh Chakravarty. It unfolds the usual melodramatic story of love between Sudhangshu, a boy from an aristocratic family, and Jayasree, an orphan brought up by three singing women Mala, Mumtaz and Margaret, and the barriers to their marriage. There are other twists and turns in the story which go to make a masala film for a masala audience. Others in the cast are Laboni Sarkar, Deepankar De, the late Nandini Mallya, Shubhendu Chatterjee, Soma De, Anamika Saha, Nirmal Kumar and Koushik Banerjee. Songs in the music-centric film are in the voices of Kumar Sanu, Sadhana Sargam, Priya, Babul Supriyo, Udit Narayan, Divakar, Swapan and Bobin. The lyrics have been penned by Goutam-Susmit and set to music by Babul Bose. Cinematography is by V Prabhakar, while Swapan Guha has done the editing.

Shesh Thikana deals with the theme of the oppression and exploitation of women under patriarchy. It is Prabhat Roy’s own celebration of the courage and inner strength of Indian women who would rise against exploitation based on gender in the New Millennium. The film is based on a story by producer Dr Jayanti Sen and the screenplay is by Jeet Sarkar.

Newcomer Jaya Seal, a graduate of the National School of Drama, Delhi, who made her debut in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Uttara, plays the dual role of mother and daughter. Sriradha (Jaya Seal), a strong and self-willed girl from childhood, is taught by her grandmother (Supriya Devi), never to take things lying down just because she is a girl. She grows up with the spirit of a rebel. In course of time she gets married to a rich industrialist Sujan Dutta. However, marriage dashes her hopes of a rosy future because Sujan uses her to further his business interests. She rebels and the marriage breaks up. A new man, Soumyabrata (Ashish Vidyarthy) enters her life and they fall in love and get married. There is no happiness for Sriradha the second time too. Soumy, a film director, is also inclined to use his wife’s sensuous beauty for the betterment of his film and his career. Sriradha protests and the marriage ends in divorce. When she is left all alone, in steps a soft-spoken and sympathetic man, Dr Devdutta (Sabyasachi Chakravarty.) What happens then? Does Sriradha find happiness at all in the end?

Others in the cast are Sanjib Dasgupta, Tota Roy Chaudhury, Amrapali, Rahul Burman, Arindam Seal, Ayushee De, Roopkatha Dasgupta, Shakuntala Barua and Saswata Chatterjee. Music is by Rajeev Chakravarty and lyrics are by Debaprasad Chakravarty. Singers lending their voices to the songs are Sonu Nigam, Sreeradha, Indraneel Sen, Indrani Sen and Kavita Krishnamoorthy. Nimai Moulik is joint producer. Tapas Pictures is presenting the film. What is remarkable about Shesh Thikana is that it does not have a single box-office drawing actor in the cast. And it mark the debut of Ashish Vidyarthy on the Bengali screen. Incidentally, Ashish’s mother is a Bengali mother and he is married to a Bengali, the daughter of actress Shakuntala Barua.

Apon Holo Pawr, produced by Pratap Barot, is being presented under the banner of Monang Films International. The story and screenplay are penned by Shishir Misra, music is by Bablu Bose, while the lyrics have been penned by Gautam-Susmit, and sung by Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamoorthy and Babul Supriyo. Production design is by Paul-Kaushik with Shantanu Pal as the action coordinator. Apon Holo Pawr puts together an impressive cast. Prasenjit and Indrani Haldar play the main lead. Supporting them are Abhishek Chatterjee, Sreelekha Mitra, Tapasi Roy Choudhury, Laboni Sarkar, Shakuntala Barua, Anamika Saha, Dulal Lahiri, Ramaprasad Banik, Mrityun Hajra, Tabun Munshi and Soumitra Chatterjee.

Sagar and Urmila are visiting a seaside resort to spend their honeymoon. While walking along the seaside one day, they are accosted by four goons who gang-rape and kill Urmila and murder Sagar as well. Three out of the four killers manage to flee, with the police hot on their chase, while the fourth, Vikram, is caught. Vikram is sentenced to death. His three friends are now bent on avenging the death of Vikram by punishing the prosecution lawyer, Abhijeet. They take an oath to destroy him and his entire family. One night, they nab Abhijeet’s parents, wife Madhabi and a little child, who are in Abhijeet’s car. They beat up the old couple and the child and take Madhabi away with them to rape her.

But Madhabi manages to free herself after a severe struggle and comes home in a terrible state. Despite her insistence on not having been raped, Madhabi’s mother-in-law refuses to believe her. After a few months, Madhabi is discovered to be pregnant. Her mother-in-law is convinced that she is pregnant because of the rape and plants these ideas in the mind of Abhishek. She is thrown out of the house. As she leaves, she vows to prove that the child she is expecting is her husband Abhishek’s and that she will avenge the wrong done to her one day. She comes back with a vengeance after 20 long years. What happens then, makes for the climax of the film.

Shoma A. Chatterji