Hola, film buffs. It’s time for Camongo’s lowdown on Tollywood (Bangla) film releases over the month of May. The movies that came to us this month and are showing in cinema halls and multiplexes right now are three to be precise. The first two that we present here are adventure – mystery – suspense thrillers while the third is a social drama and children’s film.
Here they go –
Sonar Kellay Jawkerdhan – Sit back and let the suspense and intrigue of Sonar Kella sweep over you again. The trio of Bimal (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), Dr. Ruby Chatterjee (Koel Mallick), and Kumar (Gaurav Chakrabarty) go forth into the rolling sand dunes of the Thar desert to uncover the secrets of Jaisalmer Fort and protect Mukul Dhar’s life from evil elements who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Philosopher’s Stone. Mukul, of course, is all grown-up and into his midlife, running a bookstore on College Street now and he still possesses the mysterious ability to look into his past life and give clues on where the paras pathar (Philosopher’s Stone) lies hidden. The film written by Sougata Basu has been directed by Sayantan Ghosal. Jammy Banerjee, Judhajit Sarkar, Saheb Chatterjee, and Suprobhat Das as Mukul are other notable cast members. The cinematography is by Ramyadeep Saha. The film, the newest offering of the Jawkerdhan franchise, as expected leans heavily into suspense and intrigue and we watch the chief protagonists use their combined intellect and courage to get the better of dangerous criminals and protect the ancient treasure.
The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika – Directed and co-written by Joydip Mukherjee, the film has a liberal dose of suspense and mystery sprinkled with fun thanks to Eken Babu’s classic acumen. Based on Sujan Dasgupta’s Chhadmabeshi Samay, we find Eken Babu in the picturesque holy city of Benaras along with Pramatha and Bapi. There, they stumble upon a case that involves a missing pendant. The trio, led by Eken Babu must race against time and use all their wit to foil a deadly terrorist attack. None of the lead characters, Eken (Anirban Chakrabarti), along with Pramatha (Somak Ghosh) and Bapi (Suhotra Mukhopadhyay) disappoint. Other characters we meet in the film are their long-time friend, Subimal (Gaurav Chakrabarty), his uncle Bireshwar (Debesh Chattopadhyay), and Bireshwar’s wife, Damini (Ishaa Saha). Evil appears in the form of Belal Malik (Saswata Chatterjee) who is at the helm of the terror plans with his menacing devices and fear-inspiring disguises. The music is by Amlan Chakraborty and background score by Subhadeep Guha. The screenplay and dialogues are by Padmanabha Dasgupta. The cinematography by Tuban brings alive the vibrant city with its age-old ghats and alleys, countless pilgrims, chants, and aartis.
Torsha Ekti Nodir Naam – Torsha, a major river of North Bengal originates among the mountains and flows at its own graceful pace into the neighbouring country of Bangladesh. Beautiful name apart, Torsha symbolizes life and vitality for the regions it flows through. The film dwells on a social situation that emerges when a colony of fishermen living in a slum along the bank of the river are served a government notice asking them to vacate the land of their settlements as it belongs to the government. They are clueless about how they would manage to earn their livelihood as they are dependent on the Torsha, and moving away would rob them of their fishing schedules fixed over the years. This is when the District Magistrate’s little girl, who is incidentally named Torsha, comes to their rescue. The film is a poignant reminder of how children behave and interact, blissfully unaware of the complexities of class, race, and religion. The Director of Torsha Ekti Nodir Naam is Krishnendu Sannigrahi while the Screenwriter is Pulak Kumar Das. The Cinematography is by Abir Dutta, Pramit Das. The Editor is Md. Kalam and Music by Debajyoti Mishra.
With Inputs by Neha Karmakar
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