Hirok Rajar Deshe

Chandan Sen’s presentation of the evergreen story of Gupi Gayen & Bagha Bayen’s second adventure based on the movie bearing the same name directed by Satyajit Ray. With some fine modifications on the actual theme, Kharaj Mukherjee’s songs and lyrics adds a different flavour to the drama. Added to this is the excellent use of lighting that gives the play a new dimension though my recommendation will be to take seats a little at the rear to appreciate it justly. The acting is classic and watching the actor playing the part of Bagha, one can’t help remember Robi Ghosh whose performance made this character a legend. Produced by Asoknagar’s Nataanan this play is a memorable watch.

Ashray

An Asutosh Mukhopadhyay novel that is important for two reasons. Firstly it became a book after 8 years of its 1st publication as a novel in a Puja magazine. Secondly the reason for this surprising delay was that Mr. Mukhopadhyay dictated major part of the story to his daughter, Sarbani while lying ill and wanted to write the whole thing by himself before it appeared as a book. But his untimely death dealt a major blow to this and left Sarbani torn between her father’s wish and her own that was to reveal the work to the greater audience.
This was probably the final work of Mr. Mukherjee and probably one of his best according to me. The intricate web of emotions that the author has woven not only shows his mastery with words but also it reflects how deep his study was of the human nature and the social bounds that shape it.
The story involves Nandita Bose, the only daughter of a barrister father and a writer mother, who suddenly finds herself a victim of an impending separation between her parents. Torn between the love for her father and hatred for her mother, she gets involved in a strange battle of principles that not only affects her family but also her personal life and ends in an unique style that can only be described as a copybook short story ending with the reader left to conceive the final chapters of the life of each character.
With the frequent use of contrasting perspectives in consecutive chapters, the author has forced readers to be overwhelmed with the various emotions ranging from hatred to love and fury to tranquility and his passionate zeal of expressing the plot, according to Sarbani Mukherjee’s introduction, is vividly felt as the story unfolds its various hues.

The 3 Mistakes of My Life

After I had read Chetan Bhagat's "One Night @ the Call Centre", an instant fascination in his work grew in me. But while going through this one's back cover, somehow it did not arouse any interest. Still, my hobby of collecting at least one work for any renowned author won over and I bought it. Well as I started reading through the pages my fears of losing interest in the piece was growing steadily until the "1st mistake" and from then onwards it was a real roller coaster ride.
The story is about three friends in Ahmedabad, Govind, a practical minded youth whose passion was maths and who dreamt of a flourishing business of his own, Ishan a passionate guy whose chief obsession was cricket and who believed his freinds blindly and Omi, the son of a priest to whom religion was the first priority. Govind, in trying to shape his future, convinced his friends to open a business in sports good and stationeries and they opened the same in the premises of a temple, where Omi's family lived.The guys struggled with the business and it initially flourished and profitted. They started two parallel small scale projects with Govind tutoring the local school goers and Ishan giving cricket coaching to those interested. But all of a sudden when everything was running smooth and they were looking forward to shift business in a modern mall, Govind made the 1st mistake of his life that cost him his confidence. From this point onwards the story becomes much more involved where business gets mixed with social issues, religions and politics and how these three cope with them.
The story is told from Govind's point of view and how his three vital mistakes became crucial to his business and his personal and social life. The emotions have been richly painted and nowhere it had turned out of the ordinary but Mr. Bhagat's trend of a signature Hindi movie style finish seemed to mar the end IMO. Also a slight discrepancy that I noted was that though the author has used the 1st person in two ways, one while describing his own conversation with Govind and secondly in the flashback mode with Govind as the 1st person, the style of both seemed the same. Maybe a slight different way of expressing feelings would have been more appealing to the reader.

The Sittaford Mystery

Another Agatha Christie classic that begins with a seance that starts with a jolly note during an evening tea party but soon turns grim as it predicts murder of one Captain Trevelyan who was situated miles away from them. One of the participants of the seance, Major Burnaby, a friend of Trevelyan, soon sets to enquire about his pal and he was the first person to make the gruesome discovery. Inspector Narracott is appointed in charge of the case and he soon arrests one of the Captain's nephew, Jim Pearson with all the circumstantial evidences that points to his guilt. But in his mind, he was still not convinced of Jim's crime as is his fiance Emily. Emily, a not-so-easy-to-stop woman befriends a journalist Charles Enderby and these two amateur sleuths starts enquiring the locals about any incident that can help them unravel the crime. This Christie classic was one of my favourites and as I read it for the second time, fully aware of who the criminal is, I just could not help admire the style of the author in throwing the reader off the track while presenting all the details and motives that can help one point out the murderer. A highly entertaining read that ends with the signature Christie style twist.

Munich

A Steven Spielberg directed 2005 thriller travelouge, beginning with the 1972 invasion of Pallestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympic village that resulted in the death of 11 members of the Israeli team, is a moving narration of the events that follows the massacre. This triggered the Mossad (Israeli foreign intel) to counter the threat by a series of assassinations by an undercover team of five led by agent Avner. This top secret mission is carried out initially quite ruthlessly though the team was more than once faced with a dilemma natural to a hurriedly assembled team. But as the assasinations pile up their soul begin to sicken and also they find themselves to be on the hunted list of their enemies. The various emotions and the mental trauma that they are subjected to and also the ruthlessness of the intel heads have been brilliantly depicted by Spielberg and also it has been portrayed accurately by the cast consisting of Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush and the rest. This movie is made more appealing by the touch of human emotions that is so characteristic of Spielberg.

Dadathakur

Probably one of the greatest tributes to the memory of Sarat Pandit was through this film by Sudhir Mukherjee in 1962. This was also Chobi Biswas' last movie and maybe one of his best, if not the best, performances. Based on the life of Sarat Pandit of Jangipur who with his simple lifestyle and witty criticisms was revered by all for his strict principles and fearless attitude against any type of injustice. Clearly a man of ready wit, he was an institution by himself and his income was solely based on his press and the two papers - Jangipur Sambad and Bidushak - that he used to publish. The movie is full of puns created and used by Dada Thakur and one never forgets the prompt reply to Sarat Chatterjee's welcoming comment to Sarat Pandit that ran "Kemon aacho Bidushak Saratchandra?" to which Dada Thakur's replied "Kemon aacho Charitrahin Saratchandra?". Also Sarat Pandit's fight against injustice is portrayed by his indomitable will that he used in promoting a petty but competent shopkeeper, Kartik Saha, to the post of chairman of Corporation against the corrput local politicians of the town. The rhymes that he created for the canvassing of Kartik will be unforgettable as will be the tunes that he composed on various subjects, the city of Calcutta being one of them. Equally unforgettable will be his commitment to his duties that is once shown when he was given the duty of printing and transporting the exam question papers of a school, 8 miles away from his home. On the day of the exam, due to a terrible flood the rail service was disrupted. But this never dissuaded Dada Thakur who traversed the whole 8 miles across the flooded roads to deliver the papers at the correct time. Again this is shown once more when we find him composing puzzles for the next day's Akashbani's show of 'Galpodadur Ashor' hosted by Dada Thakur himself, while the locales are performing the cremation of his son who died on the same night. A poor family man, he never took any financial help from anybody to improve his living conditions and his firmness of character was all he needed to clear all the odds that he was up against. His principles and philosophies inspired many youths during his lifetime, one being zamindar Darponaryan Chowdhury who parted with his life of pleasure to become a patriot in the service of the country. Chobi Biswas' fascinating portrayal of the character was not only superb but the various facets of the great man's life was precisely depicted. The other characters played by Tarun Kumar, Chaya Devi, Sulata Chowdhury and Biswajit deserves special mention. I think this treasure of Bengali film and society should be viewed at least once by every Bengali through the ages.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

A Dibakar Bannerjee directed movie starring Abhay Deol as Lucky, a super thief whose ready wit helps him not only during his burglaries but also in ousmarting his captors while being cornered. Added to this is his flamboyance and carefree attitude that helps him to win people's trust. His original style soon transforms him from a petty thief to a famous one and brings him to the brinks of his dream for a rich lifestyle. But time and again he is faced with betrayals and he has to evade getting captured again and again from the police. Though the story is a nice one but sometimes is too slow and at other times too fast and as a whole seems to lack cohesion. Paresh Rawal is on a triple role but he seems to lose his natural zeal while Archana Puran Singh is good in her opportunist type portrayal of a side character.

Ordeal By Innocence

Another Agatha Christie classic but my enjoyment was marred by knowing the plot in advance, that too from its picturised version viewed quite sometimes back. So I could not enjoy the flavour of the mystery very much though the thrilling ending in the signature Christie style could glue me tightly to the final chapters that once more revealed to me the mastery of Christie's writing! That I knew the criminal didn't matter much in the final chapters but the sheer way of presentation kept me enthralled to the very end. Still I must say that the ending was rather poor compared to other Christie novels that I'd read though I'll recommend this again and again to mystery lovers for its surprising twist.
The storyline is itself a new one where we find a young boy, previously accused of murdering his foster mother, being given a free pardon after two years based on a very late evidence. But it was too late in the sense that the boy had died while in jail. So though the family was in one hand pleased at having the truth unveiled but the cloud of suspicion also engulfed them as it was obvious that the murder was an inside job, given the time and condition of the event. Thus as the case reopened once again, the members of the family starts doubting each other and the pain and anguish become apparent in the conversations that covers the most part of the story. Fresh evidences are sought out and the whole aspect is considered from a different point of view. Some tries to unearth the actual criminal and thus becomes a threat to the murderer. Some tries to keep the past in the dark and thus becomes obstacles in the path of truth. Thus the web is formed and readers will find this complex situation well handled by the author. This is more of a psychological battle between the good and the evil and the phrase 'innocent must not suffer' ultimately prevails. A very complex plot and enjoyable to those who loves psychological plots.

Sadhu Babar Lathi

Based on a novel by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, the movie is the most poorly directed that I ever saw in a Nandan II premiere. Added to this are the unnecessary overacting and the slow pace of the movie. The only thing that deserves mention is the quality of the songs that is not only rich in melody but the lyrics of each one is both simple and appealing.

Sonar Kella

Maybe this book (or maybe Joy Baba Felunath, actually both came in a single gift package from my parents) was my first introduction to Feluda but this time as I read it on the eve of my proposed holiday to Rajasthan, the excitement was of a new type. Not only did I choose this book just to savour the adventure but also to have a glimpse of Rajasthan in Satyajit Ray’s eyes so that I can match it during my travel. Probably Jaisalmer and its Fort were made famous to the average Bengali by Ray only after publishing this book. And also he must be the only person in India to successfully christen an age old Fort to a new name that his imaginative brain provided observing the golden texture of the same. To tell about the story will do injustice to the millions and millions of Feluda fans who surely will never forget this story though it may not be a favourite one for them. One can never forget the adventure following the little Mukul’s tales of his previous life and precious stones. Then there was the failed attempt to kidnap Mukul and thereafter begins the race between Feluda and the miscreants. In this, several suspicious characters are introduced and it is upto Feluda to undo the mask of decency from the face of the villains. This novel is not only famous for its storyline and its later filming but in this story Ray introduced the character of Lalmohan Ganguly aka Jatayu, the thriller novelist and thus was struck a lifelong friendship between Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu. Just one point to further note is that in the sketches of this book Lalmohan is far from chubby and only after the filming of Sonar Kella and Santosh Dutta’s renowned performance as Jatayu in it did Ray modify his sketch to make Lalmohan’s figure more to correspond that of Santosh Dutta. The climax of the story is inside the Fort and while reading this those who have viewed the movie surely could never resist comparing it from the movie version.

C Kkompany

The story of three losers and friends, one a crime reporter Akshay Kumar who is betrothed to the daughter of an underworld Don and dreams of settling in Dubai, second the retired Joshi who is considered to be a burden by his son and his family and third is Lambodar, whose height and self-esteem both seems to be the obstacle to his dream of reaching for the sky. These three hatch upon a plan to extort money from Joshi’s son, Purushottam by way of threatening him on phone in the guise of an emerging underworld gang. To enhance the effect they shoot a video in Akshay’s camcorder where Joshi acts as the hooded hostage whom Lambodar feigns to kill. They names the gang C company. This not only terrorizes Purushottam but the CD is misplaced and is telecasted over the whole country that alarms both the underworld and also the corrupt police forces. Meanwhile these three also starts to intimidate the corrupt officials and promoters by threatening phone calls and thus helps the common man who labels the gang as the Robinhood of underworld. TV shows are organized and the whole country seems divided in their opinion of the operations of this gang. The Don is also excited as one of his pubs is forced to close and so he also sets on the trail to finish off the leaders of C company. Though the climax is not so interesting but the final twist near the end is nice. As to the acting, the best part is done by Rajpal Yadav and Raima Sen is nice in her side role and never crosses her defined boundary to gain attention as the case is for several other actors of recent times. But Mithunda is not so correct in his characterization and at time overacts.

Mumbai Meri Jaan

It portrays the triumph of a city’s spirits in the face of terror. The film picks up representatives of certain classes of people, the principled corporate personnel, the professional journalist, the apparently corrupt policeman, the easy going shopkeeper and the idle supplier whose philosophy of life is challenged following the fateful day when serial bomb blasts ripped through Bombay railways and sent various emotions in the minds of the survivors and the other citizens. The film is truly based on how these five struggles to lead a normal life following the mental trauma and shock following the incident. Though the theme of the movie is based on bomb blast but the film chants the promise of life through mutual belief, courage, repentance and love of the city and the country. The chief characters are played by K.K. Menon, Paresh Rawal, Irfan Khan, Madhavan and Soha Ali Khan and I don’t any other could have done better in portraying the respective roles.

Tarnikhuror Kirtikolap

The content is as

1. Dumnigorer Manushkheko

2. Conway Castler Pretatma

3. Seth Gangaramer Dhandoulat

4. Lucknowr Duel

5. Dhumolgarer Hunting Lodge

6. Kheloar Tarinikhuro

7. Tollywoode Tarinikhuro

8. Tarinikhuro o Betal

To some, Ray’s Feluda belongs to the series of ‘Dada’s to which belongs Premendra Mitra’s Ghonada & Narayan Gangopadhyay’s Tenida, but to me Feluda appears to be Ray’s creation to meet the intellectual need of the Bengali youth. But Tarinikhuro, his other creation, can be more appropriately placed in the ‘addabaaz’ Bengali class and can be looked upon as an older version of Ghonada. Though the later’s exploits takes him around the globe but Tarinikhuro has always kept his adventures within the borders of his country. But that didn’t stop him from coming face-to-face with maneaters, ghosts, noblemen, murderers, actors, artists and men of various other professions as he claims to his audience comprising of the narrator and his four friends, Bhulu, Napla, Chatpati, Sunanda. According to him, much of his life has been spent touring the whole of India in pursuit of adventure for which he had to switch between various professions including that of journalist, model, production manager of a film company, personal assistant, personal secretary, private tutor and several others. And in almost every occasion he became involved in curious situations.

Eight of his exploits are penned by Ray in this book and he, as always had excelled in his storytelling ability and his brilliance in carving extraordinary stories out of an ordinary surrounding that is evident in 3, 4, 6 and 7. The other four are mainly ghost stories but here too the twists near the end will surely fascinate the readers.