Author: aninditaroy444

FELUDA PHEROT Season 1: For many Bengalis, Ray’s Feluda is an emotion. Set in 1977 in Hazaribagh, this caper has a all-new star cast of Tota Roy Chowdhury (Feluda), Anirban Chakrabarti (Jatayu) and Kalpan Mitra (Topshe). Dhritiman, Arindam ably support. Rishi Kaushik delivers a brilliant performance. The movie revolves around the mysterious fugitive royal Bengal tiger named Sultan and the subsequent death of eminent lawyer Mahesh Chowdhury. Editng is not crisp and the movie is extremely slow-paced. If you are looking for an edge-of-the-seat thriller you would be mighty disappointed thanks to the languid pace. The background score incorporates Ray’s legendary compositions and the opening song sung by Anupam is also good. Feluda wears garish pan-stick makeup and this makes him look effeminate. Ray conceived Feluda as a tall and handsome swashbuckling brainiac but Tota comes across as a softie. Anirban Chakrabarti is top-notch as Jatayu. Kalpan Mitra has limited screen time as Topshe. The VFX effects for creating the tiger did not impress much. The scene where the tiger crosses the road without pouncing on Jatayu and Topshe looks unreal. Another scene where Rishi Kaushik tames the tiger lacks cinematic finesse. The movie depicts the book “Chinnamastar Abhishap” word by word and that becomes its biggest undoing. Overall, a nice one-time watch.

GULABO SITABO: Since the theatres are shut because of the pandemic, this movie released on Amazon Prime. At 125 minutes, the movie is a tiring watch. Amitabh Bachchan as the bulbous nosed Mirza, stooped over with age, with the face hidden by huge glasses gives a labored performance. His voice is so muffled that it is hard to make out what he is saying. Ayushmann Khurrana’s act is nothing exceptional. He looks ordinary and blends with the surroundings. There is no prominent female protagonist. In this dull tale between a tenant and an owner, none of the characters connect with the audience. Vijay Raaz and Brijendra Kala play side characters that can be easily forgotten. Set in Lucknow, the movie shows glimpses of havelis and taangas. The pace of the movie is very slow and boring. Juhi Chaturvedi’s writing is average and is no where close to that of Vicky Donor and Piku. The songs are nice and the background score is also engaging. Good music direction by Shantanu Moitra. Very disappointing fare from the stable of Shoojit Sircar. Can surely give it a miss.

TEEN MAHURAT: Quirky, contemporary, soul-stirring and simple this hands-off romantic fable is all hearts. Perfect casting and a coherent script pulls the flick together for a little more than one hour. High production values and a fabulous cinematography adds relevance and class. The movie has already raged the festival circuit and would be liked by the mainstream multiplex audience as well. Your performance as the irate, busy corporate is top-notch. You have let your eyes do the talking which is just super. The scene where Raj Banerjee appreciate his secy Neha’s performance and breaks into a grin, I could see the old Rajarshi I knew some forty years back. The girl who played Neha is very fetching. The movie is gender-balanced neither steeping into misogyny nor male chauvinism.The movie’s underlying theme is that women like to depend and men like to protect.It is a modern day tale that can be told yet another time.

CONTAGION(2011): Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? This in-your-face movie was made in 2011 with a slant on biological warfare, bio-terrorism and the like. This movie is an installment of earlier Hollywood movies with the same name released in 1987 and 2002 but they had limited box office success. This movie has a star-studded cast with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Kate Winslet-all of them make their presence felt. The ensemble cast also throws in some superlative performances and carries the Doomsday conspiracy story forward. In the context of the Coronavirus outbreak (MEV-1 in this movie) the movie is watchable for the uncanny similarity of suffering people and places as in real life right here right now.But the proceedings are very slow and torturous. At almost two hours the movie tries your patience. The movie however does not end in a tragedy. Set in Chicago and paced out over a period of five months, this movie despite its disaster affinity ends as a survivor story on a happy note ala vintage Hollywood. Watch it for the context and content but it would not alleviate the impending gloom that looms large in the present day.